Date of Award

2007

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

Psy.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Marianna Footo-Linz

Second Advisor

Keith Beard

Third Advisor

Christopher Legrow

Abstract

There are many reasons in-home services are being implemented and having success with young children. Part of this success may be due to the practitioners’ access to the family and home environment. Previous studies have addressed the quality of these services; however, few studies examine how the quantity of services is dispersed and/or how quantity of services is related to various characteristics of, or surrounding, the child. This dissertation attempts to examine factors that may influence the amount of time practitioners are willing to spend in homes when children have comparable concerns or delays. Parental qualities, environmental conditions, and other provider perceptions are examined. It was hypothesized that these various parent and environmental factors make practitioners less likely to give adequate amounts of services to some children in their homes. A survey was mailed to 607 early intervention in-home service practitioners from various professions asking how certain factors influence the amount of time they were willing to spend with the families. An inconvenience factor and perception factor emerged from the variables. The amount of no-shows, inability to make phone contact, longer travel times, parental lack of cooperation, and parental mental health were the most frequent factors practitioners used to decrease the quantity of their services in the home, followed by parental low intelligence and lack of agreement about the course of therapy. Other variables were also noted to decrease time spent with families. Various characteristics of the provider emerged that showed who was more likely to discriminate when determining quantity of services. Training implications are addressed.

Subject(s)

Early intervention (Education)

Home-based mental health services for children.

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