School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
PLoS One. 2018 Aug 28;13(8):e0203113. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203113. eCollection 2018.
Fathers are underrepresented in interventions focussing on child well-being, yet research suggests their involvement may be critical to enhancing intervention effectiveness. This study aimed to provide the first Australian benchmark of rates of father attendance across several child mental health services. Retrospective casefile reviews were conducted to obtain data on father and mother attendance at 10 Australian child mental health services. A total of 2128 casefile records were retrospectively examined to extract family-level data. The main outcome measures were rates of father and mother attendance at sessions involving parents, and rates of father- and mother-instigated referral to services. Across services, fathers attended on average 48.2% (range 39.7% to 72.0%) of total parent sessions, with an average of 68.4% (range 53.1% to 88.1%) of fathers attending at least one session. Mothers attended sessions at significantly higher rates; an average of 92.8% of total parent sessions and 96.9% attendance for at least one session. For self-referred families, on average 12.6% of referrals were from fathers, and 87.4% were from mothers. These results indicate that rates of father attendance at Australian child mental health services vary, but are significantly lower than attendance rates for mothers. This may compromise the quality and outcomes of child mental health services in Australia. Routine monitoring of rates of father attendance is needed, as are strategies to enhance father engagement.
父亲在关注儿童福祉的干预措施中代表性不足，但研究表明，他们的参与对于提高干预效果可能至关重要。本研究旨在提供澳大利亚首个针对多项儿童心理健康服务中父亲出席率的基准数据。采用回顾性病历审查方法，获取 10 家澳大利亚儿童心理健康服务机构中父亲和母亲出席情况的数据。共回顾性检查了 2128 份病历记录，以提取家庭层面的数据。主要结果测量指标为父母参与的所有会谈中父亲和母亲的出席率，以及父亲和母亲主动寻求服务的转介率。在各服务机构中，父亲平均出席总父母会谈的 48.2%（范围 39.7%至 72.0%），平均有 68.4%（范围 53.1%至 88.1%）的父亲至少出席过一次会谈。母亲出席率显著更高；平均有 92.8%的总父母会谈和至少一次会谈的 96.9%的母亲出席。对于自我推荐的家庭，平均有 12.6%的转介来自父亲，87.4%来自母亲。这些结果表明，澳大利亚儿童心理健康服务机构中父亲的出席率存在差异，但明显低于母亲的出席率。这可能会影响澳大利亚儿童心理健康服务的质量和结果。需要对父亲出席率进行常规监测，并制定策略以增强父亲的参与度。
