Needs of Adolescents and Young Adults with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Comparisons of Young People and Parent Perspectives.
Hanna Eklund, James Findon, Tim Cadman and 5 others
PMID 28894999WHAT IT FOUND
Parents reported more needs than young people with ADHD or ASD, especially in self-care, looking after home, money budgeting and exploitation risk.
Young people with ADHD reported more eyesight/hearing, mental health and safety-to-others needs. Record both perspectives.
Key findings
01Parents reported on average 2.92 more needs than their child, and reported more met and unmet needs.
02Parents reported more needs than young people overall; in the exploitation risk domain, 55% of parents rated a need when the young person did not.
03Young people with ADHD rated more needs than parents in physical health, eyesight/hearing, seizures, other mental health problems and safety of others.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was mostly male (91%), so the findings may not apply as well to females with ADHD or ASD. The ADHD group was selected from an earlier study and required childhood IQ above 70, with exclusions for several conditions, so it may understate needs in ADHD. Prior contact with child and adolescent mental health services may have increased the number of met needs in the ADHD sample. There is no gold-standard needs measure for adolescents and young adults with neurodevelopmental disorders at transition; the study used a measure developed for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The study compared reports; it did not test a treatment or service change, and it did not establish which informant is more accurate.
Declared interests
The only conflict-related information supplied is the funder: the National Institute for Health Research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that parents are the more accurate informants. Parents reported more needs overall, but young people with ADHD reported more needs in physical health, eyesight/hearing, seizures, other mental health problems and safety of others. The authors say disagreement may reflect normal perspective differences, not lack of insight. The study did not test a treatment or service change.