Primary Health Care Provider Differences in the Management of Preschool Aged Children's Mental Health Issues
Abstract
This thesis examined health care providers' methods of identification and treatment
of preschool aged children's (age 0 to 5) mental health issues and barriers to those methods
in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area. I used a quantitative approach and utilized
secondary data from a 2007 Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) Study. The
conceptual framework of the domains of expertise guided this thesis. The purpose of this
study was to determine whether there were significant differences by type of health care
providers' methods to identify and treat preschool aged children's mental health issues; to
identify how barriers to indentifying and treating children's mental health issues differ by
type of health care provider; and to investigate the possible contextual characteristics that
influence the methods used by health care providers to identify and treat preschool aged
children's mental health issues.
Findings from this research suggested that there is limited support for the
theoretical framework of the socialization of physicians and non-physicians: domains of
expertise, which indicated that differences should exist regarding the identification and
treatment of children's mental health issues based on the type of health care provider (i.e.,
physician and non-physician). However, there were several notable exceptions. There
were several differences based on the type of providers' treatment methods. There also
were a number of differences based on health care providers' type of practice (i.e.,pediatric group practice and walk-in practice) regarding their identification level of
sensitivity and treatment methods.