Parent-therapist communication and satisfaction with the Services of a Child Development Center: A comparison between Israeli parents - Jews and Bedouins

This study evaluates the level of general satisfaction with the services of a child development center in 2 groups of Israeli parents, Jews and Bedouins. It also assesses which 3 dimensions of therapist-parent communication significantly explain general satisfaction with the center's services. A total of 193 parents of children ranging from 6 months to 6 years of age participated in the study (84% response rate). Parents' attitudes regarding their communication with the center's therapists were evaluated by 15 items that were clustered into 3 dimensions of communication: caring, collaboration, and interest. General satisfaction with the center's services was high in both groups. Relatively high average scores were also given to the studied dimensions of communication. Jews were more satisfied with the center's services than were Bedouins and ranked caring and collaboration significantly higher than did Bedouins. Caring and collaboration best explained the variability in general satisfaction in a multivariate analysis. Being a Jew or a Bedouin parent was not found to be a significant explanatory variable of general satisfaction with the center's services. Therapists' expressions of care and collaboration with parents seem to be key factors in explaining parents' general satisfaction with rehabilitation services in the 2 different cultural groups. These factors should therefore be nurtured in order to ensure parents' satisfaction and participation in the ongoing and demanding process of child rehabilitation. The question of whether this finding is applicable to other populations has to be further studied.