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Nasseri, Anisa

University of British Columbia

In this study the researcher sought to investigate the experiences of immigrant parents upon finding out their child’s diagnosis within the psychoeducational feedback meeting. Once a psychoeducational assessment is complete, the student’s parents participate in a feedback meeting with the assessing psychologist where the assessment results, including any diagnosis, is communicated. These meetings can be emotional, challenging, and meaningful to families. How the psychologist communicates the results of an assessment can directly impact parents understanding of the assessment results and their child’s needs, which consequently impacts the child’s access to supports. Although a small body of existing research examines the characteristics of successful feedback meetings, little research has been done on the experience of immigrant families in these feedback sessions. Immigrants may face challenges when accessing care and communicating with professionals due to structural barriers and linguistic and cultural differences. Thus, in the present study, 10 immigrant parents whose child had undergone a psychoeducational assessment in Canada were interviewed. The lived experiences of these participants within the feedback meeting and upon hearing news of their child’s diagnosis were explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five group-level superordinate themes and 19 subordinate themes emerged from the data. The group-level themes included Positive Experiences, Challenges and Doubts, Impact of Culture and Language, Emotional Reactions, and Journey Beyond the Feedback Meeting. Through highlighting the voices of immigrant parents, implications for school psychologists’ practice are explored in order to offer suggestions for improving communication and service provision for immigrant families in the feedback meeting.

Text

2025-04-25

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90808

School and Applied Child Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/