Parents' perceptions of school psychologists' use of social power and interpersonal influence in school consultation for children with autism spectrum disorders

This study explored parents' attitudes towards school psychologists' use of social power and interpersonal influence in the school consultation process for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Previous research has examined school psychologists' perceptions, as well as teachers' perceptions, of social power and interpersonal influence in school consultation, but to date, parents' perceptions in this regard have been given limited attention in the literature. Study questions addressed (a) which social power techniques parents perceived as most effective when used by school psychologists to elicit their compliance, (b) how parents' perceptions of these techniques compared to school psychologists and teachers, whom were both studied previously, (c) whether a soft-harsh, two-factor solution among these power techniques existed among parents, and (d) whether parents' ratings on the soft power techniques predicted ratings of consultant effectiveness and ratings of satisfaction with children's consultation outcome.;One-hundred and sixty-nine parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders completed measures of social power (IPI-Form CE; Erchul, Raven, & Whichard, 2001), consultant effectiveness (CEF; Erchul, 1987), and satisfaction with their children's consultation outcome (GAS; Kiresuk, Smith, & Cardillo, 1994). Results indicated that parents, like school psychologists and teachers, generally endorsed soft social power strategies, compared to those that are harsh or coercive, with the exception of impersonal reward power, a traditionally harsh social power strategy. The results of an Exploratory Factor Analysis on the IPI-Form CE did not reveal a clear, soft-harsh, two-factor solution among the social power techniques, as parents' ratings on several of the individual strategies did not completely conform to the expected model structure. In addition, multiple regression models revealed that parents' ratings on positive expert power, one of the five soft power strategies, significantly predicted their ratings of consultant effectiveness, but that no significant relationships existed between parents' ratings on the five soft power strategies and ratings on their satisfaction with their children's consultation outcomes. Implications for school psychologists working with this unique parent population are provided, as well as study strengths, limitations, and suggestions for future research.