| The purpose of this study was to determine the overall rate of parent satisfaction with school psychological assessment services, identify the factor structure of the Parent Satisfaction Survey (PSS), and identify predictors of parent satisfaction with school psychological assessment services. Data were collected with the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) and the Parent Satisfaction Survey (PSS), a questionnaire developed by the researcher for this study.;Participants were 154 parents of children who received an evaluation to determine special education eligibility during the 1997--98 school year in a large urban school district. In this study the rate of parent satisfaction with assessment services was measured as 77%, indicating that a majority of parents who responded to the survey were satisfied with the multifactored evaluation (NIFE) conducted by the school psychologist. Exploratory factor analysis with oblimin rotation of the PSS identified a three factor structure composed of Interpersonal/Competence, Empowerment, and Access to Services. Full and stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that Interpersonal/Competence and Access to Services accounted for a significant amount of the variance in predicting parent satisfaction with school psychological assessment services. R2 for stepwise multiple regression was .72. The difference between the full and stepwise models was not found to be statistically significant, and the stepwise model was retained.;Analysis of responses to an open-ended question resulted in seven categories, (a) school psychologist interpersonal skills, (b) competence, (c) access to services, (d) empowerment, (e) special education service delivery, (f) other, and (g) general satisfaction. The majority of participant comments were related to school psychologists' interpersonal and competence skills, access to services, and special education service delivery. No participant comments were related to empowerment.;The results of this study suggest that the majority of parents who responded to the survey were satisfied with the assessment services that were provided their child. The Parents based their satisfaction of school psychological assessment services on the competence of the school psychologist, their relationship with the school psychologist, and access to assessment services. Empowerment was not found to be related to parent satisfaction with assessment services for this sample of parents. |
