(PS5-A3) Assessing Public Knowledge About Mental Health Treatments: Parents' Familiarity with Cognitive-behavioral Therapy

In developing resources for families to respond to mental health concerns in youth, mental health literacy, including specific knowledge about treatment options, is an important construct. Although a vast literature supports cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as an efficacious treatment for many mental health problems, specific knowledge about this treatment is relatively limited in the general public. In the case of children, where parents often seek services on their behalf, parental knowledge is particularly important to assess so that youth mental health needs can be met. This study evaluated parents' familiarity with CBT and identified differences between parents of children with and without mental disorders. In addition, factors related to more familiarity with CBT (e.g., experience with mental healthcare, demographic variables) were explored. Parents (N = 216; 50.5% female, 49.5% male; M[age] = 42.97 years) with children 17 years old and younger completed an online survey. Approximately half of parents (N = 111; 51.4%) reported having at least one child with a diagnosed mental disorder. Among these parents, the most commonly reported diagnoses were ADHD, generalized anxiety, and major depression. Each parent rated their familiarity with CBT, and parents who indicated any familiarity were asked to provide a brief, self-generated definition of CBT. These open-ended definitions were reviewed independently by two coders (kappa = 0.94) for key features of CBT, including its focus on thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Parents also provided demographic information and reported on their own use of mental health services. Descriptive statistics were run along with a binary logistic regression model in which participant age, gender, race, education level, parental personal use of mental health services, and child mental disorder status were entered as predictors of familiarity with CBT. For the entire sample, most participants (76.9%) reported that they had at least heard of CBT. However, only 13.9% identified themselves as being "very familiar" with CBT and 25% as "somewhat familiar" with CBT; these responses were combined to reflect overall familiarity with CBT (38.9%). However, among parents who rated themselves as familiar with CBT, only 42.9% generated responses that acknowledged any role of cognitions, behaviors, and/or emotions, with no differences emerging across parents with and without children with mental disorders (χ²(1) = 0.15, p = .70). The binary logistic regression predicting familiarity with CBT was significant and accounted for 16% of the variance (χ²(5) = 27.04, p < .001). Greater familiarity with CBT was associated with being younger (OR_adj = 0.97), attaining higher levels of education (OR_adj = 1.50), and having a child diagnosed with a mental disorder (OR_adj = 1.83; p-values < .05). Interestingly, parental personal use of mental health services in the past was not a significant predictor. Although many parents have heard of CBT, specific knowledge about its key features remains limited. Given these findings, efforts to improve knowledge about CBT in parents may be valuable in ensuring that families know what treatments to seek out and are able to secure effective interventions for children.