Parent Perspectives on Psychological Evaluation Reports: A Qualitative Analysis

This study presents a secondary analysis of qualitative data from Hite (2017), examining parent perspectives on psychological evaluation reports. Thirty-eight parents reviewed paired reports about fictional children—one traditional, one consumer-focused—and provided written comments. Thematic analysis was conducted on 52 comments (some parents commented on both reports). Traditional reports used technical language and test-by-test organization, while consumer-focused reports employed plain language and theme-based integration. A descriptive, semantic thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's (2006) framework identified four themes. For traditional reports, the key themes were difficult to understand and disempowering. For consumer-focused reports, themes included accessible language and helpful organization and content. Furthermore, parents often described traditional reports as creating barriers to understanding and participation, while in contrast, consumer-focused reports enabled comprehension and engagement. These findings reveal how parents experience different report formats and how report content can either hinder or enable parent participation in educational decision-making. Combined with decades of research on psychological reports, this analysis has direct implications for school psychology training and practice: replace test-by-test organization and technical jargon with theme-based reports in plain language to better serve children and families.