Is there agreement between parents and children about their vocal behavior?

Abstract

Purpose: Investigate if parents observe vocal alterations of their children and if there is agreementbetween vocal conduct referred by parents and children with or without voice disorders, and alsoinvestigate are there are correlations between family habits and dysphonia in children. Methods: 28dysphonic children and their parents (dysphonic group) and 22 normophonic children and their parents(control group) participated. The unhealthy factors were investigated with a self-reported questionnaire.These factors were compared among the children of both groups, among children and their mothersand among children and their fathers. To compare the two groups, we used the difference of proportiontest (p<0.05). To verify the correlation between children’s and parent’s habits, the Kappa coefficient(0.00<K<1.0 and p<0.05) was used. Results: We verified that the individuals of the dysphonic grouppresented more unhealthy habits and reported living in a noisy household in a greater scale than thecontrol group. Regarding the correlation analysis of the unhealthy factors, the Kappa coefficient revealedthat for both groups there was a significant correlation for those factors between children and parents,both for their presence or absence. Conclusion: The presence or absence of dysphonia is correlated tofamily behavior of both parents and children.