title: Parents' Evaluations of Their Children's Dysphonia: The Mamas and the Papas.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of a Hebrew translation of the Pediatric Voice Handicap Index (pVHI). It also examined differences between mothers and fathers in evaluating their child's dysphonia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational design.
  
  
  METHODS
  The pVHI was first translated and adapted to Hebrew. The translated version was, then, administered to a group of 141 parents of children aged younger than 14 years. Fifty-eight parents had a dysphonic child, and 83 had a nondysphonic child. Based on the parents' responses to the pVHI, statistical analyses were performed, evaluating validity and reliability, as well as group differences. Following, a subset of the participants, in which only cases where the responses of both parents were available, was examined for evaluating differences between the responses of mothers (n = 46) and fathers (n = 46).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistical analyses revealed high reliability of the Hebrew version of the pVHI (Cronbach alpha = .97). Parents of the dysphonic children rated their children significantly higher than parents of the nondysphonic group (P < 0.001). Mothers of the dysphonic children rated their children significantly higher than the fathers, on all subscales of the questionnaire (≥0.001 P < 0.047). In contrast, no significant differences were found between mothers and fathers of the nondysphonic children (P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Hebrew version of the pVHI is a reliable tool for quantifying parents' perception of their child's voice handicap. Mothers of dysphonic children evaluate their children's voice handicap more severely than fathers, whereas both parents of nondysphonic children perform this evaluation similarly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. Electronic address: oferamir@post.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Amir
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Liron
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mick
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Primov-Fever
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Children; Hebrew; Parents; Pediatric; Self-evaluation; Voice; pVHI