Background: Children exposure to inadequate parental practices or low involvement with caregivers constitute risk factors for child development, increasing vulnerability to threatening events that are external to the family environment. Objective:The main objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of mental disorders in the population of caregivers of children attending the child psychiatry outpatient clinic at the São Jose do Rio Preto Medical School (FAMERP)-SP. Method: A cross-sectional study in which 50 caregivers were randomly selected from the population who had attended the outpatient clinic in the last three years. They were interviewed after signing an informed consent form, following approval of the research project by the ethics committee of the university. The tutors were met and underwent short, structured interviews using the MINI instrument, which contributes to the detection of mental disorders in clinical practice. The primary outcome assessed was mental disorders and the secondary outcome was sociodemographic data. Results: The results pointed to a significant prevalence of mental disorders among these caregivers. There was a statistically significant association between sociodemographic factors and some mental disorders: Intellectual disability in children associated with age and level of education of caregivers 73.7% (elementary school), 38.7% (secondary and higher education); Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children and marital status of caregivers 52.9% (single, widowed/divorced) and 24.2 (married). Conclusion: We conclude that mental disorders in caregivers may be related to the presence of mental disorders in children and adolescents.