Introduction
A mental illness is an old age problem of mankind. It is recorded in almost all of the oldest civilizations of the world. The people’s view towards mental illness has always been negative, stigmatized, and fearful till date and it differs from community to community.1
Parenting refers to the aspects of raising the child aside from the biological relationships.2 The most common caretaker in parenting the child is the biological parents of child, but others may be an older siblings, grandparents or a legal guardian, or other family members or a family friend.3 Social class, wealth, culture and income have a very strong impact on what methods or skills of child rearing are used by the parents. Parenting skills refers to handling and dealing of parents with their children having childhood psychiatric disorders in daily activities like feeding, grooming, teaching and communicating. The effective parenting should be firm, fair and friendly. These constitute 3”F’s of effective parenting. The emotional climate in the home reveals the parenting style. Parents guide their children from infancy till adulthood and their styles of care-giving have long lasting effects on child functioning in every domain of life.4 There are mainly four types of parenting styles: Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved parenting style. 5
Materials and Methods
Descriptive study design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in psychiatry OPD and Ward of PGIMER, Chandigarh. Most of parents (subjects) were residents of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chandigarh. The socioeconomic status of residents ranges from lower to upper class population chosen for the study were parents having children with psychiatry disorders having age from 3- 15yrs. Tool used for study was structured questionnaire. Parenting skill assessment was done by interview schedule. The tool is developed and validated by the experts in the field of research. The tool included Socio-demographic profile of parents, Socio- demographic profile of child, Self developed questionaire on parenting skill assessment.The permission was taken from Institute Ethical Committee and Head of the Department of Psychiatry, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Written informed consent was taken from all the participants after explaining the purpose and need of the study.
Table 1
Socio-demographic profile of parents (N=40)
Table 2
Socio-demographic profile of child (N=40)
Table 3
Communication.((N=40)
Table 4
Enriched environment. (N=40)
Table 5
Nurturing. (N=40)
Table 6
Child management and supervision. (N=40)
Table 7
Parent- child activities (play). (N=40)
Table 8
Levels of scoring (N=40)
|
S.No. |
Parenting skill (scoring) |
Frequency (%) |
|
1. |
Good parenting (1-27) |
20(50) |
|
2. |
Average parenting (28-54) |
19(47.5) |
|
3. |
Negligent parenting (55-80) |
1(2.5) |
Confidentiality was maintained throughout data collection. Data was analyzed by using SPSS-20 version for descriptive and inferential statistics. The data presentation done in the form of tables.
Results
Table 1 depicted that the significant number of subjects (72.5%) were in the age group of more than 34 years, 50% belongs to urban area, 90% of them were married, had 40% senior secondary education,75% of them were unskilled, 77.5% belongs to Hindu religion, 62.5% had nuclear family, 47.5% have 1-4 family members, 45% had per month income of rupees 10,000-20,000/-, 80% of subjects had no psychiatric illness, 70% of parents have 2 children, 80% of subjects had no history of drug abuse.
Table 2 revealed that majority of subjects i.e. 57.5% were in the age- group of 12-15 years. Out of them, 60% were males, 72.5% born with normal vaginal delivery, 57.5% had birth weight of 2 – 2.5 kg, 92.5% had parents as their primary care-givers, 80% of children had no family history of Psychiatric illness.
Assessment of parenting skills under different domains
Table 3 inferred that only 40% of child communicate with appropriate speed of words, majority of subjects (70%) uses warm tone while communicating with their children sometimes, 42.5% of the subjects punish their child on using unsociable words, 57.5% of subjects told that their child easily share his/her feelings with them, 77.5% of the subjects try attempts to correct their children language , 50% of subjects told that their child make eye- contact during conversation, 52.5% of subjects recognize child need for repetition, significant number of subjects (67.5%) show their child that they listen to him/her.
Table 4 depicted that significant number of subjects (45%) had first aid kit at home and similarity 45% had no first aid kit at their home, 52.5% of parents provide material required by their child interest. 67.5% of subjects take their children to social gatherings and 82.5% of subjects make sure that dangerous items at home are not accessible to their children.
Table 5 revealed that significant number of subjects (70%) understand their children verbal and non- verbal signals, 65% of subjects routinely eat meals together, significant number of subjects (60%) that demands and requests of their children are appropriate according to their age. Majority of subjects (50%) doesn’t make rules appropriate to their children maturity level . 55% of the subjects set aside time to spend that with their children. 40% of the subjects punish child for the purpose of teaching. Significant number of subjects (72.5%) always help their children cope with stress.
Table 6 inferred that significant number of subjects (52.5%) never left their child unsupervised, about 50% of parents always monitor what their child do watch on TV and for how much time, while equal number of subjects (35% each) did not allow their child for experimentation while some parents do it for sometimes only, about 70% of subjects always pay close attention for selection of caregiver, 67.5% of parents were always ready for the emergencies and hard times, 60% of parents were always with their child when they need to talk with them, about 57.5% of parents always attend school meetings, 67.5% of parents always treat their child with respect, about 52.5% of parents sometimes take time away from child to refresh themselves, most of the parents (52.5%) never asked for opinion from their child, 85% of parents always.
Table 7 depictedthat significant number of parents (37.5%) never engaged themselves with their child in play, 42.5% parents never used play as learning activity, 37.5% of children were not exposed to different activities, about 60% of parents always make an attempt to encourage their child to play and found it good for their development, 75% parents always praise their child for their good work.
Table 8 revealed that 50% of the subjects having good parenting skills, 47.5% of average parenting and only 2.5% of the subjects have negligent parenting skills.
Discussion
The mental health of a child is equally important as physical health. Mental disorders are health aspects which include changes in thinking, behaviour or emotions (or a combination of these).6
Recent study findings are supported by a study was conducted by Ma et al (2010) on parenting skills and need among parents of primary school children and to explore influencing factors. By multi stage stratified random clustered sampling method, a group of 1394 parents of urban and rural primary school children were taken as sample. A self-report questionnaire as filled which includes socio- demographic profiles, parenting scale, parenting need assessment, parent- to child interaction and physical/mental maltreatment experiences in childhood .Results revealed that there is greater need of parenting skills in both urban and rural parents.7
A study was conducted by Andrade, Browne and Naber con parenting skills and readiness for the treatment of their child and parent participation in treatment. Total 143 parents were taken in the study in which their readiness, participation in treatment, parenting skills and child beahviour were assessed. The results revealed that 41% of parents were “ready” and 39% of the parents were “less in need” for the treatment of the child.8
Parenting can be rewarding or astounding task, but it can be challenging for parents having children with psychiatric disorders. This study was conducted to assess the parenting skills of parents having children with psychiatric disorder in which 40 subjects were taken as study subjects. The good parenting skills which are discussed need to be practiced in parents so that they will be able to exhibit good parenting skills.
Conclusion
According to study findings, it found that only half (50%) of the parents have good parenting skills, but 47.5% of parents still have average parenting skills. On the other hand, only 2.5% have negligent parenting skills. Thus these findings direct us to look into the matter why parents don’t practice good parenting skills to have better outcomes for their children. This is an opportunity for the researcher to navigate a new study to look at problems with new dimensions.
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