Parental Knowledge and Educational Intervention on Behavioural Disorders in Pre-school Children in Kolkata

Abstract

Parents need to know the common behavioural disorders and their prevention in order to detect deviations early and promote healthy childhood. A prospective interventional study was conducted to assess the impact of an educational intervention on the awareness of behavioural disorders among the mothers of pre-school children attending child guidance clinic in a tertiary care hospital in Kolkata, India. Knowledge of 50 mothers of children between 3 to 6 years of age was assessed before and one week after the educational intervention by administration of a prevalidated questionnaire and analysed with inferential statistics like paired t test. The pre-test scores of parents on knowledge of behavioural problem of children did not vary significantly with age of the child, birth order of child, type of the family, educational background of parents and behavioural disorder of child. There was a significant improvement in post-test score (17.26 ± 4.11) over pre-test score (8.28 ± 4.54) which was statistically significant (p-value 4.494e-12 < 0.0001). This study establishes the significance of educating parents on behavioural disorders in children and reflects the need for sustained structured educational services for parents to improve mental health of the children in a developing nation like India