A study on father’s knowledge and attitude towards their role in child care in selected areas of Mangalore with a view to develop an informational booklet.

Abstract

Abstract “It is a wise father who knows his own child” - William Shakespeare In today's modern and fast changing society, families are becoming nuclear; mothers are professionally oriented and having busy jobs. Father's participation in child care is necessary due to progressive involvement of mothers in jobs outside the home. Hence the responsibility of child rearing has extended to fathers also.In this study father's knowledge is assessed by self structured questionnaire and attitude using attitude scale. The findings revealed that majority of the fathers 88(44%) were in the age group of less than 30 years, 110 (55%) were having more than 2 siblings, 92 (46%) were st on the 1st order of birth, (46.5%) completed Secondary school education,106 (53%) were having private job, 200(100%) were married and living with spouse,82 (41%) of their children have above 2yrs. 116 (58%) fathers were Hindus, 79 (39.5%) were having monthly income of less than Rs5000/ -and 124 (62%) fathers do not have previous information regarding child care. The result also shows 94 (47%) fathers were having average knowledge regarding child care, 69 fathers (34.45%) have poor knowledge and 37 (18.5%) fathers were having good knowledge. There is significant correlation between knowledge and attitude of fathers regarding their role in child care. There is significant association between knowledge and demographic variables but marital status has no significant association between knowledge and also significant association seen between attitude and demographic variables.