Impact of parenting skill module on parents of children with behavioural and emotional problems: A preliminary study

Abstract

Back Ground: Child and adolescent mental health is an upcoming global issue, it is of more serious concern in middle-income countries like India owing to resources crunch and limited healthcare infrastructure. There is a need to develop a parent training module and check its efficacy and decrease the burden in outpatient setting where one to one therapy session is not always feasible. Aim: The study was aimed to measure the impact of the parent training module on knowledge and attitude of parents with children having behaviour and emotional problems. Methods: Fifty parents of children having emotional and behavioural problems attending the Child Guidance Clinic of the Department of Psychiatry of GMCH, Chandigarh were recruited for this study. Parent training module used in the present study was a modified version of the module developed by Arun et al., [2019]. In order to evaluate the group programme, questionnaire was administered at the beginning of the week 1 session and re-administered at the completion of the week 4 sessions. Results: This study endorses the usefulness of a parent training group program for parents of children with behavioural and emotional issues. It was observed that when the parents were trained to become co-therapists in the treatment of their children's there was significant increase in their knowledge and change in their attitude. Conclusion: From the current study, it can be concluded that parent skill training intervention module addressed the parental need for information, and is acceptable to parents of children with emotional and behavioural problems.