Research Showcase [M.Phil.] Effect of Family Life and Maternal Mental Health on children Having psychological problems by Sadia Sharmin
Supervised by Dr. Roquia Begum
ABSTRACT
The present research was conducted to study the psychological problems in secondary school children and to find out whether psychological problems of the children vary according to the sex of the children, family life factors such as upbringing of the children during the first five years of their life, family size, maternal employment and relationships between psychological problem scores of children and maternal anxiety scores, depression scores and general health problem scores. Six secondary schools were selected from Dhaka City. Two hundred and forty secondary school children (120 boys and 120 girls) were randomly drawn from these schools as sample. The age of the children ranged from 12 to 16 years. The Bengali version of the Teacher’s Report Form (TRF, Begum, 1993) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) originally developed by Achenbach and Edelbrock (1986) was used to study psychological problems of the children. The results were analyzed by using chi-square and correlation. It was found that 14.58% of children of adolescence age of secondary school fall in the clinical range of psychological problems. Psychological problems were found to be higher in boys (16.66%) than in girls (12.50%). Total psychological problems varied significantly according to the sex of the children. No significant differences were found between problem and non problem children in family life factors such as- upbringing of the children during first five years of their life , family size and maternal employment. Significant positive correlation was found among TRF scores of the children and maternal anxiety scores, depression scores and general health problem scores. The findings of the present study were interpreted in the light of existing literature and further research in this area with large sample was recommended.