Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of emotional and behavioural problems of school-going adolescents
Abstract Self-reported studies alone cannot be used to deduce the significance of adolescent problems. Therefore, the current study focuses on parents’ and class teachers’ perspectives of school-going adolescents’ emotional and behavioural problems. The objectives are to apprehend the prevalence of adolescent problems, comparisons on gender, school-area; and its association with socio-demographic details. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 19 schools from government-private and rural-urban schools across Kollam District, Kerala. Malayalam/English version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was administered among a sample of 600 parents and 60 class teachers of school-going adolescents. Gender correlation with parents’ report found emotional problems (P<0.01), conduct problems (P<0.01), hyperactivity (P<0.001), peer problems (P<0.001) whereas in teachers’ report found relationship with emotional problems (P<0.05) and hyperactivity (P<0.001). Multivariate test results reveal that there is a statistically significant difference in emotional and behavioural problems of school-going adolescents based on school area (government-urban, government-rural, private-urban and private-rural). Multiple linear regression analysis on parents reports is significantly predicted with gender (P<0.01), urban-rural settings (P<0.001) and socioeconomic status (P<0.01). Teachers’ report has significantly been predicted with urban-rural settings (P<0.01) and socioeconomic status (P<0.001). Parents’ reports revealed a less overall prevalence of emotional and behavioural problems than teachers’ reports. Female adolescents tend to have more emotional problems and males were found to be more hyperactive. A significant difference was found with the school-area settings and significant association with socio-demographic details of adolescents. More attention is needed for the protection of adolescents’ mental health and fills mental health gaps in services.