“A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE PSYCHOSOCIAL

PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN [8-12 YEARS] OF WORKING AND

NON-WORKING MOTHERS IN A SELECTED SCHOOL AT
TUMKUR”

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECT FOR THE

DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED BY

DEEPTHY THOMAS

CHILD HEALTH NURSING

SRI SIDDHARTHA COLLEGE OF NURSING

AGALAKOTE, B.H.ROAD
TUMKUR

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 RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES
BANGALORE, KARNATAKA

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECT

FOR DISSERTATION

1
Name of the candidate MISS.DEEPTHY THOMAS
And address I YEAR M.Sc NURSING
SRI SIDDHARTHA COLLEGE
OF NURSING, AGALAKOTE
TUMKUR
2
Name of the Institution SRI SIDDHARTHA COLLEGE
OF NURSING, B.H.ROAD,
TUMKUR
3
Course of the Study and DEGREE OF MASTER OF
Subject NURSING

CHILD HEALTH NURSING

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Date of Admission 15TH JUNE 2008

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Title of the Topic A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO
ASSESS THE PSYCHOSOCIAL
PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN
[8-12 YEARS] OF WORKING
AND NON-WORKING
MOTHERS IN A SELECTED
SCHOOL AT TUMKUR

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6. BRIEF RESUME OF THE INTENDED WORK

INTRODUCTION

“ The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate
strength as to be never violated”

- Washington Irving

In India, about 35% of total population are children below 15 years of age.Today’s
kids are tomorrow’s pillors of our country. The investment on our child in terms of
developing environment both physical and emotional, is going to reap rich individuals in
future. As said by Karl Meninger “what is done to children, they will do to the society”1

The childhood period is vital because of socialization process by the transmission

of attitude, customs, and behavior through the influence of the family and community.
The environment of a child can be referred to holistic in various aspects of its influence-
physical, social, intellectual, moral, emotional, spiritual and psychological areas.2

The significant contributions made during the early ages of an individual’s life
determines the whole some personality. School age is an important period in which the
child learns through a formal teaching. The surrounding at home and school are going to
make a great change in the children’s emotional and behavioral characteristics. Another
one important factors is the mother’s external employment which has both positive and
negative effect on their both physical and emotional growth.

On an average around 29% of the world’s children suffer from psychosocial

problems. Recent evidence indicates that psychosocial disorders frequently lead to poor
school performance and to dropping-out of school. This wastes educational resources
seriously impairs the economic and social potentials of such children.2

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6.1 NEED FOR THE STUDY

“There is a reason behind everything in nature”

- Aristotle.

The recent studies estimated that only about 50% of the psychosocial problems of
the children are identified by their primary physician or parents, 12-25% of all American
school-age children and 13% preschoolers have emotional/behavioral disorders. The
psychosocial problems increased from 6.8% to 18.7%. Attentional problems showed the
greatest absolute increase (1.4%-9.2%) and emotional problems showed the increase (0.2-
3.6%). The percentage of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity problems receiving
medications increased from 32% to 78%. These increase in psychosocial problems were
associated with increase in the proportions of single-parent families, parents get divorced,
mothers employment and parent child relationship.3

At least 3% of school children suffer from serious emotional disturbances, such as

depression, suicidal thoughts, psychosis and serious attentional problems. Attentional
deficits and hyperactivity is the most common behavioral disorder of childhood. The
prevalence of attentional deficits and hyperactivity among pediatric out patients in New
Delhi was 11.2%. Sarkar, Kapur and Kaliaperumal (India) reported a prevalence rate of
psychological disturbance of 10-54%in school going children of the age of group 8-12
years.

The psychological problems found to be in 44% of the children. Anxiety related

symptoms 67%, emotional problems, particularly depression 62% and conduct problems
49% were found. A big group of the population in any city/country is that of students and
the life of students is becoming more and more stressful. Family is the nuclear of all
social groups because of its functional importance of the child. It is where healthy habits
are learnt by the child. According to Tyrer and Tyrer(1974) absenteeism in the later years
of schooling is predictive of depression in adult hood 4

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 American Academy of Paediatrics Division of Child Health Research, the majority
of paediatrician surveyed found that mothers should not work outside the home from
their child’s infancy to early school age. The connection of children with their mothers at
a young age will allow a close bond. This will make the communication between parent
and child easier especially during the middle school and high school years. The attention
and moral values the child receives will help to guide the child in a positive direction as
they get older.5

The effects of maternal employment on children have negative action and positive
action. Hence there is a need to study the difference in psychosocial problems of children
of working and non-working mothers. This will helps the working mothers to improve
the care given towards their children. This will also will help them to concentrate on their
emotional and behavioral characteristics. This inturn reflects their personality
development.

6.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

“ Literature Review is a critical summary of research on a topic of interest, often

prepared to put a research problem in context or as the basis for an implementation
project”.

Polit and Hungler,1999

1. A descriptive study conducted by involving 150 adolescents [12 – 15years] to assess

the impact of maternal employment of the self-concept, emotional maturity and
achievement motivation of adolescents. It includes 75 adolescent of employed
mothers and 75 adolescents of home makers studying in 6th and 8th standard in
Hubli- Dharward cities of North Karnataka. Data was collected using emotional
maturity scale and achievement motivation scales. The study evidenced that the
adolescent children of home makers have significantly higher-self-concept than
children of employed mothers.6

2. A study conducted on non – standard schedules and young children’s behavioral out
come among working mothers of low income families and its influences on school

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 age children’s behavioral out comes. They examined low income working mother
and their children age 4-8 years. A three city study ( N=206) found that maternal
non standard schedules are associated with negative behavioral out comes for
young children. The negative effect of non standard schedules on behavior
problems indirectly through increased parenting stress.7

3. A cross sectional study on prevalence and risk factors of emotional and behavioral
problems among school children and adolescents in Al-Abnae School Soudi Arabia.
1313 male students were included in the study. Among that 109[8.3%] students
were emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students. Among studied socio-
demographic variables, educational level, and mother occupation [ working versus
non-working ] were associated with higher risk of developing emotional and
behavioral disturbances in these children.8

4. A study conducted in USA to find out the association of mother’s employment with
child’s temperament and behavior problems. The study investigated spill over from
the mother role to work role in a sample of more than 300 families and associated
mother’s work outcomes with child’s difficult temperament at different age groups
such as 3 yrs, 4 yrs,6 yrs, 8 yrs and 12 year. The result found that the maternal
sense of parenting competence and maternal depression produce behavioral
problems in children.9

5. A longitudinal study conducted in Pennsylvania aimed at the effects of family and

neighborhood characteristics on the behavioral and cognitive development of poor
black children. The study conducted in 178 single mother of black families. It
investigates the relations among family resources[ mother’s employment, income
from employment] and child developmental outcomes[behavioral problems, brood
reading, calculation] in the early school years. Result of the study indicated that
behavior problems of children depend on, the child’s gender, the mothers’
depressive symptoms and to some extent her employment status.10

6. An exploratory study was conducted to determine the psychosocial development of

children in the age group of 8-10 years. A convenience sampling was used to select

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 100 school children and maternal employment status was taken into consideration.
The findings showed that the favorable development in the domains of emotional,
social and cognitive were 99%, 100%, 97% respectively. There was no difference
between the mean psychosocial development score of male (m=149.55) and female
(m=152.11) children. As a whole, all the selected factors( like type of family,
number of siblings, socio-economic status, maternal employment status) as well as
parenting level had significant prediction on the psychological development score.11

7. A study conducted on 106 adolescents (12-18 yrs) to find out the attachment score
of adolescent children whose mothers were employed and how maternal
employment varied as a function of children’s personality styles. Responses were
obtained on 3 measures, Eysenack personality inverntory, the adult attachment scale
of Collins and Bartholones. A median split was performed to divide subjects into
those scoring high and low on extraversion. The subjects were then grouped on the
basis of their mother’s employment status during the subjects infancy ( full time,
part time, non-employed). The finding revealed that subjects high on extraversion
and adolescents following full-time maternal employment during infancy.
Adolescence who scored high as extraversion may have been more comfortable
with continued maternal presence during infancy.12

8. An exploratory research was conducted to asses the impact of working mothers on

the female children. The sample consisted of 60 children-30 boys and 30 girls in the
age group of 10-16 years. The findings showed that the mother-child relationship
was 86.6% with working mother’s children and 96.6% with non-working mother’s
children. Boys of both categories at home were more exposed to punishment. The
social adjustment showed that out of 30 children( respondents) of working mothers,
3 were unable to build social relationship and 12 sometimes. In the non working
mother’s children 13 were always able to build social relationship and 15
sometimes. 13

9. A correlative study conducted on behavioral problems among 494 school children

studying in 6th and 8th standard of Kottayam District, Kerala. The Study revealed

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 that girls of non-employed mothers had higher subjective well being and lower
behavioral status than boys in the some age group. There was no association
between birth order, sibling status, and type of family, presence of parents and
occupation of father. The scholastic achievement and adjustment were positively
correlated with subjective well being. Scholastic achievement, adjustment and
subjective well being were negatively correlated with behavioral problem status.14

10. A comparative study on the impact of work by the mothers on child health was
conducted on Bilai. In this they compared a sample of 200 working educated
mother and their 408 children with 200 non-working mothers and their 440 children
by observational method. Results shows that physical and mental health status
showed a significant co-relation with mother’s length of service, type of substitute
childcare and type of mother’s profession. It identified that a significant number of
children in study group were reposted to have psychological problems. Working
mothers produced a significant nutritional and psychological impact on the
children.15

6.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

“A comparative study to Assess the Psychosocial Problems of Children [ 18-12
years] of working and non-working mothers in a Selected school at Tumkur”.

6.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1) To assess the psychosocial problems of children with working mothers.

2) To Assess the psychosocial problems of children with non-working mothers.
3) To compare the psychosocial problems between the children of working and non-
working mothers.
4) To determine the association between psychosocial problems of children of
working and non-working mothers and their demographic characters.

6.5 OPERATIONAL DEFINATIONS

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 Working mothers - In this study working mothers refers to women employed
by private or public sectors, who work for about 6-8 hrs a
day to support family income.

Non-working mothers - In this study non-working mothers refers to those women

managing household activities and not involved by any
external sector for an employment to support their
family.

Children - It refers to children of working and non-working mothers

with an age between 8-12 years attending the selected
school of Tumkur.

Psychosocial problem - Psychosocial problem means the problems associated with

personalities and social factors of a child .

6.6 ASSUMPTION
The study assume that

1) The psychosocial problems will be more in children of working mothers.

2) The psychosocial problems will be comparatively less in children of non-
working mothers.
3) There will be some difference in the occurrence of psychosocial problems in
children of working and non-working mothers.

6.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H1-There will be a significant difference between the psychosocial problems of

children of working and non working mothers.

6.8 DELIMITATIONS

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 The study is limited to the children with the age group of 8-12 years.

7 MATERIALS AND METHODS OF THE STUDY

7.1 SOURCE OF DATA

The children of working and non working mothers from selected school are the
source of study
7.1.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
A non experimental descriptive study ,that is chosen for the research .

7.1.2. VARIABLES OF THE STUDY

i. DEPENDENT VARIABLE
The psychosocial problems of children of working and non working mothers.
ii. ATTRIBUTING VARIABLES
Demographic variables such as age, sex, occupation of mothers, type of
family, education of mothers and income of the family.

7.1.3 STUDY SETTING

The study will be conducted in selected school at Tumkur town.

7.1.4 POPULATION
The population of the present study will be comprised of school children
of working and non-working mothers with in the age group of 8-12 years.

7.2 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

Data will be collected by using the structured tool after obtaining prier permission
from the school.

7.2.1 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Non random sampling procedure of convenient sampling technique is used to
select the sample of children of working and non working mothers
7.2.2 SAMPLE SIZE

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 Sample size of the study is 100(n=100). Among them 50 belong to children of
working mothers and the remaining 50 are children of non-working mothers.

7.2.3 CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE

INCLUSION CRITERIA
1. Children between the age group of 8-12 years
2. Children whose mothers are alive
3. Children who are residing with mothers.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA
1. Children who are orphan.
2. Children who are not willing to participate.
3. Children who are not available at the time of data collection.

7.2.4 INSTRUMENT

A structured questionnaire will be prepared in such a way it will

consist of two parts.
I. The demographic data of the children of working and non working mothers ,and
II. Psychosocial problems of school children of working and non working mothers.

7.2.5 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

The data being collected through structured questionnaire will be carefully
analyzed through following statistical technique.

I.Descriptive statistics.

i. Frequency and percentage analysis used to describe the demographic

characteristics of children being studied under research.
ii .Mean ,standard deviation and mean score percent will be used to assess the
psychosocial problem of children.
II Inferential statistics.

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 i. Unpaired ‘t’test and ANOVA will be used to compare the mean scores of
psychosocial problem over the demographic characters of children of
working and non working mothers.
ii. Chi square test will be used to find out the association between
psychosocial problem of children and their demographic characters.

7.2.6.PILOT STUDY
A pilot study will be conducted by selecting 10 school children to assess the
feasibility of main study

7.2.7 PROJECTED OUTCOME

The psychosocial problem of children of non working mother will be less
than the children of working mothers. The investigator will present the finding
suggestions and implication to the community through the project report.

7.2.8 DURATION OF THE STUDY

The study plan to conduct with the time duration at about 6-8 weeks.

7.3DOES THE STUDY REQUIRE ANY INTERVENTIONS TO BE CONDUCTED

ON PATIENTS OR OTHERS HUMAN ANIMALS?
No. Since the study is descriptive it does not include an intervention.

7.4. HAS ETHICAL CLEARANCE BEEN OBTAINED FROM YOUR

INSTITUTION?
Ethical clearance will be obtained from Institutions Ethical Committee(IEC) and
the permission will be obtained from the school for data collection. A pilot study will
be conducted to assess the feasibility and main study will be conducted after getting
the consent from the students

8. LIST OF REFERENCES

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1.Parol Datta .“Paediatric Nursing” New Delhi, Jaypee publications, 2007.pp;1
2. C.P Bansal. “Adolescent stress and its management”, paediatrics today .
July-August, Vol Xl No:4, 2008. Page 160-167
3. . Kelley .J. Khelleher et.al “Increasing identification of psychosocial
problem” official Journal of the American academy of Paediatrics Vol-105-2006.
4.Sailaxmi Gandhi Reddemmak. “ Concentration enhancement for hyperactive
children” “Nightmgale Nursing Times 2005, Page -34 “
5.American Academy of Paediatrics .“Periodic survey of Fellows, Divisionof
child health Research”, 2004.
6. Suneetha Hungal ,Vijayalaxmi A. Aminabhavi. Karnataka university,
Dharward, “self concept, emotional maturity and achievement motivation of the
adolescent children of employed mothers and home makers” Journal of Indian
Academy of applied psychology, January Vol-33. 2007,103-110.
7. Joshi, Pamela,bogen, kaaren. “ Non-standard schedules and young children’s
behavioral out comes among working low-income families” Journal of marriage
and family,2007 P.No.139-156
8. Moatz M et.al “emotional and behavioral problems among male Saudi school
children and adolescents prevalence and risk facotors” Germon Journals of
Psychiatry, 2004. www.gipsy.uni-goettingen.de
9. Hyde J.S, Else-Quest M.N Goldsmith H.H, Biesamz J.C. Department of
psychology, University of Winconsin “ children’s temperament and behavior
problems predict their employed mother’s work functioning”, 2004. P.No.75/(2)
580-94
10. Jackson A.P.“ The effectiveness of family and neighborhood characteristic
on the behavioral and cognitive development of poor black children; a
longitudinal study” Pennsyluania, American journals of Community
Psychology ,2003. P.No.32(1-2):175-86.
11. D Souza E.S. “ A study to determine the psychosocial development of
children in the age group of 8-10 years in a selected school of Udupi District”
Manipal, 2002.
12. Domingo, M and Keppley S. “ Relations of early maternal employment and
attachment in introvertive extrovertive adolescent” (Medline) Bychol-rep
81(2),2002. 403-10
13. Fernander.S .“ Impact of working mothers on the female children between

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12-16 years” Manipal 1999.
14. Jose A .“ A Study on the subjective well being and behavioral problem” of
school adolesecents” Manipal 1998.
15. S.K.Tomer, P.K.Menta P Warey, U.Tomer and J.S.Warnkar. “ A study on
working educated mothers and it impact on child health” Indian Journal of
Paediatrics”, November Vol-53, 1998.

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