INTRODUCTION:

Children are the inheritance from God. They are likely clay in the potter’s hand. Handled with love and care, they create something, or else they will break. Mothers are more responsible for the intellectual development of the children. Parents know what is best fro their child and strong parent child relationship can help for a better outcome for children.¹Preschoolers means, a child who is not old enough to go to school or a pupil attending preschool. Preschool age ranges typically two and half to four and half years old.² Period between age 3 and 5 is one of extreme rapid developmental change and young children make these transitions with varying degree of speed and ease. Preschoolers commonly experience night time fears and night mares. In addition sleep walking and sleep terrors peak during preschoolers age.³

British child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) survey carried out by the office of National Statistics (ONS) in 1999 and 2004, comprising 7977 interviews from parents, children and teacher, found the prevalence of MHD among CYP to be 6% for conduct problems, 4% emotional problem (Depression or Anxiety) and 1.5% for hyper kinetic Disorder. Study conducted on behavioural problems among preschoolers in Delhi revealed that 22% children has behavioural problem. National survey says that there are marked changes in impatient children experience anger.⁴

Ehsan Ullah Syed and Sadia Mahmud in 2007 conducted a cross sectional survey to assess the emotional and behavioural problems amongst preschoolers in Karachi. About 1488 consent form were sent to 700 parents of private school and 788 of community school children. The response rate was 45.4% about 47% were rated as normal. 19% as borderline and 34%as abnormal by parents. The odds of female children of being normal was 1.5 times relative to male children Prevalence was higher amongst children attending community schools ⁵.

OBJECTIVES:

· To assess the behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers from a selected urban community in Kachery, Thrissur.

· To compare behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers from a selected urban community in Kachery, Thrissur.

· To associate selected behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers of selected demographic variables.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research approach:

Quantitative approach is used in this study.

Research design:

Descriptive comparative design to be used.

Setting:

Study conducted in a selected urban community in Kachery, Thrissur.

Population:

It consist of preschoolers of working and non working mothers of selected urban community in Kachery, Thrissur.

Sample and sample size:

All working and non working mothers of preschooler children in selected urban community in Kachery. In this study, sample size is 70 working mothers and 70 non working mothers of preschooler children.

Sampling technique:

Non probability purposive sampling is used in this study.

Description and scoring of data collection tools:

Section A:

Socio demographic and clinical data questionnaire

This section has 14 questions regarding the socio demographic and clinical data such as age of the child, gender of the child, birth order of the child, height of the child, weight of the child, number of sibling, age of mother, education of mother, employment status of mother, working and travelling hours of mother, care taker of child, employment status of father.

Section B:

Likert scale to assess behavioural problems in Preschoolers

The researcher developed a Likert scale to assess the behavioural problems in preschoolers and it consists of 17 questions regarding the common behavioural problems seen in preschoolers, categorized under sub headings habit problems, speech problems, sleep problems and eating problems. Each item has five responses: never, rarely, sometimes, often, always and scores alloted are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively.

Data Analysis and Interpretation:

Table 1: Demographic profile of preschoolers of working and non working mothers. (n=140)

Sl.No	Variables	Working		Non working
		Frequency	%	Frequency	%
I.	Age of child
1.	3 years	22	31.4	30	42.9
2.	4years	23	32.9	19	27.1
3.	5years	18	25.7	11	15.1
4.	<6 years	7	10	10	14.3
II.	Gender of the child
1.	Male	33	47.1	33	47.1
2.	Female	37	52.9	37	52.9
III.	Birth order of the child
1.	1	26	37.1	35	50.0
2.	2	34	48.6	24	34.3
3.	3 and above	10	14.3	11	15.7
IV.	Height of the child
1.	Less than 90.5cm	6	8.6	6	8.6
2.	90.5-115cm	59	84.3	57	81.4
3.	Greater than 115cm	5	7.1	7	10
V.	Weight of the child
1.	Less than 12.5kg	10	14.3	19	27.1
2.	12.5 – 21.4	55	78.6	49	70.0
3.	More than 21.4kg	5	7.1	2	2.9
Vl.	Number of siblings
1.	1	42	60.0	38	54.3
2.	2	15	21.4	18	25.7
3.	3 and above	1	1.4	2	2.9
4.	None	12	17.1	12	17.1
Vll.	Age of mother
1.	18-23	1	1.4	4	5.7
2.	24-29	23	32.9	30	42.9
3.	30-35	40	57.1	31	44.3
4.	36 and above	6	8.6	5	7.1
VIII.	Education of mother
1.	Illiterate	0	0.0	1	1.4
2.	Primary education	4	5.7	12	17.1
3.	Secondary education	8	11.4	30	42.9
4.	Graduate	38	52.3	23	32.9
5.	Professional education	20	28.6	4	5.7
IX.	Employment status of mother
1.	House wife	0	0.0	70	100
2.	Government employee	6	8.6	0	0.0
3.	Private employee	61	87.1	0	0.0
4.	Daily wage earner	3	4.3	0	0.0
X.	Working and traveling hours of the mother
1.	6-8hours	46	65.7	0	0.0
2.	12hours and above	2	2.9	0	0.0
XI.	Care taker of the child, If mother is working
1.	Creche	23	32.9	0	0.0
2.	Grand parents	46	65.7	0	0.0
3.	Neighbour	1	1.4	0	0.0
Xll.	Employment status of father
1.	Government employee	7	10	4	5.7
2.	Private employee	31	44.3	30	42.9
3.	Daily wage earner	17	20.0	21	30.0
4.	Business	13	18.6	15	21.4
5.	Any other	5	7.1	0	0.0
XIII.	Whether your child has any co-morbidities
1.	Yes	9	12.9	5	7.1
2.	No	61	87.1	65	92.9
XIV.	Whether child was preterm baby
1.	Yes	6	8.6	8	11.4
2.	No	64	91.4	62	88.6

The table 1 shows, in this study majority children of working mothers 23(32.9%) are from age group 4 years whereas 22(31.4%) children from age group 3 years, while 18 (25.7%) and 7(10%) children are from 5 years and less than 6 years respectively. In non working mothers, 30 (42.9%) children are from age group 3 years whereas 19(27.1%) children from age group 4 years while 11(15.1%) and 10( 14.3%) are from age group 5 years and less than 6 years respectively. In working mothers, 33(47.1%) children are males whereas 37(52.9%) are females. In non working mothers, 37(52.9%) children are females while 33(47.1%) are males. In working mothers, 0(0.0 %) mothers are illiterate 4(5.7 %) mothers have primary education while 8(11.4%) mothers have secondary education, 38(54.3 %) mothers are graduated and 20(28.6%) mothers have professional education .In non working mothers, 1(1.4 %) mothers are illiterate whereas 12(17.1%) mothers have primary education while 30(42.49%) mothers have secondary education and 4(5.7%) mothers have professional education.

Table 2: Identification of behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers.(n=140)

Sl. No.	Structured parental response inventory on selected behavioural problems in preschoolers	Working mothers (n=70)		Non working mothers (n=70)
		f	%	f	%
1.	1-21(normal)	4	5.714	17	24.286
2.	22-42(mild)	64	91.429	53	75.714
3.	43- 63(moderate)	2	2.857	0	0
4.	>64(severe)	0	0	0	0

Majority of preschool children of working mothers 64(91.429%) have mild behavioural problems, 2(2.857%) preschool children have moderate behavioural problems and 4(5.714%) sample have no behavioural problem. Majority of preschool children of non working mothers 53(75.714%) have mild behavioural problems, 17(24.286%) preschool children have no behavioural problems and none of the preschooler children of non working mother have moderate behavioural problem.None of the preschoolers are affected with severe behavioural problems in both groups.

Table 3: Analysis of comparison of behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers (n=140)

Components	Mean	SD	t	df	p
Working	30.31	6.097	9.312	138	0.0001*
Non working	22.97	2.519

Table 3 shows that mean of behavioural problems in preschoolers of working mothers is greater than main of non working mothers. t test was used to know any significant difference between the behavioural problems in in preschoolers of working and non working mothers. The calculated t value (9.312) is greater than tabular t value (1.9773) and p value less than 0.05. Hence research hypothesis H1 is accepted. This shows preschoolers of working mothers have more behavioural problems than preschoolers of non working mothers.

Table 4 shows that mean, standard deviation of habit problems, speech problems, sleep problems and eating problems of preschoolers of working mothers is higher than that of preschoolers of non working mothers.

Figure: 1 Comparison of behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers

Table 4: Comparison of mean standard deviation and t value of each behavioural problems in preschoolers of working and non working mothers. (n=140)

Components	Working		Non working
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	t Value	df	P value
Habit problems	12.56	3.206	9.69	2.026	6.335	138	0.0001*
Speech problems	5.94	2.134	4.84	1.125	3.808	138	0.0001*
Sleep problems	5.31	1.790	3.93	0.997	5.658	138	0.0002*
Eating problems	6.50	2.013	2.013	1.012	7.204	138	0.0001*

Table 5: Association of behavioural problems with selected demographic variables (n=140)

Sl No.	Demographic Variables	Behavioural problems				X	df	p value
		Frequency	Percentage	Frequency	Percentage
I.	Age of child
	3 years	22	31.4%	30	42.9%	3.83	3	0.280
	4 years	23	32.9%	19	27.1%
	5 years	18	25.7%	11	15.7%
	>6years	7	10%	10	14.3%
II.	Age of mother
	18-23years	1	1.4%	4	5.7%	3.96	3	0.266
	24-29years	23	32.9%	30	42.9%
	30-35years	40	57.1%	31	44.3%
	36 and above	6	8.6%	5	7.14%
III.	Education of mother
	Illiterate	0	0%	1	1.4%	32.09	4	0.01
	Primary education	4	5.7%	12	17.1%
	Secondary education	8	11.4%	30	12.9%
	Graduate	38	54.3%	23	32.1%
	Professional	20	28.6%	4	5.7%

Significant at p<0.05