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Parental Attitude and Involvement in Care towards Their Mentally Retarded Children

Jisa George T, Tinju Joy, Jisha P Muhammed

Abstract


Mentally retarded children are socially marginalized and rejected by almost all sections of the community. A descriptive study was conducted to assess parental attitude and involvement in care towards their mentally retarded children in selected special schools of Ernakulum district, Kerala. Using purposive sampling technique, 150 parents of mentally retarded children who met inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. Data were collected using parental attitude and parental involvement rating scale for a period of 4 weeks. The results revealed that majority of the parents (76%) were having favourable attitude towards their children and most of the parents (67%) were having full involvement in the care of mentally retarded children. Domain-wise analysis of parental involvement scores revealed that parents were more involved in meeting the educational needs (85.07%), but least involved in meeting the psychological needs (68.23%). A positive correlation (r = 0.003) was found between parental attitude and involvement in care towards their mentally retarded child. Parental attitude and involvement in care can be improved by incorporating programmes on imparting knowledge about management of mentally retarded children.


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References


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