Mental Health of Children of Working Parents During Covid Pandemic

Abstract

The Covid 19 Pandemic has drastically changed the life of human beings.  It is shown in studies that the children and parents psychological wellbeing are affected due to the lockdown (Christner, Essler, Hazzam and Paulus, 2021). Children who are experiencing parental stress are associated with higher child abuse potential whereas greater parental support during pandemic are associated with lower perceived stress and child abuse potential (Brown, Doom, Lechuga-Pena, Watamura and Koppels, 2020). Hence an attempt has been made to find the mental health and psychological wellbeing of children of working parents during pandemic. The study used descriptive research design by using quantitative analysis. The data was collected from random working parents with school going children aged 10 to 17 years. The Convenience sampling method using inclusion and exclusion conditions sampling technique was used in this study. Personal Information form, perceived stress scale by Cohen (1988), Strength and Difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) and psychological wellbeing scale by Ryff was used for the purpose of collecting data. Using appropriate statistical test, after testing for normality it was found that there exists a significant association between the wellbeing of the children and the mental health of the working parents. The author through this study has given an indication towards the current scenario for mental health of children of working parents which will help in developing psycho-social intervention for mental health of both children and their parents.