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Parental Involvement – Perceptions of Parents and their Adolescent Children

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Abstract

Objective

To explore the experiences of parents and their adolescent children, specifically the dimension of parental involvement in the lives of their adolescent children and how adolescents perceived it.

Methods

Following informed consent, a total of nine families with 22 participants took part in the study including nine adolescents, aged between 14 and 16 y, and 13 parents. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted at their homes following informed consent. Following transcription, the data was coded and themes were identified using Atlas.ti software. A grounded theory approach was undertaken in analysing the data.

Results

Two main themes were identified including perceptions of parental involvement in the lives of their adolescent children and family strategies to improve bonding. Adolescents’ concerns centered on reduced interaction time with their family members. Concerns were also raised over the adolescents’ increasing academic burden and parents particularly emphasized the increasing use of media and mobile technology by adolescents as deterrents to interaction. Though mothers functioned as primary caregivers, fathers also took on more active roles in the rearing of their children, stepping away from the traditionally viewed role of being a distant patriarchal provider. To improve interaction, parents devised creative strategies to increase time spent interacting with family members such as having dinner, performing household chores, playing games, or visiting places together.

Conclusions

The increasing academic burden and access to digital media were perceived as factors leading to reduced interaction between the parent-adolescent dyad. Creative parenting strategies to increase interaction were sought as a solution.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted for the help extended by the grass root level community health workers and to Dr. Ajay Bailey for the training obtained at the Winter School on qualitative methods at the Transdisciplinary centre for qualitative methods, MAHE, Manipal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Varalakshmi Chandra Sekaran

  2. MSW Program, Prasanna School of Public Health (PSPH), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Lena Ashok

  3. Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Veena Ganesh Kamath

  4. Department of Data Science, Prasanna School of Public Health (PSPH), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Asha Kamath

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Asha P. Hegde

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Dr. AV Baliga Memorial Hospital, Udupi, India

    Virupaksha Devaramane

Authors
  1. Varalakshmi Chandra Sekaran
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  2. Lena Ashok
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  3. Veena Ganesh Kamath
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  4. Asha Kamath
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  5. Asha P. Hegde
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  6. Virupaksha Devaramane
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Contributions

VCS designed and executed the study, analysed the data, and wrote the paper. VGK and LA helped coordinate the data collection. VGK, LA, AK, APH, and VD collaborated in the design, data analysis and writing of the paper. VGK is the guarantor for this paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lena Ashok.

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Sekaran, V.C., Ashok, L., Kamath, V.G. et al. Parental Involvement – Perceptions of Parents and their Adolescent Children. Indian J Pediatr 87, 200–206 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-019-03114-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-019-03114-z

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