Parenting toddlers: Evidences of parental needs from South India
Chaithra Holla1, Bino Thomas2, Madhavaram Thomas Kishore3
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Insights
Parental beliefs about child-rearing, influenced by upbringing and media, shape parenting practices. Understanding these challenges is key to developing effective toddler mental health programs.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Parenting Studies
Background:
- Childhood emotional and behavioral adjustment is significantly influenced by childcare quality.
- Quality childcare has long-term implications for child development and mental health.
- Parents encounter substantial challenges in providing early childhood care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe parental concerns in raising toddlers from a mental health developmental perspective.
- To explore parental challenges and their impact on child development.
- To identify factors influencing parenting practices in early childhood.
Main Methods:
- Exploratory research design utilizing semi-structured interviews.
- Study conducted in urban Bengaluru, India.
- Thematic analysis of data from ten participating parents.
Main Results:
- Parental beliefs about parenting are formed by childhood experiences, cultural influences, and media.
- Parents struggle with understanding and managing toddler behaviors, including sleep, feeding, developmental needs, and communication.
- Parental concerns include stress, exhaustion, lack of time, insufficient information, and absence of validation.
- Observed parenting practices included controlling styles, low-quality play, inappropriate emotional responses, and unvalidated cultural methods.
Conclusions:
- Parenting practices are influenced by pre-existing beliefs and toddlers' specific behaviors.
- Understanding parental challenges is crucial for developing targeted parenting programs.
- Programs should focus on strengthening toddlers' psychological capacities and supporting parents.
Background:
Quality of childcare can predict a child's emotional and behavioural adjustment throughout the life span. Furthermore, this has major implications for child development and mental health in the long-term. Parents often face major challenges while providing childcare especially during the early years of a child.
Aim:
This paper describes specific parental concerns in raising a toddler from a mental health developmental perspective.
Methods:
The study was conducted in urban Bengaluru, India under an exploratory research design using semi-structured interviews. Ten parents participated in the study. Data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
Four major themes emerged. The first theme was related to the formation of parental beliefs about parenting which identified several sources such as parenting practices witnessed during childhood, childhood experiences and influence of culture, mass or social media. The second theme to emerge was on concerns related to toddlers which parents had difficulties in understanding as well as managing, specially navigating through sleep and feed pattern, identifying developmental needs and making a meaning of toddlers' communication styles and content. The third theme showed parental concerns which consisted of areas such as parental stress, physical exhaustion, lack of time for each other or toddler, lack of information about handling toddlers and absence of validation of parental efforts. The final theme was on their current parenting practices with their toddlers which showcased controlling styles, play time but low on quality, inappropriate responses to toddlers' emotions or behaviours and several culturally practiced measures which were not validated scientifically.
Conclusion:
The pre-existing belief among parents about parenting and toddlers' specific behaviours influence parenting practices. The understanding of the parental challenges is beneficial in developing an appropriate parenting programme focussing on strengthening psychological capacities of toddlers.
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