Perception of Parents of Children with Mental Health in Kisii County, Kenya

Many studies done on families and hospitals have shown a high prevalence of children's mental illnesses. Due to discrimination and stigmatization connected to mental illness in children, few parents take their children to hospitals for complaints that are related to emotional and psychological problems despite the high cases of conduct disorders. This study sets out to identify and find out the perception of parents who have children with conduct disorders and what tends to contribute to the causation of these mental disorders and predictors of negative or positive perception. A sample of 179 children were used in the study. A cross-sectional study was carried out, and questionnaires were used to interview parents on the sociodemographic characteristics of children and family attachments. The study was done in Kisii Referral, Nyanchwa Mission, Nyangena, and Mediforte Hospitals. Child mental disorders were assessed using a Reporting Questionnaire for children, Parents’ assessment of diagnostic statistical manual (DSM V) symptoms as being suggestive of childhood psychiatric disorders, and parents’ assessment of contributory factors to the development of childhood psychiatric disorders. The results reveal that the majority of parents (87%) had poor perceptions about their children’s conditions of conduct disorders. Only 27.4% of parents were willing to classify their children as having psychological problems, 10.6% had good knowledge while 77.7% had poor knowledge. Most of the symptoms, parents noticed as conduct disorders were epilepsy, abnormal behaviors, consistent indiscipline and much sleeping in children. In conclusion, most parents had negative perceptions towards their children. The study advocates for programs such as health education and enlightenment to enhance mental health and conduct disorder education for parents so that they can easily identify and recognize their children's health problems and take them for assessment and treatment which could lead to positive adversities.