Mental and Emotional Health: Good Practices in Children and Parental Entanglement - an Interview based Qualitative Study

Background: Childhood is the right time to set the right foundation for good mental health. Parental knowledge and insight in understanding of mental health routed to explore themes related to parenting and children. Objectives: To inquire about good practices for mental and emotional health of children among parents and conceive parental entanglement. Methods: Phenomenological study design was adopted with sample size thirteen parents of children aged three to twelve years who visited outpatient section of a private hospital. Data collected through semi structured interviews for 60-90 minutes with an open ended question using purposive sampling. A short interview done with children. Findings: Data was analyzed by Colaizzi’s method. Five theme clusters and twenty eight themes were extracted. Parents were pegged from 46% to 62 % mindful about physical health, 59 to 100% for emotional health, 38 to 100% for mental health, 38 to 77% for school health practices. The investigator explored parental involvement in their real life as quite appreciable 62 to 85 % along the engagement of children’s eating habits, sibling jealousy, bad habits, adjustment difficulties, child-parent conflicts and digital technology usage exile any substance use. Novelty: Parents are increasingly recognizing these practices through self regulation, sensory needs and social behavior in their children. Parental generations share health habits with children like morning walks, yoga or screen-free mealtimes, blending movement, mindfulness and bonding. Millennial vented challenges to correct harmful behaviors without shaming the child’s self-esteem. They expressed struggle to discipline children without damaging the emotional bond as well as label a bad habit especially during conflict. Keywords: Mental health, Emotional health, Good practices, Children, Parental entanglement