A Study On The Mental Health Outlook Of Children In N Cities

Parents' perception of children's mental health refers to the basic views and opinions formed in the daily life on the mental health of children. As a part of the parents' educational concept, it will influence the physical and mental development of children significantly. We reviewed related researches about children's mental health firstly and combined with open questionnaires and interviews. Then the initial questionnaires ware formed. The formal questionnaire of parents' perception of children's mental health was developed through two questionnaire surveys and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The formal questionnaire consisted of three sub-questionnaires:a questionnaire on parents' understanding about children's mental health performance, a questionnaire on parents' perspective of the factors of children's mental health, a questionnaire on parents' view about the way of promoting children's mental health. On the basis of the formal questionnaire, through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the first-order four factor structure model of parents' knowledge about the characteristics of children's mental health was preliminarily verified (good behavior habits, harmonious interpersonal relationship, normal cognitive capacity, healthy emotion and strong will); the first-order five factor structure model of parents' understanding of the factors influencing the psychological health of children was preliminarily verified (negative factors in the external environment, caregivers' positive parenting behavior, caregivers' passive parenting behavior, life events, general condition on family); the first-order four factor structure model of parents' cognition of children's mental health promotion method was preliminarily verified (caregivers self develop good habits, teachers love and care for preschoolers, parents interact with children actively, caregivers pay proactive attention and take preventative measures energetically).The research took four districts of N city as the sampling frame. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA), the current situation of Parents' perception of children's mental health was investigated. Firstly, parents almost regarded "harmonious interpersonal relationship" as a sign of healthy performance; parents put more emphasis on self and teacher's impact on children's mental health as a whole; parents agreed more with the way of setting a good example to promote children's mental health. Secondly, with parents' aging, they were more likely to take "harmonious interpersonal relationship" as the symbol of healthy mental state. Thirdly, fathers paid more attention on negative things than mothers. Fourthly, there were significant differences in parents'different educational levels, which were specifically reflected in the following points. Compared with parents with college's degree and the following degree, parents with bachelor's degree stressed more on "good behavior habits" and "healthy emotion and strong will" and take it as the mental health performance. Parents with bachelor's degree stressed more on "normal cognitive capacity" as the mental health performance than parents with master's degree or above. Parents with bachelor's degree or above stressed more on "caregivers'positive parenting behavior" "life events" as the factor to affect children's mental health than parents with college's degree and the following degree. Parents with bachelor's degree stressed more on "caregivers self developing good habits" as the way to promote children's mental health than parents with college's degree and the following degree. Parents with bachelor's degree and the following degree stressed more on "caregivers'active interaction with children" than parents with master's degree or above. Fifthly, on the aspect of children's mental health performances and the factors which affect children's mental health, the prominent distinction existed in parents from different occupation. However, parents with different occupation hold similar attitudes about the way to promote children's mental health. Parents who worked as public officials and enterprise employees stressed more on "harmonious interpersonal relationship" "good behavior habits" as the healthy signs than parents who worked as self-employed workers. And they also stressed more on "caregivers'positive parenting" as the factor to children's mental health.By conducting in-depth interviews with 20 parents of different genders, educational levels, professions, we found that parents'perception of children's mental health is influenced by parents'nurturing experience, parents'growing background, parents'educational levels and the mass media.Consequently, based on the research findings, the paper offers some suggestions to update parents'perception of children's mental health from three aspects of the parents, kindergarten and government. Parents should take the initiative to improve their literacy of parenting; kindergarten should pay attention to the guidance of parents; the government should pay attention to the family psychological health education, respectively.