© 1997 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Factors Influencing Psychosocial Development of Preschool Children in a Rural Area of Haryana, India
Department of Community Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh 160 012, India
In a cross-sectional survey, 3746 children aged less than 6 years residing in 47 randomly selected villages of district Ambala (India), were studied to find out the environmental risk factors influencing psychosocial development. A culture appropriate test battery comprising 67 test items was administered, and psychosocial development score of each child was computed by scoring each test item passed as 1 and failed as 0. At each age level children having score in lower quartile were categorised as having slow psychosocial development and those in upper quartile were labelled as having accelerated development Logistic regression revealed that per capita income, education of mother, nutritional status of the child, number of rooms and environmental hygiene in the house, presence of a high school within easy travel distance, availability of a caretaker when mother is busy, child attending a nursery (anganwadi), households having access to newspaper, child having toys or toy substitutes, TV, books, story telling by the mother were found to have a significant association with psychosocial development of preschool children. The risk factors identified in this survey can be used for screening families at risk in rural communities and for selection of interventions for promotion of psychosocial development of children.