Behavioural problems can happen in children of all ages. Some children have serious behavioural problems. Sometimes, a child's behaviour can affect their development and interfere with their ability to lead a normal life. When behaviour is this much of a problem, it is called a conduct disorder. Conduct disorder can cause a lot of distress to children, families, schools and local communities Savitha et al., [1].

Conduct disorder (CD) is characterized by a pattern of behaviour that violates the basic rights of others or age appropriate norms and rules of society. Conduct disorder can be extremely challenging for parents, teachers and mental health professionals. Conduct disorder also exacts a high cost in terms of personal loss for children, families and society [1,2].

Conduct disorder is one of the most difficult disorders to treat because it is complex and requires carefully designed and coordinated treatment interventions aimed at multiple areas of functioning. Considerable resources are required to properly assess and implement an effective treatment plan for children with conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is one of the most frequently diagnosed disorders of childhood and adolescence [1-3].

India is home to almost 19% of the world’s children. More than 1/3rd of the country’s population, around 440 million is below 18 years. In that 8–10% of children are between 6 and 10 years of age. Conduct is the most serious psychiatric disorder. Studies shows that 6–10% boys and 2–9% of girls have conduct disorders. Serious violation of rules, often stays outside at night despite parental prohibition begins before 13years of age and the problem of running away from home overnight are some of the major conduct disorders [4,5]. Difficulty in school is an early sign of potential conduct disorder problems. While the child’s IQ tends to be in normal range, they can have trouble with verbal and abstract reasoning skills and lack behind their classmates. Consequently, they feel as if they do not “fit in.” The frustration and loss of self-esteem resulting from this academic and social inadequacy can trigger the development of conduct disorder [5,6].

Objectives of the Study

• To assess the knowledge of primary school teachers regarding conduct disorder in Shimla city

• To find the Association of knowledge of primary school teachers with selected demographic variables (Age, Years of teaching experience, Educational qualification, religion, Marital status)

• Research Approach: Descriptive

• Research Design: Descriptive cross-sectional design 

• Setting of the Study: Primary School of Shimla City 

• Study Duration: Between June-July 2018 

• Study Population: Primary school teachers of Shimla city 

• Sample Size: 100 Primary school teachers

• Sampling Technique: Randomly Sampling Technique

• Sampling Criteria: 20 Primary school were selected randomly from all primary schools of Shimla city and 5 Primary school teachers who were present on the day of the study were selected randomly after explaining the purpose of the study

Informed consent/assent was taken from selected primary school teachers and confidentiality of the teachers was also maintained.

Inclusive Criteria

Teachers available during the period of data collection in study setting and who were willing to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria

Teachers who were not willing to participate in the study and who were not present during data collection.

Development of Tool

Knowledge related questionnaires (15)

Description of Tool

• Section A: Socio-demographic characteristics of the Primary school teachers (Age, Gender, Educational status, marital status, religion and Source of information regarding conduct disorder)

• Sections B: There were fifteen structured knowledge questionnaire having four options. The teacher had to choose right one. One mark was given for each correct answer and zero for incorrect answer. The maximum score was 15 and minimum score was zero. Scoring was done on the basis of marks as > 66%(11-15) = Good, 33%-66%( (5-10) = Average, <33 (0-5) = Poor

Validity of Tool

By the experts in this field.

Permission: Obtained from the concerned head of the schools.

Ethical Consideration

Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Ethical Committee of Himalayan University for conducting the study. 

Data Collection

By myself under the guidance of supervisors and Teachers was given 15 minutes’ time to complete that questionnaire and collected at the end of the prescribed time.

Data Analysis

With appropriate statistical test in terms of frequencies, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Chi-Square test. p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

The Table 1 depicts that for age group, 26% of teacher came between the age group of 26-30 years, 26% participants came in the age group of 31-35 years, 29% came in the age group of 36-40 years while 19% teachers came in the age group of >40 years. With respect to gender, 58% of teachers were male and remaining 42% were female, For educational qualification, 2% participants have done teacher training course, 36% have junior basic teachers, 58% have done their B.Ed. and remaining 4% teachers have M.Ed qualification. For years of teaching experience, 10% of teachers have < 5 years’ experience, 20% teachers have 6-10 years’ experience, 29% have 11-15 years’ experience, 20% teachers have 16-20 years’ experience while 21% teachers have total >20 years’ experience. With respect to religion, 95% teaches were from Hindu and 5% teachers were from Muslim religion. For nature of employment, 17% teachers were in temporary job and 83% teachers were permanent job. With respect to Child psychiatry in their curriculum, 97% teachers had in the category of yes and 3% teachers had in the category of no. For previous information regarding behavioral problems, 94% teachers had information regarding behavioral problems while 6% had no information regarding behavioral problems.

Table 1: Socio-Demographic Variables of Primary School Teachers

The mean score of Conduct Disorders knowledge was 5.18±1.77. Results revealed that only two fifth of the primary school teachers (43%) had average knowledge while three fifth (57%) had Poor knowledge about Conduct Disorders. None of the participants had Good knowledge regarding Conduct Disorders (Table 2).

Table 2: Knowledge Regarding Conduct Disorders Among Primary School Teachers

The Table 3 depicts that there is no association with above listed demographic variables i.e. age groups, genders, educational qualifications, years of teaching experience, religion, nature of employment, child psychiatry in their curriculum and previous information regarding behavioral problems with Knowledge of Primary school teachers regarding Conduct Disorders.

Table 3: Association of Knowledge of Conduct Disorder & Socio-Demographic Variables of Primary School Teachers

The mean score of Conduct Disorders knowledge was 5.18±1.77. Only two fifth of the primary school teachers (43%) had average knowledge while three fifth (57%) had Poor knowledge about Conduct Disorders. Similar types of findings were also observed by study done by Naganandini, [5]. But our study results were contrary to the study done by Savitha et al., [1].

There was no significant association of their age, gender, professional qualification, teaching experience, religion and marital status with their knowledge regarding Conduct Disorders. Similar results were reported in the study done by Savitha et al., [1] and Naganandini [5].

Our study revealed that most of the school teachers have inadequate knowledge regarding conduct disorders. Results from this study bring light to the fact that schools should invest in faculty development and arrange structured courses and workshops on regarding conduct disorders and prepare the teachers to deal with special needs of children with regarding conduct disorders. All teachers need to be educated, trained and supported to further their professional development regarding conduct disorders because the teachers who are knowledgeable about ADHD are better prepared to be in a position to offer adequate teaching, assistance and support for children with conduct disorders.

Future Implications 

This study considered the situation in the governmental primary schools only; future studies should be conducted to assess the situation in private schools as well. Same study can be conducted by using large sample to generalize the findings. A study may be undertaken to assess the effectiveness of STP on knowledge on prevention of conduct problems among school teachers. A comparative study can also be undertaken to assess the knowledge of teachers with patents of ADHD children.

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge all the teachers for taking out time from their busy schedule and participating in the study.

1. Savitha et al. "A study to assess the knowledge regarding selected common behavioural problems of children among primary school teachers in selected schools at Mangaluru." International Journal of Recent Scientific Research, vol. 7, no. 8, 2016, pp. 13018–13020.

2. Ogundele, M.O. "Behavioural and emotional disorders in childhood: A brief overview for paediatricians." World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, vol. 7, no. 1, 2018, pp. 9–26.

3. Sagar, R. et al. "Clinical practice guidelines for the management of conduct disorder." Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 61, suppl. 2, 2019, pp. 270–276.

4. Frank, T. Neurological and Psychiatric Disorder. Ireland: Ireland Human Press, 2000, p. 13.

5. Naganandini, R. "Knowledge on prevention of conduct problems among school teachers." International Journal of Advances in Nursing Management, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, pp. 106–108.

6. Sreevani, R. A Guide to Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing. Kundii: Sanathe Printers, 2010, pp. 221–243.