The Perception of Children Regarding their Mother’s Employment in Selected School, Ernakulam

A descriptive study on the perception of children regarding their mother's employment in selected school was conducted with the objectives to (1) determine the perception of children regarding their mother's employment (2) find out the association between perception of children regarding mother's employment and selected demographic variables. The design used for the study was descriptive research design. The mother's employment is a multidimensional variable that has a differential impact on children depending on the number of hours a mother works, her job description, job stability and role satisfaction. Materials and Methods: The study sample size was 100 subjects of 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th classes who met the inclusion criteria. Convenience sampling technique was used. The data were collected using (5-point likert scale) semi-structured questionnaire on child's perception regarding mother's employment. Results: Overall 96(96%) subjects had good perception, 4(4%) of subjects with moderate perception regarding mother's employment. There were no subjects with poor perception. Regarding child's perception based on gender and ordinal level of class shows that both male and female subjects were 9(100.0%) and 11(100.0%) from 6^th standard with good perception. Male 9(100.0%) and female 9(81.8%) were from 7^th standard with good perception and female 9(100.0%) and male 20(95.2%) from 8th standard had good perception. Male 11(100.0%) and female 18(94.7%) from 9^th standard had good perception. There were no subjects from 6th standard with moderate perception. Female 2(18.2%) from 7^th standard had moderate perception. Male 1(4.8%) from 8^th standard had moderate perception, female 1(5.3%) from 9^th standard had moderate perception about their mother's employment. There were no subjects with poor perception based on gender and ordinal level of class. Based on child's perception with ordinal level of class shows majority 100% of subjects were from 6^th standard with good perception and minority 3% of subjects were from 8^th and 9^th standard with moderate perception. There were no subjects who had poor perception. There was no significant association between child's perception on mother's employment and selected demographic variables. Discussion: The study concluded that the perception of children is unaffected by the mothers work period because in the present study findings, majority of the subjects had good perception on mother's employment.