Perceived Home Environment as a Predictor of Mental Health in Primary School Children of Single-Parent and Dual-Parent Families

The present research article aspired to study the effect of perceived home environment and parenting mode on mental health in primary school children of single-parent and dual-parent families. It also intended to study the relationship between perceived home environment & parenting mode and mental health in primary school children of single-parent and dual-parent families. It was hypothesized that perceived home environment and parenting mode will have no significant main and interactive effect on mental health in primary school children. It was also hypothesized that perceived home environment and parenting mode will have no significant extent and direction of relationship with mental health in primary school children of single-parent and dual-parent families. The sample of 240 primary school children 120 from Single-Parent Families and 120 from Dual-Parent Families (age-range 7 to 10 years) with balanced number of boys and girls was administered Home Environment Scale (Sines, 1984) and General Mental Health Questionnaire (Goldberg,1992). A 2 x 2 ANOVA and a Correlational Design were used. It was empirically proved that perceived home environment and parenting mode had significant main and interactive effect on Mental Health in primary school children of single-parent and dual-rarent families at 0.01 level of confidence. It was also ascertained that Perceived Home Environment and Parenting Mode were significantly positively correlated with mental health in primary school children of single-parent and dual-parent families at 0.01 level of confidence.