Assess the Knowledge of Primary School Teachers Regarding Behavioral Problems and their Prevention among School Going Children in Selected Government Primary Schools at Bagalkot

Background and Objectives: Teachers play a vital role in promotion of health and prevention of disease. For implementation and efficient monitoring the teachers should posses’ adequate knowledge regarding child psychiatry. It is the responsibility of the teachers to detect the behavioural problem as earliest as possible so that prevention can be initiated. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge of primary school teachers regarding behavioural problems and their prevention among school going children in selected Government primary schools in Bagalkot; with a view to develop an information booklet. Methods Descriptive survey approach was adopted, to collect the data. Self administered structured questionnaire was prepared and administered to 100 primary school teachers between 1-7^th standard based on Simple random sampling technique at Bagalkot. Results: Majority 31% of subjects belongs to the age group of 51-60. 50% of subjects were males. 69% of subjects belong to Hindu religion. 43% of subjects were M.A Graduate and only 14% were M.Com Graduate. Majority 53% of subjects were married. 43% of subject’s child age was less than 6 years and only 15% had child with age group 12years and above. 50% of subject’s had experience below 5 years. 37% of subject’s were teaching languages. 85% of subject’s were not identified any kind of abnormal behavior in children. Majority 42% of subject’s did not attend mental health programme. Majority 84% of subject’s had parent teacher association and only 16% had no parent teacher association. 35% of subject’s had parent teacher association meeting and overall mean knowledge score of the respondents found to be 58.82.

Interpretation and Conclusion: The present study revealed the primary school teachers had considerably moderate knowledge (58.82%) regarding behavioural problems and their prevention among children. The enhancement in knowledge is greatly required on all the aspects of behavioural problems.