ABSTRACT
Introduction: the attitude of parents is an important factor for the prevention, control and treatment of psychological disorders. Despite Western countries, in developing countries, few studies have been done on people knowledge and attitude about mental disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the attitude of parents towards children mental disorder
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted in child psychiatry clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences during 2013. The parents of children [n=400] who referred to the psychiatric clinics were recruited for the study by the convenience sampling method. Data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics
Results: Among the total study sample, 93.7% of parents had a totally appropriate attitude towards children's mental disorder. The results of ANOVA showed that the attitude of parents toward mental disorder had a statistically significant relationship with parent education level [P<0.001] and their familial status [P<0.006]
Conclusion: This study showed that the parents of children referred to the psychiatric clinic have a totally appropriate attitude towards the mental disorder of their children. Logically, having totally appropriate attitude can empower family members to overcome different challenges with the child mental disorder. Such attitude can facilitate the process of disorder management from the step of early diagnosis of any psychological disorder to the treatment adherence