Global Journal of Medical Research, K: Interdisciplinary, Volume 22 Issue 3

process of reading, coding, recoding and summarizing into themes manually. Transcripts were repeatedly read to prepare descriptive codes, which consisted of all emerging information with the key ideas and concepts expressed by participants. Descriptive codes with associated text segments were organized to identify common themes reflexively. Credibility was established by the two authors by comparing and verifying the theme construction, arriving int a consensus and by debriefing with a team of experts to provide an external check on the research process (Nowell et al., 2017). Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Ethical Clearance Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka before the commencement of the study. Administrative clearances were obtained from the Ministry of Education, relevant Zonal Directors of Education and school principals. All participants were informed about the nature of the study before the discussions through a description and a written informed consent document and all gave their consent to participate. Participants were advised that their participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw their consent to participate at any time without penalty or explanation. Participants were also informed that confidentially would be maintained by the researchers. III. R esults All parents (117) engaged in FGDs were Sinhalese (100%) while the majority of them were Buddhist (97.4%) Of the sample, many of them were mothers (63.25%) while only 28.2% of the sample represented working mothers. The age range of the parents was 29 - 63 years. Parents' mean age was 51.5 (SD = 5.69). Majority were over 45 years of age (78.63%). The educational level of the group varied from non-attendance to school to a diploma holder. Many of them (35.2%) have been educated up to G.C.E. Ordinary Level. a) Themes Emerged Regarding Experiences in Parental Monitoring among Parents Themes that emerged regarding perception about parental monitoring among parents were the understanding of parental monitoring by parents, expectations of parents about adolescent lives, the role of the sex and perceived factors affecting the amount and the quality of parental monitoring done by parents. i. Understanding of Parental Monitoring by Parents For most parents, parental monitoring was an unintentional act. They were describing their activities making them relevant to parental monitoring but without having the intention of practicing it. One parent stated, "I know almost all the things done by my child, about their tuition classes, where are they going and what they do almost all the time. So, I think it is a part of my day-to- day life activities. I have to get used to that, actually, we ii. Expectations of Parents about Adolescent Lives Perception of parents about parental monitoring was identified into a theme where it describes how they were trying to fulfill their expectations of children or their willingness to make their children succeed in all aspects through parental monitoring practice. Some parents perceived monitoring as a thought of monitoring their child's academic work using different strategies. This fact ensures the statements made by mothers who stated, "I mostly monitor my kid’s educational things. I think as I pay attention more and monitor his work only, he performs well” and “I have given him targets, I am monitoring him whether he is achieving those targets and doing his work properly. ” Few parents were expecting that their adolescent child should know good things and bad things and to know right and wrong. This was evidenced by the following statements made by a few parents. “I can track him to the best if I monitor him well” and "I don't want my child to behave badly which will make him feel embarrassed as well as I, being his mother." i. Role of the Sex of the Adolescent Even though the parental monitoring concept was accepted as one of the important parenting practices by both mothers and fathers, there were differences in the level of responsibility that they thought of and had salient perceptions according to the sex of the parent. A father phrased that, “mothers should know in and out about their child's activities, where they are and with whom they spend time and mothers should 3 Year 2022 Global Journal of Medical Research Volume XXII Issue III Version I ( D ) K © 2022 Global Journals Perception and Experience of Parents on Monitoring their School Going Adolescents– A Qualitative Study Conducted in Kandy District, Sri Lanka iii. just talk about things, about her friends, and about her classes and we share the things we did when we were not together.” There were few parents with reasonable understanding and they intentionally monitor their adolescent child throughout. One mother mentioned, “I'm practicing different ways since my child is a kid, to identify changes and issues with my kid. I am well aware that it is important to monitor my kid at this age period. I also think I know all the things about him. If we do it as a usual thing, we can monitor our kids even with our busy schedules.” However, the majority of participated parents understood monitoring as an important act that makes adolescents prevent involving risky behaviors. A mother stated: “Yes, if we do not look into their day-to- day activities, of course, they will go beyond limits, they will have bad companions.” A father made a statement- making that how sure he was doing things to prevent his son from experiencing risky behaviors, mentioning as, “If we ask and monitor their activities, and all about their friends, I'm sure that they will not face any risks in day to day lives.” Again, he emphasized saying, “I can help him find his friends...I meant to identify good ones." Furthermore, some parents perceived a hierarchy of frequency of different parental monitoring skills and methods which will affect the seriousness of risk behaviors on different levels.