Knowledge Of Puberty Research Articles

Sexual and reproductive health knowledge among adolescent Syrian refugee girls displaced in Lebanon: The role of schooling and parental communication.

Adolescent Syrian refugee girls living in Lebanon are vulnerable to poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Sociocultural norms, stigmatization, and limited educational opportunities in the context of forced displacement may impact adolescent girls' SRH. Little is known about how and where girls in this population access SRH information and services. This study aimed to: (1) assess knowledge of SRH topics among a population of adolescent Syrian refugee girls displaced in Lebanon, and (2) determine the association of schooling versus maternal SRH communication with SRH knowledge. A total of 418 11-17-year-old Syrian refugee girls displaced in the Beqaa region of Lebanon were recruited to participate in a cross-sectional survey. Bivariate logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression models were used to examine the associations between schooling, maternal SRH communication, and other covariates with SRH knowledge outcomes. Significant predictors (p<0.2) were included in multivariate analyses. The mean age of girls was 13.4 years. Approximately two thirds of our sample was enrolled in school, with enrollment rates dropping considerably around age 15. In bivariate and multivariate models, older age and participation in SRH programs were predictive of puberty knowledge. One in five girls enrolled in school had learned about menstruation in school, which was associated with higher puberty knowledge in bivariate models. Older age, current school enrollment, and reaching the 8th-11th grade were strongly associated with HIV knowledge. Schooling is more strongly associated with SRH knowledge among adolescent girls than is maternal communication. School-based SRH curricula should be administered on the basis of age and not grade, given significant age-for-grade heterogeneity in this population. Forced displacement and poverty are major barriers to education retention and may have long-term impacts on girls' health.

Biosocial correlates of adolescent's knowledge on pubertal changes in rural Bangladesh: A structural equation model.

The present study aimed to identify factors that are associated with puberty knowledge among school-going rural adolescents in Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2724 school-going (grades VI-IX) adolescents who were aged between 10-24 years. The adolescents resided only in rural areas of Bangladesh. In this study, relationship between socio-demographic factors and controlling behaviour was assessed considering Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model. Considering the complex nature of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model the structural equation model to explore factors related to the Adolescents' knowledge of pubertal changes. The structural equation model result showed a significant association among gender, education, age, and parental limit setting on daily activities with student's knowledge on pubertal changes. peer connection, and peer regulation were associated with adolescent knowledge on puberty directly as well as through the mediator variables year of schooling, academic performance and, parental behavioural control. Adolescents Age, years of schooling, and teachers concerns are positively associated with adolescents' knowledge on puberty. Whereas, parents' and peers' controlling behaviors are negatively associated with adolescents' understanding of pubertal changes. Therefore, there is needed an effective plan to raise the attention of parents and teachers on adolescents' pubertal issues to ensure adolescents' informed pubertal period.

IMPROVING PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE OF PUBERTY THROUGH CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING METHOD

The Indonesian adolescents’ knowledge on the subject of puberty is very limited according to a national data survey. This is the reason this study aims to increase knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of healthy living during the puberty phase through the contextual teaching and learning (CTL) method of classroom action research with cyclical procedures. The participants were 20 students and a teacher of fifth-year at the elementary school; meanwhile, the object was knowledge about puberty, collected through test questions and observations. The data analysis technique was conducted in a quantitative and qualitative descriptive manner, and the result showed that the method used was able to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and healthy living behavior of fifth-grade students in SDIT Mutiara Insan. This is evident in the pre-cycle with a percentage of 5.3%, which further increased to 15.8% in the first cycle, while in the second cycle, it increased to 94.7%.

Effect of a health education program on puberty knowledge among visually impaired female adolescent students.

Background: One of the most important aspects of life is reproductive health, which receives less attention in public policy considerations because of its sociopolitical sensitivities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a designed health education program on knowledge about puberty health among visually impaired female adolescent students during 2011 and 2015. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 100 visually impaired female students aged 10 to 19 years. Data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling method from Narjes educational center in Tehran. The educational needs assessments survey was used to learn about important issues and problems faced by this group to design effective educational programs. The effectiveness of the designed program was assessed by comparing the students' knowledge at the baseline and at 1-month follow-up. Data were analyzed in SPSS V.21 by using parametric descriptive statistics. The significant level was set as p<0.05 Results: The results showed that the puberty knowledge of participants was increased in all educational domains after intervention compared to the baseline (p<0.05). The knowledge about the onset of puberty changes showed the highest increase (from 2.02 at baseline to 7.51 at follow-up) and the knowledge about personal hygiene had the least change after the intervention (from 6.67 to 8.23). The majority of students did not have any information resources regarding puberty health, and about one quarter of them reported their mother as the main resource of puberty information. Conclusion: Providing educational programs during puberty has a crucial role in young girls’ knowledge increase. Providing a continuous health educational program that is tailored to the needs of this group of students using suitable strategies is recommended.

Effect of a health education program on puberty knowledge among visually impaired female adolescent students

Effect of a health education program on puberty knowledge among visually impaired female adolescent students

The Effect of Motivational Interview on Puberty Knowledge and Practice among Adolescent Girls

Background: Adolescence is a critical stage of life with a significant role in reproduction and fertility. Interventions are needed to promote the health of adolescent girls as prospective mothers. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of motivational interviewing on adolescent girls' puberty knowledge and practice. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2018 on 240 eighth-grade female students recruited through multistage sampling from ten high schools in Shahroud, Iran. Schools were allocated into an intervention group and a control group through simple randomization. Participants in the intervention group received a five-session puberty-related motivational interviewing intervention. Puberty knowledge and practice in both groups were assessed before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention. Data were analyzed through the Chi-square and the independent-samples t-tests and the repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: Participants' age was 14.47 ± 0.51 years, on average. About 70% of them had poor or moderate puberty knowledge. Although there was no statistically significant between-group difference respecting the mean scores of puberty knowledge and practice at pretest (P > 0.05), the mean scores of puberty knowledge and practice in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group at both posttests (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Motivational interviewing is effective in improving adolescent girls' puberty knowledge and practice.

Awareness, attitude, and acceptance of teenage girls toward going to gynecology clinic

Background: Adolescence is the teenage phase; this period involves a transition and development from childhood to adulthood. Puberty in girls occurs earlier than males; females in the puberty phase experience various changes, including the menstrual cycle. Some abnormalities may occur during puberty, such as menstrual bleeding abnormalities, urogenital dysfunction, and inflammatory process, requiring consulting a gynecologist. This study was aimed to assess the awareness, attitude, and acceptance of teenage girls toward visiting the gynecological clinic. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study performed using a non-probability sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed online. All statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 22. Results: This study included 512 teenage females; the large majority was Saudi, 97.3%, and the mean ± SD age of all participants was 16.25 ± 1.6. The primary source of information about puberty was friends, and the most significant proportion of females, 34.2%, reported the first period at 12 years of age. There were 80.3% who knew about puberty; the knowledge of puberty among females was significantly influenced by age (p = 0.0001), education of the mothers (p = 0.01), income (p = 0.04), and source of information about puberty (p = 0.01). Only 19.5% reported visiting gynecology clinics before; each age, level of education of the mother and the father significantly affected the visiting of females (p = 0.009, 0.04, 0.02) respectively. Conclusion: This study revealed that teenage girls have good knowledge about puberty; the primary source of information was friends. The teenage girls have a positive attitude to visit the gynecologists, and they were aware of the necessity of the services provided by the gynecologist.

Improving students' knowledge of puberty and menstruation in rural Zimbabwe: an evaluation of Sesame Workshop's Girl Talk program

Abstract The Girl Talk initiative, a collaboration of Sesame Workshop, World Vision International and World Vision Zimbabwe, is an innovative project to address gaps in pubertal health and menstrual hygiene education among pre-adolescent and adolescent girls and boys in rural Zimbabwe. Girl Talk uses short animated videos, with accompanying print materials, that use stories about a Zimbabwean school girl, Didi, and her female and male friends growing up and helping each other deal with the challenges they face as they enter puberty. Girl Talk materials are all in the local language, Shona, and are designed to foster conversations among the students and teachers about the experiences of puberty and menstruation that are based on science. The Education Development Center (EDC) and the Zimbabwean firm, NGO Consultancy Africa, were contracted by Sesame Workshop to evaluate Girl Talk. Using a quasi-experimental control-group design with repeated measures to assess the impact of Girl Talk on participating students, the research found a significant impact on participating students’ knowledge about puberty and menstruation compared with the control sample.

Knowledge of peri-menarcheal changes and a comparative analysis of the age at menarche among young adolescent school girls in urban and rural Cameroon

BackgroundMenarche is an expected event that occurs during the development of every normal young girl. We designed this study to evaluate the knowledge of young school girls on puberty, menarche, and menstruation, and to update data on the age at menarche in a rural and urban setting in Cameroon.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey from February to March 2017, targeting female students aged 9 to 16 years in Yaoundé (urban) and Bamougoum (rural). Participants were included using a randomised cluster sampling and data collected using an auto-administrable questionnaire. Student t-test or the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare means, and the odds ratio used as the measure of association between age at menarche and selected covariates.Results1157 participants were included in the study; 49.3% from an urban setting and 50.7% from a rural setting. Regarding the knowledge of our participants on puberty, menarche, and menstruation, 67.20% of rural participants had good knowledge, whereas only 46.00% had good knowledge in the urban setting. Mean age at menarche was 12.76 ± 1.33 years, with the mean age at menarche in the urban setting of 12.48 ± 1.12 years and the rural setting of 13.03 ± 1.46 years. Mean age at menarche was significantly lower in participants aged below 14 years (p-value = 0.000), those with both parents alive (p-value = 0.0461), those whose fathers had skilled occupations (p-value = 0.005), those of urban resident (p-value = 0.000), and those who watched TV everyday (p-value = 0.030). Urban residence and age below 14 years were significantly associated with an earlier onset of menarche.ConclusionRural participants had better knowledge of puberty, menarche, and the menstrual cycle than their counterparts in the urban setting. The mean age at menarche over the last two decades has dropped by 7.4 and 4.2 months per decade in urban and rural Cameroon respectively. Mean age at menarche varies significantly with age group, urban/rural residence, state of both parents (both alive/at least one dead), occupation of the father, and frequency of watching TV. Age and urban/rural residence are associated with age at onset of menarche. The continually declining age at menarche is an alarm for future early menarche-linked morbidities.

Puberty Knowledge and Communication among Adolescent Sexual Offenders in Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Rape against women, as one of sexual assaults now has been became a serius issue throughout the world in social and public health. It is a gross violation of women’s human rights, which can not be accepted from any perspectives. In the latest cases, the perpetrators of rape are conducted by adolescent or minor. These often occur and develop massively in many countries without any serious recovery on the victims. As a result, the rape assault has a profound impact on the victim personally and socially as well.Purpose: This article presents the study of the young sexual offenders’ knowledge on puberty and their sexual communication.Method: This research was qualitative toward 28 sexual perpetrators, all informants are undergoing sentences in Correctional Institutions of Bengkulu province, Indonesia. The informants were all child convicts, (aged less than 18 years) at four correctional institutions in Bengkulu province. All informants were male and aged between 16-18 years. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with informants based on interview guidelines.Results of the study: The perpetrators of sexual assault were middle adolescents who were in-between 16 to 18 years. Based on the results of analysis, it was found that there were ineffective sexual communication patterns among perpetrators, both informants, communication parents, friends, teachers and couples. Moreover, this study found inadequate puberty knowledge among sexual offenders.Research limitations: This article only describes sexual communication and knowledge on puberty, while other individual factors and social aspects are not discussed at all in this article.Originality: Based on the various results of previous studies, there are no researches have been found that specifically examines the behavior of sexual violence by minors in Bengkulu province.

Development of a Questionnaire and Guideline to Find Out the Knowledge of Adolescent Girls Regarding Reproductive Health

Introduction: The adolescent population is the future of every country. Therefore, adolescent girls should be aware about the changes during puberty, menstruation and other reproductive health knowledge that help them in maintaining and promoting their health and can prevent many problems raised out of insufficient knowledge. To check the effectiveness of reproductive health education program for adolescent school going girls, it is necessary to develop the tool. The questionnaire was focused on the knowledge of puberty and its changes, menstruation and menstrual hygiene, knowledge on HIV and AIDS, nutrition of adolescent girls, worms’ infestation, pregnancy and childbirth. Objectives: There were following objectives for the development of tool. (1) To develop the questionnaire for changes during puberty among girls. (2) To develop questionnaire on menstrual hygiene and its practice. (3) To develop questionnaire on knowledge of reproductive health among adolescents girls. The tools was prepared to assess the existing knowledge and practice of adolescent girls about reproductive health and after reproductive health education how far target population gained the knowledge and improve the practice. Methods: The tool was developed in following manner generation of the items, selection of items, pooling of items, item analysis, re-selection of items and final version of tool. Content validity and linguistic validity was established. Results: Reliability of questionnaire was calculated by CA ( Cronbach’s Alpha) and value is 0.69 which shows questionnaire or tool was accepted and reliable for the target population. Conclusion: The questionnaire was effective to evaluate the effectiveness of reproductive health education among adolescent girls.

The onset of puberty in indigenous male Thai pigs.

Knowledge of puberty plays an important role in planning livestock breeding. The objective of this study was to evaluate the age of the first sexual behavior and the first fertile sperm production, and the changes of reproductive structures in male Thai indigenous pigs, by using a completely randomized design. Male indigenous piglets were randomly divided into 9 groups; each group of 5 piglets was separately sacrificed at the age of 0 (birth), 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, and 5.5months to collect data from the carcasses. The other 3 male pigs were used to test the reproductive ability by natural insemination. The results showed that the first sexual behavior occurred at 2.6+0.6months of age, and the first appearance of fertile sperm mass in the cauda epididymis was in the 4-month group. The semen quality standard was discovered in the 5-month group, and the success of insemination with a fertile female pig was found to be at 5.1+0.2months. The changes in the overall size of reproductive tract and testes occurred in 3 stages of development: slight changes were observed in the first 2months of age; rapid changes were found from 2 to 4.5months of age; and gradual changes were detected after 4.5months of age. Upon examination of semen quality and impregnation ability, it can be concluded that male Thai indigenous pigs attained puberty at the age of 5months after having manifested sexual behavior for a relatively long period.

Puberty Knowledge and Communication among Adolescent Sexual Offenders in Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

Puberty Knowledge and Communication among Adolescent Sexual Offenders in Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

Health Behaviour of Adolescents

Adolescence is the most crucial stage of human life, and puberty is its beginning. Adolescents during puberty go through several biological and socio-psychological changes. They encounter various healthhazards, risks, and, sometimes, suffer from many physical and mental upsets, disarrays, and problems that shape their health behaviors in the future. This paper focuses on the exploration of health behaviors of high-school-going adolescents and how they adapt to changes occurred during adolescence. In order to elicit their health status and health behaviors, a cross-sectional study comprised of a sample of 160 high-school-going boys and girls aged from 12 to 16 years was conducted in four schools under four unions of four districts in Bangladesh. Significant findings show that high-school-going adolescents gothrough a series of physical, mental, and emotional changes in adolescence. Many have the knowledge and are aware of these changes and contemporaneous health problems, but some are not and get fears.While their health behaviors depend on how they perceive their health and whom they share with and receive suggestions. In most cases, girls first inform their mother or sisters or grannies; boys inform theirfriends and peer groups but share a little to their parents and seniors in the family. In both cases, they tend to hide their problems and seldom seeks healthcare from qualified healers. This study concludes that measures like health education and knowledge of puberty should exactly be provided to help them grow up smoothly throughout their future life.

Chronological Age and Puberty Coping Strategy Among Iranian Adolescent Females

Background: The speed and magnitude of physical, mental, social, and emotional changes during adolescence result in stress. Improper coping strategies toward stress have a negative impact on the mental health of adolescents that may continue to their adulthood. Objectives : The present study aimed at investigating puberty coping strategies, puberty knowledge, and attitude of early and late adolescent females living in Karaj, Iran. Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study conducted on 513 female high school students using the multi-stage random sampling method. The Persian form of Endler and Parker coping inventory for stressful situations, the scale for the assessment of knowledge and attitudes of adolescent females towards puberty, and socio-demographic questionnaire were used to gather data. The SPSS v21 and Chi-square, Kruskal Wallis, and Spearman were used to analyze data at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The average age of participants was 15.40 (± 1.52).Results showed that avoidance was the dominant puberty coping strategy and the least frequent was related to the problem-focused strategy. A significant difference was observed between the frequency of coping strategies (P = 0.001), knowledge status (P ≤ 0.001) and attitude (P = 0.005) towards puberty, and source of information for puberty (P ≤ 0.001) was shown between two age groups of 15 years and under and above 15. Conclusions: The findings of this study showed the significance of educating teen females about physical and psychological changes during puberty. It seems that health educators and health practitioners could help young females cope with puberty through training proper coping strategies. Parents should also be educated to be supportive and should be able to consider puberty as a stressful situation and help adolescents with proper coping.

Committee Opinion No. 668: Menstrual Manipulation for Adolescents With Physical and Developmental Disabilities.

For an adolescent with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or both, and for her caregivers, menstruation can present significant challenges. If, after an evaluation, the adolescent, her family, and the obstetrician-gynecologist have decided that menstrual intervention is warranted, advantages and disadvantages of hormonal methods should be reviewed and individualized to each patient's specific needs. Complete amenorrhea may be difficult to achieve, and realistic expectations should be addressed with the patient and her caregivers. The goal in menstrual manipulation should be optimal suppression, which means a reduction in the amount and total days of menstrual flow. Menstrual suppression before menarche and endometrial ablation are not recommended as treatments. Optimal gynecologic health care for adolescents with disabilities is comprehensive; maintains confidentiality; is an act of dignity and respect toward the patient; maximizes the patient's autonomy; avoids harm; and assesses and addresses the patient's knowledge of puberty, menstruation, sexuality, safety, and consent.

Committee Opinion No. 668 Summary: Menstrual Manipulation for Adolescents With Physical and Developmental Disabilities.

For an adolescent with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or both, and for her caregivers, menstruation can present significant challenges. If, after an evaluation, the adolescent, her family, and the obstetrician-gynecologist have decided that menstrual intervention is warranted, advantages and disadvantages of hormonal methods should be reviewed and individualized to each patient's specific needs. Complete amenorrhea may be difficult to achieve, and realistic expectations should be addressed with the patient and her caregivers. The goal in menstrual manipulation should be optimal suppression, which means a reduction in the amount and total days of menstrual flow. Menstrual suppression before menarche and endometrial ablation are not recommended as treatments. Optimal gynecologic health care for adolescents with disabilities is comprehensive; maintains confidentiality; is an act of dignity and respect toward the patient; maximizes the patient's autonomy; avoids harm; and assesses and addresses the patient's knowledge of puberty, menstruation, sexuality, safety, and consent.

Knowledge of puberty, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual behavior among very young female adolescent students′ 10-14 years in Agbor Metropolis, Nigeria

Background: Adolescence marks the beginning of transition between childhood and adulthood. However, inadequate knowledge about this transition remains a challenge among this group. Objective: This study was therefore designed to investigate the knowledge of puberty, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and sexual behavior among very young female adolescent students aged 10-14 years in Agbor metropolis, Nigeria. Methods: A qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among female adolescent students (10-14 years). The discussants were grouped into ages 10-12 years and 13-14 years. A total of four focus group discussions were conducted among the two groups in two government secondary schools in the study area, while a semi-structured questionnaire which comprised sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of puberty, STIs, and sexual behavior was used to collect the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically for themes and content, while the quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS Version 15.0. Results: The result shows most of the respondents 96 (97.0%) have heard of puberty and were able to define puberty 82 (85.40%). Furthermore, majority of the respondents have heard of the word human immunodeficiency virus 95 (96.0%) and STI 60 (60.6%), but few 4 (4.0%) have heard of the word contraceptive. In addition, only 12 (12.10%) of the respondents have a boyfriend, out of which only 3 (3.0%) have had sex at the age of 9 and 11 years, respectively. Conclusions: The results shows some of the respondents are already sexually active at that young age, therefore more intervention programs targeting these group of students should be carried out regularly in schools nationwide.

The experience of puberty in adolescent boys: an Iranian perspective

The process of puberty is a normal physiological event for adolescents. Studies show that there is not enough knowledge about boys' puberty experiences. In spite of physiological similarities of puberty characteristics in different societies, social, cultural and religious factors have an important influence on puberty process. To begin to explore the experiences of adolescents and parents about puberty within the Iranian cultural context. Qualitative research was adopted using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out with 16 adolescent boys (13-17 years old) and 12 parents. All studies were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The analysis of the transcripts showed four main themes including shame and embarrassment, anxiety, transition, puberty orientation and management. Development of knowledge about puberty issues is important; additionally meeting health and educational needs of this transient period is one of the main priorities of the healthcare system and society. Knowledge of puberty is important for nurses and counsellors who work with adolescents for planning primary prevention programmes related to sexual health education and adolescent mental health. Boy's embarrassment about describing puberty changes was a hindrance to their full engagement in the interviews; therefore in some situations the interviews were not as deep as was wished. This limitation is related to the subject itself, not the method used for data gathering.

4: Improving young adolescents’ puberty knowledge: A randomized controlled trial

The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of an online animated program for 6th graders, called “Trouble on the Tightrope: In Search of Skateboard Sam” (TOT), intended to teach young adolescents about their changing bodies.