Female adolescents’ perspective about reproductive health education needs: a mixed methods study with explanatory sequential design
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Zohreh Shahhosseini
Abstract
Background: One of the most important and basic needs of adolescent girls is reproductive health services and education, which is different from that required by adults.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine reproductive health education needs from the perspective of adolescent girls living in urban and rural areas, as well as to explore adolescents’ understanding of reproductive health needs.
Subjects: The first phase was a cross-sectional study conducted on 1274 female adolescents. In the second phase, 77 girls in the form of 11 groups participated in focused group discussions.
Methods: This sequential explanatory mixed methods study using follow-up variants was conducted in two phases. Questionnaires, including items on socio-demographic characteristics and reproductive health needs from adolescents’ perspectives, were completed using the self-administered method.
Results: The quantitative results of the study revealed city and village girls’ perspectives on reproductive health education needs. These results showed that village adolescents were nearly 1.5–2 times more in favor of a same sex counselor, reproductive health group education, and the need for sexual health education than city adolescents. A review of the transcripts of the qualitative phase led to the extraction of two themes including the characteristics of the reproductive health educator and priorities of reproductive health education, which explains the adolescent girls’ understanding of reproductive health education needs.
Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm the importance of determining reproductive health education needs from the perspective of adolescent girls. The present study shows how a sequential mixed design can be used for a better understanding of reproductive health needs of adolescent girls. The results of this study can be used in health research, education, policy making, and planning associated with adolescent health.
Acknowledgments
This project is funded and supported by the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- 10.1515/ijamh-2015-frontmatter1
- Editorial
- Pregnant, even when you did not want to be pregnant
- Original articles
- How adolescents learn about risk perception and behavior in regards to alcohol use in light of social learning theory: a qualitative study in Bogotá, Colombia
- An assessment of basic nutrition knowledge of adolescents with eating disorders and their parents
- More than a break: the impact of a social-pedagogical intervention during young persons’ long-term hospital admission – a qualitative study
- Effect of external classroom noise on schoolchildren’s reading and mathematics performance: correlation of noise levels and gender
- Physical self-esteem – a ten-year follow-up study from early adolescence to early adulthood
- Street hawking among in-school adolescents in a south-western town in Nigeria: pattern, determinants and effects on school performance
- Outcome of adolescents with eating disorders from an adolescent medicine service at a large children’s hospital
- Female adolescents’ perspective about reproductive health education needs: a mixed methods study with explanatory sequential design
- Study of menstrual patterns in adolescent girls with disabilities in a residential institution
- Characteristics of hand sanitizer ingestions by adolescents reported to poison centers
- Health care providers and adolescents’ perspectives towards adolescents’ health education needs: a need assessment based on comparative approach
- Determinants of abortion decisions among Ghanaian university students
- Predictors of peer victimization among Peruvian adolescents in the young lives cohort
- Risk of eating disorders among university students in Bangladesh
- Short Communication
- Nutrition and physical activity during the transition from adolescence to adulthood: further research is warranted
- Letter
- Losing lives to the peril of ragging
