Effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding pubertal changes among adolescent boys in selected high school of Udupi District

Introduction

Adolescent is a challenging crossroad between childhood and the adulthood. Adolescent is the period between 11 to 19 years. It is considered as vital because of the physical, physiological and psychological changes take place during this period. It is the time that an individual's life when he learns to make choices based on experience, skills and values gathered in this period¹. Due to lack of proper knowledge regarding pubertal changes, adolescent boys may have increased anxiety, excessive worry, fear, nervousness, restlessness, extreme stress and dreams about future which may lead to many complications such as drug abuse, underage and teenage drinking, drunk driving, smoking, rebellious behaviour, peer pressure, bullying, lying, body issues and mental health issues. They may complain of physical symptoms like muscle tension, headache, stomach ache, fatigue and tremor. Proper and timely guidance and information can enable them to enjoy the adolescent period. Adolescent boys have as many as health issues and concerns as adolescent females. Most of the adolescent boys get improper information from peer group and media to address their concerns such as puberty and sexuality. The adolescent girls get knowledge about their physiological changes from their mothers but in case of boys, fathers do not get involved in preparing them². Study conducted in Bagalkot, Karnataka, with the objective to evaluate the awareness regarding puberty changes in adolescent age group reported that only 19.80% of 394 total participants, had correct knowledge regarding secondary sex characteristics during pubertal period ³. As “prevention is better than cure”, it is always better to create an awareness regarding pubertal changes among adolescent boys to prevent many physical, psychological as well as social complication among the adolescent boys and help them to lead a happy and productive life in future.

Material and methods

Pre experimental research method with one group pre-test post-test research design was used for the research study. The population of the study were adolescent boys between the age group of 13 to 15 years. Total 100 participants were selected from selected High school of Udupi District by using purposive sampling. Data were collected from 28^th January 2014 to 4^th February 2014.

The structured knowledge questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants and it was developed by the investigators following an extensive literature review. The prepared tool along with the objectives, blue print and criteria check list were given to five experts from various fields to ensure the content validity. Out of 36 questions, 2 questions were discarded as per the disagreement of three validators and 34 questions were finalized for pretest and reliability.

Reliability of the structured knowledge questionnaire was established by split half method among 10 samples and the tool was found to be reliable (r=0.78)

Written permission was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) and from the principal of concerned school before the data collection and the investigators familiarized themselves with the participants and explained the purpose of the study to them. An informed consent and assent were taken from the parents and participants respectively. After giving necessary instructions to the subjects, the baseline information was collected.

Pre-test knowledge level was assessed from 100 adolescent boys by using Structured Knowledge Questionnaire. Time taken for the Pre-test was 30 minutes. On the same day, after the pre-test, Teaching Programme on Pubertal changes among adolescent boys was conducted to the participants. Post-test was conducted on the 8^th day after the Planned Teaching Programme using the same structured knowledge questionnaire.

Results

Discussion

The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge regarding pubertal changes among adolescent boys, by using a structured knowledge questionnaire. The present study found that among the sample size of 100 adolescent boys, 14% said that they had knowledge regarding puberty and 86% participants said that they did not know about puberty. In the present study, overall knowledge improvement was found after planned teaching programme. A similar study was conducted in Mumbai slum area with the objective to assess the knowledge of adolescent boys regarding physical, emotional and psychological changes occurring during puberty. Among sample size of 256 adolescent boys, 58.98% had some knowledge and 41.02 % participants had no knowledge regarding puberty ⁴.

Conclusion

Pubertal changes among adolescents are an important stage in everybody's life. Adolescents undergo significant physical, emotional and psychological changes during their pubertal development. These changes contribute to their future development. Educating adolescents at an early age about their expected development decreases the possible anxiety which is associated with this period of life and also helps adolescents make better choices with regards to their sexuality². After the administration of planned teaching program, the post-test measures showed that there was an overall gain in knowledge score, and significant increase in knowledge in the areas. Indeed it can be concluded that the planned teaching programme is effective strategy to improve the knowledge of the adolescent boys and it is helpful to include such kind of teaching programs for the boys who are undergoing the pubertal changes. The knowledge regarding pubertal changes is vital to face the physical, physiological and emotional changes during adolescence period among boys and teaching program facilitates to acquire the knowledge among adolescent boys.