Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Hazards of Teenage Pregnancy in Adolescent Girls

Teenage pregnancy is an important health issue with youngest mothers facing higher risk of maternal complications, death and disability along with their children. It is also an issue of human rights with adolescent pregnancy often resulting in an abrupt end of childhood, a curtailed education and lost opportunities. Teenage pregnancy is associated with maternal perinatal morbidity and mortality. There is an increase in need for creating awareness among the teenage girls regarding hazards of teenage pregnancy. In view of this pre experimental study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on hazards of teenage pregnancy in selected junior college , Tirupati, India. The pre test data was collected from50 teenage girls by self administered pretested questionnaire . structured teaching was imparted and post test data was collected after one week. Findings revealed that adolescents(66%) are receiving information from mass media,28 % stated teachers have given knowledge about teenage pregnancy. Students have not received any information about teenage pregnancy from parents and health team members. Awareness on hazards of teenage pregnancy is inadequate ( Pretest mean knowledge is 16.98),which was improved after imparting education(post test knowledge 57.84). which is significant at 0.01 level( The paired t value - 23.37 ). The result suggested that imparting the structured teaching programme to teenage girls could enlighten their knowledge on hazards of teenage pregnancy that may result in best practices such as delay in early marriage and pregnancy. Therefore Nursing personnel can organize counseling and educational sessions at colleges to prevent teenage pregnancies.