The Assessment of Knowledge, Beliefs and Practices of Adolescent Girls and the Effect of a Structured Teaching Programme in Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Menstruation, Pregnancy and Sexual Behaviour in Selected Areas of Pediatric Wards, the Out Patient Department and Medicine OPD of Christian Medi

Background: Adolescence is characterized by rapid biological and psychological changes. About one-fifth (22- 23%) of world population is adolescent. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured teaching programme in knowledge and beliefs regarding menstruation, pregnancy and sexual behavior among adolescents and to find association of structured teaching programme with demographic variables.

Materials and Methods: An experimental research design with two group pretest posttest design was used with the sample sizes of 62 using simple random technique of which 31 were assigned to control group and 31 to experimental group. Structured questionnaire was administered to evaluate adolescents knowledge, Beliefs and effectiveness of structured teaching programme.

Results: Majority of (92%) adolescent girls had attained menarche between 10 - 13 years. During pretest, 25(81%) in the experimental group and 27(87%) in the control group had inadequate knowledge regarding menstruation indicating that majority of the subjects in the study did not have detailed knowledge. Not even a single person had adequate knowledge regarding menstruation in both groups. A comparison of knowledge regarding menstruation, pregnancy and sexual behavior in the experimental group before and after the structured teaching programme showed that the knowledge on the above aspects had significantly increased (P<0.001). Girls who had attained menarche between10-13 years had significantly higher knowledge on pregnancy in the pre test than others. The adolescent girls who had come from joint families had higher knowledge regarding sexual behavior than the girls came from nuclear family.

Conclusion: The study was demonstrated that the adolescent girls had inadequate knowledge on reproductive health. The study revealed that Structured Teaching Programme in Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Menstruation, Pregnancy and Sexual Behaviour was effective at increasing knowledge. It is important for a pediatric nurse to educate the adolescent girls regarding reproductive health as part of the "holistic care" in the hospital and community which will bring out the positive outcome on future generations of the world and promote responsible sexual behaviour.