Minimising Reproductive Health Risk Behaviour in Adolescent Girls Efficacy of an Integrated Psychosocial Intervention Model

Abstract

Reproductive health risk behaviour, also known as health impairing behaviour, is perilous newlineduring adolescence because of its impending adverse effect and ramification in adulthood. newlineAs adolescence is a dynamic transitional phase, most adolescents, specifically adolescent newlinegirls, are vulnerable to high reproductive health-risk behaviour affecting their health and newlinewell-being. Though a plethora of research has been conducted on reproductive health of newlineadolescent girls in India, two fundamental questions remained unsolved as to whether newlineknowledge, attitude, and practice of reproductive health behaviour in late adolescent girls newline(16 19 years) played any role in their reproductive health-risk behaviour and psychological newlinewell-being, and to whether an intervention could be developed to enhance their knowledge newlineon reproductive health. Therefore, using cross-sectional design, a survey is conducted newlineinvolving 293 late adolescent girls to answer the first question and a pre-test post-test control newlinegroup design is used involving 60 late adolescent girls to address the second question. newlineDescriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA with post-hoc test, Chi-square test, Multiple newlineregression analysis using stepwise method, Path analysis using structural equation newlinemodelling, and One-way ANCOVA have been computed. Results reveal that the late newlineadolescent girls across three age groups significantly differ in their knowledge, attitude, and newlinepractice of reproductive health behaviour. Adolescent girls belonging to the age group of newline18-19 years are observed to have higher reproductive health risk behaviour. Knowledge of newlinereproductive health behaviour of the participants is observed to play a significant role in newlinetheir psychological well-being. It is also observed that the relationship between knowledge newlineand practice is mediated by attitude. Finally, this study has also found that the developed newlineintegrated psychosocial intervention model has significantly enhanced participants newlineknowledge on reproductive health behaviours. Limitations, future directions, and newlineimplic