Behaviour Change of Adolescent Girls in Malnutrition Prevention through Social Organization Based Mentoring

Adolescent girls are vulnerable to nutrition related problems, ranging from anemia, chronic energy deficiency, undernutrition and overnutrition. Organizations focused on adolescent girls can be involved through a model of mentoring to prevent nutritional issues among adolescents. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of organization based mentoring on improving knowledge, attitudes and behaviors in preventing malnutrition in adolescent girls. The research design was a quasi experimental pre and post-test with control group. This study involved 196 adolescent girls who were divided into intervention and control groups. Respondents were selected based on specific criteria. The study was conducted for 10 weeks. Data were obtained through structured interviews. The data were analyzed using Independent T-test and paired t-test. The results showed that there was a difference between knowledge, attitude and behavior before and after the intervention between the treatment group and the control group with p < 0.05. There was a significant increase in knowledge, attitude and behavior in the intervention and control groups. Community organization-based mentoring proved to be effective in improving adolescent health. It is necessary to strengthen regulations concerning the role of community organizations, especially adolescents regarding adolescents, by providing structured/systematic assistance and education for vulnerable groups including adolescents.