Effectiveness of Video-Assisted Teaching on Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Pubertal Changes among Early Adolescent Girls in Selected Schools of a Selected District

Introduction: Puberty is a period of rapid physical, reproductive, emotional and social change. Early adolescent girls may experience misconceptions, anxiety and unfavorable attitudes when accurate information about pubertal changes is limited. School-based audiovisual education can provide structured and age-appropriate information and may improve preparedness for these changes. Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of video-assisted teaching on knowledge and attitude regarding pubertal changes among early adolescent school girls and to determine associations with selected demographic variables. Methods: A quantitative true experimental two-group pre-test-post-test design was used among 60 early adolescent school girls aged 10-13 years, with 30 participants each in experimental and control groups. Probability simple random sampling was used. Data were collected using a 25-item structured knowledge questionnaire and a 20-item modified 3-point Likert scale for attitude. The experimental group received a 15-20 minute video-assisted teaching programme, and post-test assessment was conducted on the seventh day. Descriptive statistics, paired t-test, two-sample Z-test and Fisher’s exact test were used. Results: In the experimental group, all participants had poor knowledge at pre-test; after video-assisted teaching, 96.7% had good knowledge and 3.3% had average knowledge. Mean knowledge increased from 4.4 ± 1.9 to 21.2 ± 4.4 (t=17.6, df=29, p<0.001). Mean attitude increased from 36.5 ± 4.1 to 47.7 ± 3.2 (t=11.2, df=29, p<0.001), and all experimental-group participants had a positive attitude at post-test. Change scores were significantly greater in the experimental group than in the control group for knowledge (16.8 ± 5.2 vs 1.5 ± 3.9; Z=12.8, p<0.001) and attitude (11.2 ± 5.5 vs -0.4 ± 5.9; Z=7.9, p<0.001). No demographic variable was significantly associated with knowledge; age was significantly associated with attitude (p=0.008). Conclusions: Video-assisted teaching was effective in improving knowledge and attitude regarding pubertal changes among early adolescent school girls. The findings support structured school-based education to prepare girls for normal pubertal changes.