Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Reproductive and sexual health challenges of adolescents and their growing needs have so far been neglected in India. We explore opinions of teachers regarding mentoring as a possible way of addressing reproductive and sexual health needs of adolescent students. A longitudinal survey among 376 teachers and 1819 adolescent students in 12 schools of Chandigarh, India, selected by stratified multi-stage random sampling under ICMR sponsored project was done. There were 71(18.9%) teachers of the opinion that mentoring means counseling while 55(14.6%) respondents were of the opinion that mentoring is to motivate the students and handle problem of mentees. Teacher was preferred as mentor by 150(39.8%) respondents. Perceived qualities of mentor included friendly nature (85.4%), motivating (81.6%), and willing to guide (78.5%). There were 335(89.1%) respondents who were willing to have pre mentoring sessions. About 77.0% respondents were found in favor of giving freedom to the students to choose their mentors. About 86.7% respondents were of the opinion that mentoring can be helpful in promotion of adolescent health. Mentoring was acceptable to 73% respondents. Mentoring can offer a huge potential for addressing several Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) needs of adolescents and young youths. It can be successfully implemented as an effective strategy for adolescent health promotion for their Planned Parenthood. Further research in these directions may expand the range of outcomes for which mentoring relationships are indicative of some beneficial effect.