Adolescents and reproductive health: Promoting healthy habits for reproductive well-being

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period of human development in which physical, psychosocial, cognitive, and emotional aspects develop rapidly, especially the reproductive system. Adolescents must be prepared to face reproductive maturation, so they need some information that can solve the changing of their body. Health education about reproductive health is very important to do as an effort to increase knowledge in dealing with puberty.  The reproductive health education program for adolescence in facing puberty is one solution that can be done to increase student’s knowledge about reproductive health. This activity aims to increase adolescence knowledge about reproductive health system in adolescence. The community service program was completed by providing health education to 38 students in Banyuurip elementary school, Yogyakarta using games, giving materials, and conducting disscussions.

Activities were evaluated by using pretest and post-test scores. There was a significant difference in the participants’ knowledge level before and after the reproductive health education. Previously, 52% of participants were in the less category, 42% of them was in sufficient category, and only 5% was in good category. After the reproductive health education was carried out, most of the students had good knowledge at 71%, 29% had sufficient knowledge, and no students had insufficient knowledge. In conclusion, reproductive health education is proven to be able to increase students' knowledge in dealing with puberty and care for reproductive organs.

Keywords: Early adolescent, health education, reproductive health