The Effect of a Creative Teaching Program on Elementary Students’ Menstrual Knowledge, Attitude, Self-efficacy, and Male Students’ Menstrual Caring Behaviors
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chang, Yu-Ting
Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a creative teaching program on menstrual knowledge, menstrual attitude, female students’ menstrual health care self-efficacy, male students’ menstrual caring behaviors’ self-efficacy, and male students’ menstrual caring behaviors of 5th grade elementary students.
Background: Menstruation is the hallmark maturation event in the female transition from childhood into adulthood. It has also been identified as a process related to familiarization with the female body, establishing self-esteem, and female role identification. According to the literature, negative aspects of menarche/menstruation include: elementary school students often lack accurate menstrual knowledge, boys in school make jokes about menstruation or menstrual sanitation products, menstrual sanitary products not properly disposed of, and girls often have menstrual blood seepage. However, little has been done to design a menstrual teaching program addressing these specific issues.
Design: A quasi-experimental research design was used. During the week before the intervention began, one week and six months after the intervention, experimental group and control group completed pretest, posttest, and post-posttest.
Methods: A total of 313 5th grade students from 4 elementary schools in Taiwan’s Hualien Country participated in this study. The four schools were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The experimental group received a 4-week researcher-developed creative teaching program administered in 40-minute-session classes each week. The control group received the 3-week traditional classroom instruction. The questionnaire used in the study consisted of six sections: personal information, a menstrual knowledge questionnaire, a menstrual attitude questionnaire, a female students’ menstrual health care self-efficacy questionnaire, a male students’ menstrual caring behaviors self-efficacy questionnaire, and a male students’ menstrual caring behaviors questionnaire. Program evaluation included a creative teaching program satisfaction survey and focus group discussions. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance and repeated measure analysis of variance.
Results: More than forty percent of the participants reported that they never discussed menstrual-related issues with their parents. Nearly one third indicated that they heard menstrual related jokes from their classmates. Program’s evaluation showed that the mean score for the creative teaching program students’ satisfaction was high. The following three dominant themes were identified in comments among the participants in the focus group discussions: I learned from the class, the class was fun, and the homework was embarrassed. Findings showed that the effect of the experimental treatment was significant when students’ pretest scores were controlled. One week after the intervention, the experimental group’s scores were higher than those of the control group in: menstrual knowledge, menstrual attitude of those whose pretest scores were low, female students’ menstrual health care self-efficacy, male students’ menstrual caring behaviors self-efficacy, and male students’ menstrual caring behaviors. Six months after the intervention, the experimental group’s scores were higher than those of control group in: menstrual knowledge whose pretest correct answer rate was low, menstrual attitude whose pretest score was low, and female students’ menstrual health care self-efficacy.
Conclusions: School is an influential environment for most elementary school aged students. In particular, the environment significantly influences female elementary students’ menstrual attitude and menstrual related behaviors. A creative teaching program significantly improves students’ menstrual knowledge, promotes a positive menstrual attitude for those whose attitudes were negative, and increases female students’ menstrual health care self-efficacy, male students’ menstrual caring behaviors self-efficacy, and male students’ menstrual caring behaviors. Study results suggest that our creative teaching program can be applied in other elementary schools as a benefit to menstrual instruction. Additional studies should examine the efficacy of our creative teaching program when employed by elementary school teachers.
Subjects
menstrual education
creative teaching
elementary students
caring behaviors
Type
thesis
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