Female adolescentshealth needs: the role of family

Adolescents health needs are unique. An understanding of these needs will assist in the development of services, risk-reduction strategies and preventive health activities.

This qualitative study was a part of a mixed method study about female adolescents health needs and conducted in Mazandaran province, a province in the north of Iran.67 female adolescents between 12-19 years of age participated in 8 focus group discussion. Inaddittion, semi structured interviews were done with 11 key informants including: 5 parents, 3 teachers and school counselors, 2 obstetricians and one midwife. Participants were selected based on purposeful sampling and with maximum variety. All tape-recorded data was fully transcribed and thematic analysis was done.

Findngs of this research around the role of family in adolescents health needs emphasized on 4 overarching themes including: supportive family relationships, needs for responsible parents, well-informed parents and parental monitoring.

In attention to the critical role of family relationships in adolescents health needs, Parents education in order to help them to improve their relationships with their adolescents is necessary.