The Effect of Motivational Interview on Puberty Knowledge and Practice among Adolescent Girls

Background: Adolescence is a critical stage of life with a significant role in reproduction and fertility. Interventions are needed to promote the health of adolescent girls as prospective mothers. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of motivational interviewing on adolescent girls’ puberty knowledge and practice. Methods: This quasi‑experimental study was conducted in 2018 on 240 eighth‑grade female students recruited through multistage sampling from ten high schools in Shahroud, Iran. Schools were allocated into an intervention group and a control group through simple randomization. Participants in the intervention group received a five‑session puberty‑related motivational interviewing intervention. Puberty knowledge and practice in both groups were assessed before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention. Data were analyzed through the Chi‑square and the independent‑samples t‑tests and the repeated‑measures analysis of variance. Results: Participants’ age was 14.47 ± 0.51 years, on average. About 70% of them had poor or moderate puberty knowledge. Although there was no statistically significant between‑group difference respecting the mean scores of puberty knowledge and practice at pretest (P > 0.05), the mean scores of puberty knowledge and practice in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group at both posttests (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Motivational interviewing is effective in improving adolescent girls’ puberty knowledge and practice.