The Impacts of "Immune of Life for Teen" Module Application on Coping Behavior and Mental Health of Early Adolescents

Rutja Phuphaibul
Rujires Thanooruk
Yuwadee Leucha
Yupapin Siropo-ngam
Chantima Kanobdee
Thailand

The project is the part of Health Promotion for Early Adolescents project funded by the World Health Organization. The objectives were :a) to disseminate the "Immune of Life for Teens: THE WORLD OF KEDD" a participatory learning module to teachers , and b) to evaluate the impact of the project on the adolescents' health behaviors related to coping orientation to problem experience .The schoolteachers from 13 schools participated in the module training as they would use the module in their schools. They were divided into 2 groups - The experimental I group (6 schools) was those with intensive training for the application of the module with demonstration in classroom.The experimental II group (7 schools) was those without intensive, but a brief introduction to the application of the module. The control group included those without application of the module (3 schools). The population of the study was students in secondary schools grades 7th-9th in private and governmental schools nationwide. The total number of the students in the study was 1,580. There were 441 students in the control group, 474 students in the experimental I group, and 661 students in the experimental II group.

Instruments used for impacts evaluation were: 1) Young Adult Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (YA-COPE) developed by Patterson, McCubbin, and Grochowski (1983), 2) The Thai Mental Health Questionnaire (TMHQ) was a 70-item self-administered questionnaire developed by Pattrayutwat (1999) to assess mental health status. Participatory learning process was used in the module to involve students in discussion of the "World of Kedd" depicted in the V.D.O. Each episode was followed by 4-6 key questions that permitted the students to critically analyze the situation and ways to handle the situation differently.

At the end, the "Say no" skill development was introduced with role playing method among the students. Peer discussion was motivated in order to enhance each individual experience. As the teachers conducted the classes, the researchers were invited to observe some of the classes in order to view the actual interaction among the teachers and the students. The findings revealed that at 1 month after the module implementation both experimental I and II groups had better coping behaviors than the control group when using pretest scores as covariate (F=9.425, p<0.01 and F=22.446, p<0.001). The study also shows that at 1 month after the module implementation both experimental I and II groups had better mental health than the control group when using pretest scores as covariate (F=6.034, p<0.05 and F= 6.596, p<0.001). When comparing the coping scores as well as mental health scores of both experimental I and II groups between 1 month and 6 months after the implementation for the long-lasting effects of the module implementation by using Paired t-test. It was found that both coping and mental health scores did not change over the 5-month period (p>0.05), except the experimental I group which showed better mental health conditions than the experimental II group after 6 months (Paired t =2.965, p< 0.05).