'A New You, That’s Who': an evaluation of short videos on puberty and human reproduction

Abstract

Learning basic information about puberty and human reproduction can alleviate concerns about the transition to adolescence and provide a foundation for later learning about more advanced reproductive health topics, such as family planning. Parents and children alike believe educational videos make these topics more engaging, and socio-cultural theory suggests such videos can effectively promote learning. To that end, we tested the efficacy of a series of reproductive health education videos called 'A New You, That's Who', with a sample of 80 11-year-old children in a research laboratory setting. The series was designed with socio-cultural theory learning principles in mind and consisted of three 5-min animated music videos focused on puberty, reproductive anatomy, and menstruation. Children were randomly assigned to watch the 'A New You, That's Who' videos or a control set of videos on the scientific method. Children who watched the treatment videos out-performed peers in the control group on a measure reproductive health knowledge. However, there were no differences in attitudes towards puberty between conditions. The videos provide effective ways to learn factual information about puberty and human reproduction, and may be valuable tools to supplement social-emotional lessons provided at home, at school, or in other real-world settings.

Systematic review of educational interventions to improve the menstrual health of young adolescent girls

“… 47 The only intervention that did not find a significant difference in attitude pretest and post-test involved puberty education videos shown to early adolescent boys and girls. 38 …”

“…Of the studies, two included boys,9 19 38 one included mothers28 30 and two focused on intellectually disabled adolescent girls 39 40. The number of study participants varied from 1 to 2564.…”

“…Five were researcher led,30 40 45–47 five were led by teachers,19 48–51 two used peer educators8 42 and the others did not make it clear. A wide range of intensity and duration models were used, ranging from three 5 min videos in the space of one afternoon38 to 1 hour per day for 4 months 41. Only two embedded menstrual education into the school curriculum 50 51…”

Primary School Student Online Video Competition Model to Improve Six Steps Handwashing Ability to Prevent Upper Tract Infection

“…Video 'Brain Breaks' in diabetes patients became an effective intervention to motivate patients to increase their physical activity from two groups: the intervention and control groups, which showed significant differences after the intervention [23]. Research on the Effectiveness of the video "A New You, That Who," namely adolescent health education videos about puberty, menstruation, and reproductive anatomy, is a useful free tool in providing essential knowledge to adolescents about reproductive health [24].…”

The Misconception of Teachers’ and Students’ Knowledge Regarding Puberty in Higher Elementary Education

“…The teacher does not use pictures or videos to explain because they are considered vulgar. On the contrary, research shows the effectiveness of video as puberty education media, with the requirement of mentoring teachers or parents [14].…”