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  Background and Objective : Mental health of adolescents largely depends on family welfare. In secondary school period, most of teenagers’ talents can emerge and at the end of this time, they acquire social skills and independent identity.­ We aimed at evaluating the mental health and its relationship with family welfare in pre-university students in Salmas city.

  Material and Methods : The subjects of this cross-sectional study were 160 pre-university students selected via stratified random sampling, based on gender. We collected the data by standard GHQ-28 and research-made family welfare questionnaires, and analyzed by chi square and logistic regression, using SPSS software.

  Results: Based on the results, 48.9% of girls and 35.7% of boys are suspected to have mental disorder. The percentage of mental disorder among Students whose family welfare are excellent, intermediate and poor is 22.2%, 48.8% and 61.1%, respectively. Using chi square, there is significant relation between variables such as living with parents, maternal education, parental cohabitation, number of family members and all aspects of family welfare and mental health (p<0.05). By performing logistic regression, using Backward method, significant relationship is shown between mental health and variables such as gender, maternal education, parental cohabitation, leisure activities , economic status and family facilities (p<0.05).

  Conclusion: The relationship found between mental health and family welfare is needed to have appropriate policies of government and family, in the form of welfare and leisure activities, to improve adolescents’ well-being.

  Keywords: Mental health, Family welfare, Adolescent, GHQ-28 Questionnaire

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 Background and objective : ­ Adolescence is a significant stage of social and psychosocial development. This particular period of crisis involves some problems, one of the most important ones is the loss of self-esteem . Hence, this study aimed at investigating the effect of group cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy on increasing adolescents' self-esteem .

 Material and Methods: The research population ( n= 250) of the current study is the ­adolescents living in a boarding school of Taibad city, Iran, in 2012 academic year. Using convenience sampling, the subjects were selected and asked to fill out Copper Smite self-esteem Inventory, and considering the cut-off point of 23, 30 adolescences with the lowest self-esteem were randomly placed in two groups of control and experimental .The subjects of experimental group were taken part in 8 two- hour- long sessions of cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy while the ones of control group did not receive any training . At the end of this period, the subjects’ self-esteem was measured again and compared with pre-test by Ancova test, using SPSS soft ware (version 19).

 Results: Ancova test analysis indicates that the self-esteem score in group cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy compared with the control group is significantly increased (p<0.01).

  Conclusion :­­ Group cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy can lead to increased self-esteem in teenagers. Further researches accompanying by periods of follow-up are recommended.

 

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Background and Objective: The people with Thalassemia, because of frequent blood transfusion and sever complication ,require constant medical supervision, and their psychological problems are paramount. This study aimed to determine Self-Concept and related factors in children and adolescents with Thalassemia major aged 7-18 in Golestan province ,2012. 

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Background: Youths and adolescents are considered as valuable assets of any society. The preservation and promotion of health in this population is an issue of significant importance from the social and economic dimensions. Globalization has resulted in the emergence of several health risks for this age set. Sexual curiosity and sexual experiences are some of these dangers, which can cause irreparable damages if neglected. Regarding this, the present narrative review was conducted to identify the guidelines from different parts of the world for the preservation and promotion of sexual and fertility health among the Iranian adolescents and youths. The integration of these strategies can provide appropriate solutions conforming to the Iranian culture.
Methods: This narrative review was conducted on the articles and sources published within 1958-2015. The search was performed using the valid international databases, including Pubmed, Google Scholar, Google, WHO, ProQuest, and the Persian databases, such as Iranmedex and SID. In addition, we performed library research to obtain the papers investigating the issue of interest. The keywords used during the searching process entailed: “Reproduction Health”, “Youth”, “Adolescents”, and “Sexual Health”. In this review, out of 85 evaluated sources, 53 articles, books, thesis, and websites were selected.
 Results: As the reviewed studies indicated, the lack of knowledge, an unclear horizon of the future, and inaccessibility to reproductive health services threaten the health of the youths and adolescents. Therefore, the provision of sex education by parents, schools, or peers can have a significant impact on the promotion of sexual health in this population. Moreover, screening and identifying the adolescents and youths at risk and educating the necessary skills to this age set can prevent the occurrence of high-risk sexual behaviors. Similar to other countries but with a lower prevalence rate, there are some problems in sexual and fertility health of the youths and adolescents in Iran. Therefore, it is recommended to teach the sexual health promotion techniques to this population according to their religion and culture.

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Background: Adolescence is a very troublesome period involving many physical, sexual and psychological changes. Therefore, researchers naintain that adolescents need to make a good relationship with their parents and particually their mothers to adapt to the changes at this age and be compatible with them. Hence, this study aimed to determine the mothers and their teenage daughters'perspectives on the relationship between them.
 
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 168 mothers and 13-15 year-old daughters who were provided with health services by health centers in Gorgan.  The samples were selected randomly and had the inclusion criteria. Data were collected through a valid and reliable questionnaire of "general discussion between mother and daughter" . Data were also analyzed using Chi-square and independent t-test at a significant level of 0.05 by  SPSS 16.
 
Results: The mean score of general conversation between mother and daughter was 55.95 (74-38) from the mothers’ perspective, and 52.30 (76-25) from the daughters' viewpoint. The difference between the two perspectives was significant (p-value<0.001). In addition, no significant difference was observed between the mothers and daughters’ perspectives on the number of communications with daughters, the feeling of closness to parents, and the responsibility to educate them.
 
Conclusion:The difference in the scores assigned to the general discussion between mother and daughter of their perspectives indicates the need for interventions aiming at increasing their communication skills to maintain and improve the girls’ health.

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Background: Health concerns are common issues during adolescence due to the wide range of changes and challenges in this period. As a major population of many countries, including Iran, adolescents need some opportunities to express their thoughts and concerns. Identifying the worrisome subjects among this population group can help us in providing appropriate health education and consultations. Considering that in the majority of studies, adolescent girls express higher concerns compared to boys and since they are more mentally vulnerable than boys, the study aimed to determine health concerns of adolescent’s high school girls from their personal perspectives in Gorgan."
Methods: This study was a quantitative content analysis based on responses of high school female students in private and public schools in Gorgan. The sample size of this study) at least 500 people (was based on the population ratio of high school girls in the public and private schools. As a result, three public and two private schools were randomly chosen. From each grade in the schools, one class was randomly selected. Assenting to take part in the study, adolescents high school girls were asked to fill an anonymous sheet containing demographic information with an open question at the bottom of the sheet in the form of: “Dear adolescent please write down all the concerns you have in your daily lives in the assigned space below”; Finally, 548 sheets were collected and analyzed.
Results: The findings showed that 3 categories including “Self” (%93.8) with 11 subcategories including “education”, “Occupation”, ”Future life”, “Health”, “Marriage”, ”Nutrition”, “Religions”, “Exercise and Recreational activities”, “Appearance“, “Puberty“, and “Risky behavior, “Significant Others“(%44.8) with 3 subcategories including “Family”, “Peers”, and “School staff”, and finally “Peripheral system”(%21.2) with 4 subcategories including “Society“, “School”, “Environment”, and “Cyberspace” as the main adolescents were found as health concern sources.
Conclusions: Based on the findings of the present study, it can be stated that Iranian adolescents experience an atmosphere full of educational, career, family, social, and the future concerns. Thus, modifying the educational system and job creation should be seriously considered by the policy makers to reduce adolescents' health concerns. In this regard, periodical evaluation of health concerns in high schools are recommended. In fact, our findings can give adolescents a stronger voice to increase policy maker’s awareness regarding the adolescents` concerns.

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Background: Lack of information in marital relationships can be an important factor in sexual dysfunction and dissatisfaction. Many marital problems are caused by dissatisfaction with sex. The lack of awareness in this area is due to marriage in adolescence age and regarding sex as a taboo in religious, cultural and social matters. In such cases, it may be appropriate to take advantage of modern teaching methods. Due to the increase in technology, the present study was designed and conducted to determine the role of multimedia education on sexual satisfaction in Afghan refugees’ adolescent women.
Methods: The present study is a quasi-experimental educational intervention in which Afghan adolescent women referred to selected charity centers in Mashhad were selected as the intervention (n = 34) and control (n = 34) using sortation method. Sampling was convenience and women with inclusion criteria brought in the study. Inclusion criteria were Afghan adolescents aged 10-24 years, having ability to communicate in Persian (reading and writing), formal marriage, first marriage and single marriage, residing in Mashhad, Marriage duration of at least one year, no formal and comprehensive sex education, no underlying medical conditions (diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, liver and kidney disease), non-addicted and non-psychiatric couples, lack of stress experiences in the last 3 months, no pregnancy, abortion, or delivery in the last 3 months, living with spouse in a shared home at the time of research, having sex with spouse, accessing a computer or CD player, and knowing how to use these devices or having access to the person helping the participant to use them. First, the participants completed the demographic characteristics Questionnaire and Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire. The second questionnaire had 25 questions (13 negative and 12 positive answers) which were answered by likert scale of 1 to 7. The overall scores` range was from 25 to 175 and it categorized sexual satisfaction in three level: low level (score between 25 and 67), moderate level (score between 67 and 100) and high level (score above 100). To assess the validity of the questionnaire, face validity was approved by a survey of 6 midwifery experts and then the content validity was evaluated by 14 experts to assess the simplicity, clarity, necessity, relevance and importance. The results of the data analysis indicated that all the questions were simple and clear. The index for the whole instrument was 0.91, indicating that the instrument was content valid. By calculating the CVR index for each item, the lowest value was 0.57, and according to the Lauvche table, the allowable value for this index was 0.51, and all the questions were sufficiently valid. Test-retest method was used to evaluate the reliability of the tool. The questionnaires were given to 20 members of the study population who were not present in the study sample and after two weeks the questionnaires were again completed by the subjects; correlation coefficients were 0.79. The intervention program consisted of 4 sessions (every session was 60-minute) and 4 CDs provided to the intervention group every week to be observed during the week. Delivering subsequent educational content to participants was based on the researcher's assurance of viewing previous educational content and it was proved by asking a few questions about those contents. All educational contents were first collected by the researcher from various books about sexual subject and finally approved by a qualified professor in this field from the viewpoint of psychology. Control group participants received routine charity programs. The sexual satisfaction questionnaire was completed again at the end of training (4 weeks) and 8 weeks after the beginning of the study. After checking the data normality for data analysis and descriptive statistics such as adjusting frequency distribution tables, calculating numerical indices and inferential statistics of chi-square, independent t-test, paired t-test, One-way analysis of variance was used.
Results: The mean ± SD of the intervention group age was 22.88 ±1.200 and for the control group was 22.44 ± 1.637. 15 and 12 participants in the intervention and control group, respectively, had undergraduate education. 20 and 22 participants had high school diploma or higher. Before the intervention, sexual satisfaction was not significantly different between two groups (P = 0.729), while it increased significantly at week 4 (P = 0.013) namely 8 weeks after the intervention (P <0.001). In the intervention group, the mean of sexual satisfaction was 130.11 ± 24.54 which subsequently increased to 140.50 ±20.51 after intervention and 148.35 ± 18.88     8 weeks after intervention which in turn indicates the persistence of information. There was also an increase in scores of participants. In the control group, the mean sexual satisfaction was 128.82 ± 19.88 in the first week, 128.26 ± 19.57 in the fourth week and 128.41 ±19.65 in the 8^th week which showed no significant difference.
Conclusions: Due to the nature of sex education which is associated with shame, using multimedia method was more effective and cost-effective. This method also does not need face-to-face visits and improved the sexual satisfaction of adolescent Afghan refugee women therefore it can be used in sex education for Afghan couples.

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Background: Because of the importance of adolescence, the priority of reproductive health in the world is adolescent reproductive health. What distinguishes this age from other phases of life is the emergence of fertility. Sexual ability, especially among this age group, is a matter of great significance. In fact, today's adolescents, like their peers at all times, are sexually active, with the difference that they are exposed to more sexual stimuli comparing to the past. Moreover, through promoting views about pro-individuality, freedom, opposite-sex friendship, and even establishing advanced relationships are encouraged more than ever. Hence, adolescents face unique reproductive health challenges. The purpose of this study was to discover the views of mothers of adolescent girls about sexual education for adolescent girls.
Methods: In this qualitative study, data were collected through 4 focus group discussions with 26 mothers who had at least one adolescent girl between the ages of 14 -19, not married, living with parents, and attending public schools of Mashhad in 2016. The sampling method, given that the interviews were conducted at the adolescent girls' school, was designed to purposely select schools in a way that encompassed all three high, low, and medium economic and social situations of city dwellers. The number of participants in the focus group sessions ranged from 6 to 8 and the duration of each session was between 60 to 90 minutes. All focus groups were recorded using two digital recorders and field notes with the consent of the interviewees. Having been transcribed, the data were coded and categorized using the conventional content analysis method with the Grunheim and Lundman approach and using MAXQDA10 software.
Results: Data were collected in four main categories: Self-study over time- Sexual education is a moral deviation factor- The need to increase mothers' sexual literacy- and School and family participation
 Conclusions: Most participants` mothers emphasized the need for adolescent girls' sexual education and believed that this should be done with the participation of schools and families. However, they disagreed with the exact time of initiation into teaching. Some of the mothers believed that the best time for initiation to teaching is the time of marriage, and others, considering the prevailing conditions in the community, especially easy access to Internet, surmise that the sexual education should begin during adolescence and before marriage, however, they though that pre-marriage sexual education should initiate according to certain criteria, in this regard, they emphasized the school's involvement which, in turn, needs the government appropriate policies.

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Background: Junk food consumption is an unhealthy adolescent nutritional habit that is affected by family structure, peer groups, and socioeconomic status. The present study was conducted to determine the association between junk food consumption and personal, familial, and social characteristics considering high school students in Rasht, Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 341 students in their second year of high school in Rasht, Iran in 2017. They were selected using a two-stage cluster random sampling. Data was collected using a checklist. Data was analyzed in SPSS 16 using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: Sweet snacks were consumed the most (27.3%). Frequency of junk food consumption was significantly higher in students whose fathers had a university degree (P=0.037) and those with monthly family income of more than 2 million Rials. (P=0.004).
Conclusions: The results indicate that students whose fathers have a higher education and income level have more tendencies toward junk food consumption; hence, it is worth considering the relevant factors in order to improve the adolescents' health.
 

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