| dc.description.abstract | Adolescence pregnancy and child marriage are great threat for the young girls’ wellbeing in
Bangladesh and still a common practice, especially among people living in the slums. Child
marriage is a result of several social, economic, and cultural factors and result in negative
consequences, mental health deterioration, and physical and maternal health problems for the
young women. On the other hand, mental health is poorly considered and included the health
care system in Bangladesh. Previous social support interventions have proven to be beneficial for
the young mothers’ mental wellbeing. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the attributes of
adolescents’ mothers’ physical and mental health and further explore the effectiveness of
befriending intervention in regard to the mental wellbeing of those adolescents. The study site
included several slums in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and the study participants were 181 recruited
using cluster random sampling for adolescent mothers aged 19 or less. Both qualitative and
quantitative methods were used at baseline data collection using two self-reported questionnaires
and in-depth interviews. The befriending intervention sessions were carried out after the initial
data collection covering various topics like, mental health, resilience, self-regulation, self-
esteem, positive parenting skills and confidence, basic parenting skills, health care seeking, and
healthy relationships. Scoring of data, descriptive statistics, and regression tests were used to
analyze all the data that were recorded using SPSS software. Results showed high impact of
social pressure and financial needs on the causes of child marriage. Great proportion of the
adolescents faced maternal, physical, and mental health problems. Mental health deterioration
was found to be associated with the frequency of family contact and support the women received
as well as marriage satisfaction, and domestic abuse. Despite the limitations of the study, it could
be observed and concluded that befriending intervention had secondary benefits for the
adolescents’ mental wellbeing, especially for increased levels of confidence and self-esteem.
More long term in-depth research is needed to address the needs of the adolescent girls and
further decrease the incidence of early marriage and its associated risks. | en_US |
