Psycho-Emotional Needs of Female Adolescents

Undoubtedly, any health care system could not meet all health needs of people. So prioritizing of the needs is necessary. Needs assessment does not mean one need is superior to another. It determines most important needs, common needs, and importance of each need in health care planning. The aim of this study was to assess the psycho-emotional needs of female adolescents.

In this cross-sectional study, 2010 middle- and high-school female adolescents were recruited from randomly selected schools in Mazandaran province, Iran. Psycho-emotional needs of participants were assessed using the self-administrated culturally-sensitive Iranian Female Adolescents Health Needs Questionnaire (IFAHNQ). Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Independent T-Test, One-Way Anova and Multivariate regression.

Mean scores of psycho-emotional needs of participants were 35.83±14.23. The urban adolescent's scores (36.85±14) were significantly higher than the rural habitats (24.82±14.99) (p<0.001).There were significant relationships between psycho-emotional need's scores with age (p<0.001) and mother's education (p=0.03).

Further studies should be conducted to investigate p sycho-emotional needs of female adolescents and its different dimensions.