Evaluation of enhanced befriending to improve psychological well-being and quality of life for adolescent mothers in slums of Chittagong, Bangladesh

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.