THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PEER EDUCATOR PROGRAMS ON ADOLESCENT ATTITUDES IN PREVENTING UNWANTED PREGNANCY

Abstract

Unwanted pregnancy (UP) among adolescents has been a serious issue that affected physical, psychological, and social health. One effective educational approach to raise adolescent awareness on pregnancy prevention was through peer educator programs. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of peer educator programs in changing adolescent attitudes toward preventing unwanted pregnancy. This research used a quasi-experimental method with a pretest-posttest control group design. The study was conducted at SMA Negeri 2 Muara Badak from January to March 2025. The sample consisted of 60 eleventh-grade students selected using purposive sampling and divided equally into an intervention group and a control group (30 each). The intervention group received peer educator-led education over three sessions, while the control group received no intervention. The research instrument was a validated and reliable closed-ended questionnaire consisting of 10 Likert-scale items (1–5) assessing adolescent attitudes. Data were collected before and after the intervention and analyzed using paired t-test and independent t-test with SPSS. There was a significant increase in attitude scores in the intervention group from 30.1 ± 4.2 to 39.2 ± 3.8 (p = 0.000), while the control group showed no significant change, increasing only from 30.6 ± 4.0 to 31.2 ± 4.1 (p = 0.071). The comparison of posttest scores between groups also showed a significant difference (p = 0.001). The peer educator program proved effective in improving adolescent attitudes toward unwanted pregnancy prevention. Peer-based interventions are recommended as a strategic method in adolescent reproductive health education.