A STUDY TO ASSESS KNOWLEDGE REGARDING POCSO ACT AMONG MOTHERS OF ADOLESCENTS IN SELECTED AREAS AT PALLITHOTTAM KOLLAM DISTRICT WITH A VIEW TO DEVELOP A SELF INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE

Shahina H., Sheba Sam, Sini Y., Sofia Varghese, *Soja J. and Prince Christopher

ABSTRACT

The research project undertaken was "A study to assess the knowledge regarding POCSO act among mothers of adolescents in selected community area at Pallithottam, with a view to develop information booklet.". They objective of the study was to assess the knowledge regarding POCSO act among mothers of adolescent, to find the association between knowledge regarding POCSO act among mothers of adolescents and selected demographic variables such as age of mothers, educational status of mothers, occupation of mothers, number of adolescents, gender of adolescents, age of adolescents, educational status of adolescents, type of family, economic status and to develop an information booklet regarding POCSO act. Non-experimental research design was adopted for this study. The study sample was selected by convenience sampling techniques. The tool used for the data collection consisted of socio demographic Proforma and structured knowledge questionnaire. Basic introduction of the study was given to the subjects and data was collected from 60 samples using self administrated tool. The analysis of data was based on the objective of the study using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the present study revealed that majority of mother have adequate level of knowledge and there was significant association between knowledge of adolescent mothers regarding POCSO act and demographic variables such as age of mothers, education of mothers, occupation of mothers, age of adolescent and type of family. Also there was no significant association between knowledge of adolescent mothers regarding POCSO act and demographic variables such as number of adolescents, gender of adolescent, education of adolescent and economic status. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that a similar kind of study cam be conducted for a large group and a study can be conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding POCSO act for adolescent mothers in selected community area.

Keywords: assess, knowledge, Posco act, adolescents, information booklet.