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Sixteen million adolescents give birth each year, constituting 11% of all births worldwide. Adverse adolescent pregnancy outcomes are well-documented. Available data on adolescent pregnancies have mainly relied on self-reported age and retrospective survey data, which might not capture adolescent births accurately. This paper reports on trends in adolescent pregnancy and associated adverse birth outcomes in Matlab, Bangladesh, using data from the Matlab Heath and Demographic System (HDSS) which precisely documents maternal age.

The study was conducted in the rural subdistrict of Matlab in Bangladesh. HDSS data were used to examine trends in adolescent motherhood (10–19 years) in the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr, b) service areas (ISA) and government service areas (GSA) between 2007 and 2015. A total of 4,996 adolescent mothers were included in the analysis. Chi-square testing and binary logistic regression were used to document adolescent pregnancy trends and the differences in and causes of perinatal death.

The fertility rate was 27 per 1000 adolescent mothers in ISA and 20 per 1000 adolescent mothers in GSA, during the 9 years of the study period. The adjusted odd of an adolescent mother having a perinatal death in ISA, relative to GSA was 0.69. Significant determinants of perinatal death among adolescent mothers included maternal education, paternal education, mother’s age at first birth, asset score and distance from the nearest health facility.

This paper documents the real trend of adolescent pregnancy by capturing the accurate age at pregnancy for the first time in Bangladesh.

Maternal identity (MI) is the attainment of maternal role adaptation. Though the role of the motherhood is expected to be achieved, teenagers, who are still developing their personal identity, do not always clearly identify or align with their role of motherhood. The purpose of this paper is to determine the structural relationship among a set of variables, infant temperament (IT), strain (ST), social support (SS), self-esteem (SE) and balanced family functioning (BF) influencing MI and to test the model using the empirical data.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 353 primiparous Thai teenagers of infants aged 4–12 months. A self-administered questionnaire comprised six scales with Cronbach’s α coefficients ranging from 0.81 to 0.93. The structural equation modeling method was employed to test the validity of the model undertaken using Mplus Software.

The model fit the empirical data well (χ²/df=2.17, CFI=0.92, TLI=0.91, RMSEA=0.06, SRMR=0.05). The MI could explain 62 percent of the variance through its set of variables. Three antecedents, i.e. IT, ST and SS, had a direct effect while SE and BF had an indirect effect on MI. The IT had the highest total effect on the MI, while ST was a mediator among other study antecedences concerning the MI.

The model adequately fit the data among teenage mothers one-year postpartum. Promoting MI should strongly diminish strain and encourage positively perceived infant temperament, self-esteem, social support and balanced family functioning.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of adolescent mothers who wean their babies from breastfeeding before the first six months from the perspective of a psychosocial aspect in the Thai context.

A descriptive qualitative design was applied to this study to obtain meaningful data. The adolescent mothers for the primary study and nine supplementary participants were recruited from the largest university hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 adolescent mothers. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used for data analysis.

The average breastfeeding duration was 3.1 months while breastfeeding exclusively lasted 1.3 months. More than half of the adolescent mothers encountered breastfeeding problems at hospitalization including sore/cracked nipples (63.6%), one side breastfeeding (27.3%) and exhaustion (9.1%). According to the content analysis, (1) breastfeeding obstacles concealed by the adolescents' dependence and (2) repetitive emotional mistakes encountered were the two main themes that emerged.

The influence of key family members plays a vital role in breastfeeding and psychological outcomes. Therefore, family-adolescent support programs including support from the adolescents' mothers and grandmothers may improve breastfeeding outcomes, yield positive emotions and enhance maternal attachment. Moreover, healthcare professions are important mediators to convince adolescent mothers' key family members to reach an agreement and provide suitable support.

This aim of this study was to explore the experiences of stigmatization and coping mechanisms during pregnancy among pregnant women who are living with HIV in Thailand. The secondary objective was to determine factors contributing to stigma during motherhood among HIV-infected women as well as explore how they cope with the discrimination from society.

Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews to obtain different versions of stigmatized experience from 16 pregnant women living with HIV on stigmatization and coping mechanisms. There were 5 pregnant adolescents living with HIV and 11 adult pregnant women living with HIV. The content analysis was used to examine patterns of stigmatizations and attributed factors.

Personal stigma was found among pregnant women living with HIV regardless of age. HIV status disclosure was the crucial barrier of accessing to care for people experiencing stigmatizations. Personal stigma associated with higher HIV status was not disclosed. Interestingly, all teenage mothers who participated in this study disclosed their HIV-status to their family. People who have social support especially from family and significant others are found to be able to cope and get through the difficulties better than those who lack those social support.

This study yields outcomes similar to several other studies that have been conducted either in Thailand or other countries. This study found that family support was crucial in reducing HIV stigma. Furthermore, HIV-infected pregnant female adults were more afraid to disclose their HIV status to their husbands, other family members and their work colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the situation of accessibility to reproductive health rights, and the conditional factors of accessibility to such rights of adolescents.

A qualitative method was used to extract information from 80 informants. Data were collected through in-depth interview, focus group discussion, observation, data recording, audio recording and the review of related documents during August to October 2016.

Adolescents had not accessed to their right on informing of their decision making; information and education; health; confidentiality and privacy; and treating with equity and no discrimination. Also, the conditional factors influenced to the accessibility on such rights were lacking of knowledge on reproductive health and negative attitude toward this matter among the people concerned. There were still no regulations or policies on the performance of authority agencies and the factors on social dimensions, traditions, customs, sexual culture and religion.

The findings from this study would be a help to promote the accessibility for adolescents to reproductive health rights under the Prevention and Solution of Adolescent Pregnancy Problem Act, B.E. 2559 (2016) specific on standard criteria reproductive health services from hospitals and the involvement from Ministry of Education for the development of sex life skill and reproductive health for the teacher.

Research into the neurobiological origins of same-sex attraction is inconclusive. A recent theory of homosexuality posited that maternal thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy is associated with an increased rate of homosexual orientation in offspring. Relevant studies from the prenatal thyroid model perspective were reviewed, the major findings of which are as follows: i) An increased prevalence of Hashimoto's disease in lesbian women suggests a maternal and even familial presence of the same autoimmune thyroid disease. Female-to-male transsexuals and lesbian women were also reported to have higher rates of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Over the last several years, reports suggesting a strong link between PCOS and thyroid autoimmunity have accumulated. ii) The increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the offspring of mothers with thyroid autoimmunity in pregnancy and the association between ASD and gender dysphoria indicate a link between maternal thyroid dysfunction and gender dysphoria/same-sex attraction in the off-spring. iii) The high risk of miscarriage and retarded fetal growth in pregnancies of mothers who give birth to homosexual off-spring can be explained by the impact of maternal thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy. This perspective review highlights relevant research findings and integrates them into the prenatal thyroid model of homosexuality. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the generation of same-sex orientation will contribute to the betterment of individual lives, as well as of society.

This paper aims to examine the perception of parents regarding the role of children as influencers in family consumption decisions in India. The purpose is to support marketing practitioners in understanding the stages of children's influence in the family using the theoretical perspective of the resource theory approach.

This study is based on a Web survey approach. Primary data were obtained from a sample of 180 mothers of adolescent children in the age group of 13–18 years and residing in rural and urban areas of Delhi (India) by administering a bilingual (Hindi/English) pre-tested “structured non-disguised” questionnaire designed on the Google Forms.

The findings that emerged from this study and as supported by the relative theory approach revealed that Indian parents perceive their children to exert a significant influence in family buying decisions, children's influence varies across stages of the decision-making process and the type of product and children's influence in family buying decisions is moderated by family structure but not by family size. The results of this study extend interesting and practical implications for marketing practitioners in India and by extension in other similar countries while designing and implementing marketing mix strategies in respect of goods and services meant for children/family consumption.

The findings that emerged from this study and as supported by the relative theory approach revealed that Indian parents perceive their children to exert significant influence in family buying decisions, children's influence varies across stages of the decision-making process and the type of product, and children's influence in family buying decisions is moderated by family structure but not by family size. Results of this study extend interesting and practical implications for marketing practitioners in India and by extension in other similar countries while designing and implementing marketing mix strategies in respect of goods and services meant for children/family consumption.

The results of this study support the notion that children exert considerable influence in family buying decisions in India across products, hence constitute a viable target market for different products consumed not only by them but by other family members as well. It is, therefore, vital that marketers wishing to penetrate family and/or child product markets must identify the person in the family who is likely to be more involved in the buying process and the extent of his involvement to carve effective promotional strategies.

The finding that although Indian children are actively participating across various stages of the decision-making process and their influence is strongest at the purchase initiation stage has peculiar social implications whereby families may be exposed toward eco-friendly green products and sustainable ways of living through the children in rural as well as urban areas. Similarly, children were also found to be influential at the information search and evaluation stage; hence, the messages regarding social issues, gender equality and health issues, which are not yet openly discussed in Indian families, may be imparted through children for better coverage and effectiveness.

Children are an important part of the family; especially in the nuclear families, children are an apple of eye and central point of the discussion. The role of children in decision-making is also important because of the changing information system and modernization of the younger generation. This is an empirical study focusing on the areas not yet explored and examined in the context of a culturally distinct and emerging country in terms of the emergence of children as influencers in family consumption decisions in rural and urban Indian families.

Adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections including HIV are important public health issues in many countries around the world. The trend is escalating among adolescents of younger ages. Many programmes aim to prevent adolescent sexual risk behaviours associated with these health outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse methodological and substantive features of research on interventions to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse and prevent other sexual risk behaviours among early adolescents.

The review includes studies published between 2006 and 2017 that appear in Thai and international databases.

A total of 33 studies met specified review criteria. Of the studies reviewed, 14 used randomized control designs, 16 used quasi-experimental designs and three used a pre-test, post-test design. Sample sizes ranged from 64 to 4,776 subjects; nearly two-thirds of the studies (n = 22) included multiple follow-up surveys. The programmes evaluated in these studies can be grouped into three categories: abstinence-based sexuality education programmes (n = 12), comprehensive sexuality education programmes (n = 13) and youth development programmes designed for early adolescents (n = 10). In total, 22 programmes reviewed were effective in changing targeted adolescent psychosocial and/or behavioural outcomes.

One of the limitations encountered in this study involved the search in library databases published only in Thai and English. Due to the limitation of searching library databases included in the review that reported the effects and differences among the included studies. Moreover, the search included publications consisted of heterogeneous designs and purpose with reports of different types of outcomes made it impossible to compare effect sizes.

The knowledge gained can be used to design and implement effective sexual health promotion programmes for early adolescents. Moreover, the findings can be applied as a guideline for health provider working in a schools, communities and adolescent health services. Recommendations for future studies are needed to consider methodological and substantive characteristics as well as the people who are involved in youth sexual health outcomes.

It is necessary for government to develop a policy for encouraging parents to be aware and participate in solving the problems.

The review indicated that the positive effects of parental involvement and technology media as a programme material on the psychosocial and behavioural outcomes.

The purpose of this scoping review was to summarise the general results of the Chilean Food Law implementation to help to understand how this policy has changed consumer's behaviour.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were followed. Five databases were searched for studies published from January 2015 to February 2020 evaluating the Chilean population's perception, behaviour and purchasing habits of processed foods.

The results showed that consumers support the implementation of a front-of-package warning label (FOPWL) and thought it a good strategy to help make healthier food choices for themselves. However, even with a positive perception about these products, the intention-to-change the purchase of unhealthy food occurred only for sugar-sweetened beverages. Meanwhile, children did not stop eating foods that had a FOPWL, although the mothers' perception was that the presence of FOPWLs could be important to differentiate unhealthy from healthy products. The availability of products with FOPWLs at schools decreased, indicating that the law was being complied with and that the child-directed marketing strategy showed a reduction after the first phase of implementation.

This evidence will guide other countries about in understanding and improving this policy.

This is the first study to gather research available in international databases that evaluated the results of the Chilean Law on the advertising of children's food and the perception, purchase intention, reformulation of products and consumption behaviour of the Chilean population.

Due to the gender norms in Indonesia, married women are vulnerable to domestic violence perpetrated by their husband. With a paucity of studies on this issue, the purpose of this paper is to explore the vulnerability to domestic physical violence among married women in Indonesia by measuring the acceptance of being beaten by their husband and factors associated with married women’s approvals were also identified.

Secondary data analysis of three rounds of Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey in 2002/2003, 2007 and 2012 was performed. Data were analyzed descriptively to reveal the trend of women’s acceptance and binary logistic regression was applied to identify determinants.

Women’s acceptance of wife beating in some circumstances experienced an increase during 2002–2012. Determinants varied by type of beating justification. Overall, determinants fell into three groups of women’s, husband’s and household’s characteristics.

This study helps to identify determinants of women’s vulnerability to domestic physical violence and suggests some substantial approaches to address this pressing issue.