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Unplanned and unwanted pregnancy is a challenging life event, especially to young unmarried women in Malaysia as they often left unsupported. Using theory of resilience, this study aimed to explore challenges faced by noninstitutionalised young unmarried women who decided to keep their pregnancy. By understanding their challenges, we could recognise their main needs for planning of effective strategies and policies that can help them to cope better with their pregnancy and prepare for their future. This was a qualitative exploration study using a multiple-case study design. Five pregnant women recruited from two primary care clinics, aged 18 years and above, with different life experiences and at different trimester underwent in-depth interviews. Data was examined using thematic analysis and compared across the five cases. The main challenges during pregnancy faced by the unmarried women were: (1) avoiding social stigma, (2) having poor psychosocial support from family, and (3) preparing for future. They were worried about financial security, childcare, illegitimate status of their child, housing arrangement and stable employment. Thus, they need to be supported in these areas. Although these young women in the community appeared to be self-reliant, independent and strong minded, they need to be supported especially from their own family members, parents, peers, health care providers and organisation for a better future for them and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This was a cross-sectional study to identify the association between socio-cognitive factors (permissive attitude, social-norms, and self-efficacy) and intention towards sexual activity among 466 Malaysian school-going late adolescents (aged 18–19 years) in Kuantan, Malaysia. Majority were females (64.4%), Malays (67.4%) and Muslims (68.2%). Simple logistic regression from data collected by self-administered validated Youth Sexual-Intention Questionnaire (YSI-Q) showed significantly increase risk of having sexual intention for each unit increase in permissive attitude, social-norms and self-efficacy scores with the odds ratio (OR) of 1.424, 1.303 and 1.215, respectively. On the other hand, multivariate logistic regression resulted in male, non-Malay, ever-smoker students and permissive attitude showing significantly higher risk towards having sexual intention with the OR of 0.163 (male was the reference group), 5.110, 3.288 and 1.236, respectively. In order to reduce risky sexual behaviour among adolescents, school-based health education is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the differences in family interaction and parenting behaviours and their influence on sexual intention among male and female youths aged 18 to 22 years. The results presented are based on data collected from unmarried college students in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Despite being in a country where premarital sexual activity is not an accepted behaviour, 18% of the 422 male and 1.4% of the 566 female students indicated their intention to perform sexual activity. Compared to females, males had more allowance of autonomy from parents and lesser parental monitoring, paternal care, parent-youth communication on sexual issues, and family connectedness. Both genders perceived that they received similar levels of parental control. In male youths, having high maternal control (OR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03-1.38) and family modelling behaviour (OR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.19-4.25) increased their odds of having sexual intention while having high parent-youth communication on sex (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81-0.99) reduced their odds of having sexual intention. For female youths, having a high level of family connectedness (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.59-0.97) was a protective factor against sexual intention. In conclusion, sexual intention is higher among males compared to females. The influence of family interaction and parenting behaviours on youth sexual decision varied across gender. This study highlighted the possibility of using different parenting approaches in tackling premarital sexual activity among youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many adolescents today do not meet the recommended guidelines on physical activity due to sedentary behaviour, which in turn leads to the increasing prevalence of obesity in this population. Obesity in youth will not only pose risk towards obesity in adulthood but also predisposes to many other non-communicable diseases and other adverse health outcomes. It is crucial to gain an understanding of the barriers faced by overweight and obese adolescents to engage in regular physical activity and reduce their sedentary behaviour, as their perceptions may differ from adolescents in general. Behavioural determinants can be explored using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model from the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW), along with the application of Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to further explore the psychological determinants of behaviour. The identification of barriers and facilitators to increasing physical activity among adolescents with overweight and obesity will enable the tailoring of behaviour change interventions to encourage and sustain physical activity behaviour in this target population. This study aims to explore perceived barriers and facilitators to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in adolescents with overweight and obesity using the TDF and COM-B model, as well as to ascertain their needs and preferences regarding implementable strategies with an emphasis on technology-supported interventions. Participants will be recruited using convenience sampling through social media advertisements. Interested participants will be screened for eligibility, which are: 1) aged 10-19, 2) overweight or obese (based on US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria), 3) does not meet the minimum amount of physical activity by WHO, defined as at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity of physical activity per day; following which participant information sheet will be given. A minimum of ten (10) adolescents will be recruited for this study. Before the interview, written informed consent will be acquired by both participants and their respective parents, and participants' demographics will be obtained. In-depth semi-structured interviews (IDIs) will be conducted online with all participants, using a topic guide that is informed by the COM-B and the TDF domains to explore perceived barriers and facilitators to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. In addition, the participants will also be asked about their needs and preferences for a digital health intervention. All interviews will be digitally recorded, anonymized and transcribed verbatim. Further, IDIs will stop at the point of saturation. Descriptive statistics will be reported to summarise participant characteristics. Thematic analysis will be used to analyse the interview using ATLAS.ti software, first using an inductive approach, followed by a deductive mapping to link to the TDF which could then be mapped to the COM-B. Quotations from participant responses will be selected to illustrate key themes. The findings from this study will not only provide a detailed description of the perceived barriers and facilitators to increase physical activity among adolescents with overweight and obesity but will also inform the design and development of a theory-based digital behaviour change intervention to address this target behaviour in this population, by matching identified determinants to appropriate behaviour change techniques in the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study aimed to explore smoking behaviour among Malaysian teenagers that were related to their smoking initiation, cigarette consumption, quit intention, and quit attempts. Methods: It was a qualitative study that used multiple case study design, involving 26 teenagers (23 smokers and three former smokers) from three public schools. Data was collected via questionnaires, three focus group interviews and three in-depth interviews over 20 months. A standardised semi-structured interview protocol was utilized. Results: Among the participants, 74% of them started smoking after the age of 12 years old. The majority (20/23) of the teenage smokers admitted to smoking every day and 74% of them smoked not more than 5 cigarettes a day. All of the smokers had the intention to quit but only 22 out of the 23 teenage smokers had attempted quitting. Sixty percent of these teenagers had more than three quit attempts. In general, this study captured the complexity of the teenagers' smoking behaviour that could be influenced by multiple factors, including behavioural (e.g. nicotine addiction), personal (e.g. conception of smoking and quitting, curiosity, sensation seeking, knowledge about smoking cessation, stress, maintaining athletic performance, and finance.) and environmental (e.g. socialization, peer pressure, parental .smoking, parental disapproval, and boy- or girlfriend aversion) factors. Conclusions: This study described the complex and multidimensional nature of teenage smoking behaviour. The findings also correspondingly matched the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), therefore suggesting the theory's suitability in elucidating smoking behaviour among the Malaysian teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]