• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2002

To identify strategies to prevent sexual problems in teenage girls, respondents in this study answered two open-ended questions: "What are strategies for teenage school girls to prevent unwanted coitus?" and "What are strategies for teenage girls to prevent pregnancy?" The respondents were 12,733 girls from an accessible population of 19,000, a multi-stage cluster sample from a population of 1,988,902 girls attending 4,684 schools in the seven largest cities and nine provinces in Korea. Data were collected by mail between October 2 and October 28, 2000. The response rate was 68.9%. The total number of responses for the first question was 10,345, and for the second, 9,624. Data were analyzed by content analysis. The results of this study are: 1. According to priority, frequent strategies to prevent unwanted coitus were, self assertiveness (35.7%), heterosexual interaction training (24.6%), sex education (21.2%), and innovations in the system of social culture (4.7%). The order of priority was the same whether the respondents had experienced coitus or not. 2. According to priority, frequent strategies to prevent pregnancy were, heterosexual interaction training (27.4%), sex education (26.2%), contraceptive use and induced abortion (21.4%), and innovations in the system of social culture (3.2%). The first priority for the respondents who had not experienced coitus was heterosexual interaction training (27.7%) but contraceptive use (35.5%) was the first priority for the group who had experienced coitus. In sex education, a focus on contraceptive use for teenage girls who have experienced coitus and on heterosexual interaction training for those who have not, would strengthen preventive strategies for these two sexual problems. Assertiveness training as part of sex education would further strengthen prevention strategies.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to define Korean adolescent girls' brassiere size demand features in order to improve the suitability of junior brassieres for adolescent girls. The subjects for the data collection were Korean teenage girls from age 13 to 17 (n=492). Their body size was collected by conducting anthropometric measurement. The results of this study show that not only the growth of height, but also the growth of the body length is almost finished at the age of 15. The brassiere cup size, which shows the breast growth directly, increased remarkably at age 13 to 14, and once again at age 17. The demand for brassiere band size 70 appeared generally high among all ages. The research also suggests that the band size 60 and over 85 is also needed among the teenage girls. In matters of the brassiere cup size, junior brassieres over B-cup size are also necessary for teenage girls with big breasts to support their heavy breast weight. These results imply that the junior brassiere companies should improve their brassiere size range to fit the teenage girls' breasts properly.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.755-762
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• 2000

female smoking especially in the population of teenage girls is regarded as an important health problem as the young female smokers are increasing sharply. We surveyed 895 teenage girls(15-19 years of age) living in a rural community in Korea for their cigarette smoking habits and the relationship between smoking status of subjects demographic variables and view on other's smoking. Of the subjects 11.6% stated that they were currently smoking and 67.3% of current smokers began smoking regularly sometimes before high school. The average smoking period of current smokers waas 20.6$\pm$1.5 mounts and they smoked 7.5 cigarettes/day on an average. Their main reason for starting to smoke was curiosity. The parents attitude for their offspring was more undemocratic in smokers. Smokers had lower academic sachievement and they had the family system such as single parent more undemocratic in smokers. Smokers had lower academic achievement and they had the family sysstem such as single parent family or divorced parent family more often than did non-smokers. Smoking status of subjects was positively related to that of their parents siblings and friends respectively. Smokers accepted others' smoking more positively than did non-smokers. Above results show that cigarette smoking is prevalent among teenage girls living in a rural community and smoking of subjects are affected by demographic variables and their view on others' smoking. Therefore the prevention the prevention programs aimed at adolescent smoking should be started before middle school and they should be included all influencing environmental factors such as family school and mass media.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.338-347
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• 2001

Cigarette smoking has a negative effect for nutrient intakes and nutritional status of antioxidant nutrients including vitamin C. This study has been performed to compare the dietary nutrient intakes, serum vitamin C concentration and serum cotinine concentration of smoking teenage girls(n=104) with those of non-smoking teenage girls(n=791). The subjects were 895 high school girls(15-19 years of age) living in a rural community in Korea. Of the subjects, 11.6% stated that they were currently smoking. The frequency of taking alcohol, soda and coffee was higher in smokers than in non-smokers, respectively. The usage rate of vitamin/mineral supplements was higher in smokers than in non-smokers. The smokers tended to skip breakfast and lunch and to take snack more often than did the non-smokers. The dietary intakes of calorie, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, calcium and iron were lower in smokers than in non-smokers. Daily mean intakes of these nutrients were less than the 2/3 of the Korean RDAs in smokers while these intakes were similar to or more than the RDAs in non-smokers. The ratio of under weight or lean tended to be higher in smokers. Serum vitamin C concentration was lower in smokers than in non-smokers. These findings show that smokers have unsound eating habits and poor nutirtional status. In particular, nutritional status of vitamin C is significantly poor in smokers, and this tendency can be found more notably in heavy smokers. Therefore, oxidative stress may be present in young teenage girls with short smoking history as evidence by above results. (Korean J Nutrition 34(3) : 338∼347, 2001)

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.201-206
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• 2011

Purpose: Westernized eating habits have been associated with earlyage menstruation, which increases the incidence of dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome among adolescent girls. We therefore surveyed changes in menarche timing and the general menstrual characteristics of adolescent girls in Seoul, Korea. Methods: We surveyed 538 teenage girls who visited our hospital between July and November 2007. Items explored included age at menarche, general menstrual characteristics, occurrence of premenstrual syndrome and treatment thereof, and an association between present dysmenorrhea and a family history of the condition. Results: Average age at menarche was 12.6 years, with 29% (n=156) subjects beginning menstruation at age 12 years. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 82% (n=435). The main symptoms were abdominal (53.2%) and lower back pain (34.2%), and 15.2% of girls who experienced such symptoms required medication. Present dysmenorrhea, and a family history thereof, were statistically correlated (P<0.05). In addition, 58.8% (n=316) of teenage girls had symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. The most frequent psychological symptoms were fatigue (36.4%) and nervousness (38.7%), whereas the most common physical symptom was menstrual cramps (46.5%). Most subjects (87.6%) tolerated the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome without medication; 11.4% took medicines including painkillers; but only 0.1% of subjects visited a doctor. Conclusion: The average age at menarche in Korean girls was 12.6 years, thus younger than in the past. Most teenage girls experienced dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome, but few consulted a doctor. Organized treatment plans are required to manage menstrual problems in teenage girls.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.212-228
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• 2001

This is a cross-sectional descriptive correlation study that aimed to understand the relationship between the level of sexual contacts during the dates and psycho-social factors in teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between sexual contacts and self-esteem and self- assertiveness. The subjects of the study were 6,130 teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. They were selected convienently 12,733 teenage girls from 254 secondary schools located in 7 large cities and 9 provinces in Korea. A structured questionaire was used it included items one general characteristics, the levels of sexual contacts, self-esteem and self-assertiveness. Seven levels of sexual contacts were rated they were holding a hand, putting arms around each other's shoulders, kiss, french kiss, touching breast, petting genitalia, and sexual intercourse during the dates. Self-esteem and self-assertiveness were measured by the "Self-esteem scale" of Rogenberg (1971) and the questionaires developed by S. B. Chang et al(2000), respectively. The self-reported questionaires were collected from October 2, to October 28, 2000 and analyzed by using SPSS 10.0 Program. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, reliability, One-way ANOVA with Duncan method & Scheffe method. The results of the analysis were as follows. 1.An average Percentage of the respondents who have (46.1%) or had (53.9%) boyfriends was 48.1% (n=6,130) and the most common sexual contact during the dates was french kiss (26.7%, n=1,634). While 7.5%(458) of respondents had a sexual intercourse, 13.7%(842) of respondents didn't have any sexual contact during the dates. 2. Distribution of starting point of the first sexual contact demonstrates that 1,950 respondents (31.8%) held partner's hand at the first date and 1,367 respondents (22.3%) put arms around each other's shoulders at the 2nd or 3rd date. Sexual contacts such as kiss, french kiss, touching breast, petting genitalia, or sexual intercourse were experienced mostly at the later than the 10th date. However, surprisingly large number(1.7%) of respondents had genital contact and sexual intercourses at the first date. 3. The means of self-esteem and self-assertiveness socres of the respondents who have or had boyfriends are 27.43$({\pm}4.03)$ and 17.96$({\pm}2.55)$, respectively. The range of scores for self esteem was 10-40, 40 with most self esteem. The range of scores for self assertiveness was 7-21, 21 with most self assertiveness. 4. As sexual contacts proceeded, the means of self-esteem and self-assertiveness values decreased. In detail, the respondents having no or light sexual contacts (kiss, putting arms around each other's shoulder, holding a hand) had similar self-esteem values($p{\leq}0.05$). However, ones having relatively intensive sexual contacts (french kiss, touching breast) showed significantly lower self-esteem values($p{\leq}0.05$). Same trend has been obtained for self-assertiveness value. 5. The higher values of self-esteem and self-assertiveness values the respondents had, the later they started the moderate sexual contact (kiss, french kiss) during the dates. Interestingly, among the respondents having intensive sexual contacts (petting genitalia, sexual intercourse) during the dates, those who experienced the such contacts at the first date or later than 10th date have higher self-esteem and self-assertiveness values than one experienced the such contacts during the 2nd$\sim$9th dates, giving U-shape curve. 6. There was a significant relationship between self-esteem and self-assertiveness in girls who have or had boyfriends($P{\leq}.001$). In conclusion, the research shows that self-esteem and self-assertiveness values are significantly related with the sexual contacts of the teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. These results strongly suggest that proper sex education program for teenage girls should contain the program on improving the self-esteem and self-assertiveness. We believe that sex education program is the one of the best ways to prevent the unwanted sexual contacts and pregnancy of teenage girls.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.305-316
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics related to self assertiveness in teenage girls, and to identify the relationship between the self assertiveness and sexual experiences in teenage girls in Korea. The subjects for this study were 12,733 girls from an accessible population of 19,000 girls who were a multi-stage cluster sample from a population of 1,988,902 girls attending to 4,684 schools in the seven large cities and nine provinces of Korea. The response rate was 68.9%. Data were collected by mail from October 2 to October 28, 2000. A structured questionnaire of 125 items which included measurement of general characteristics, sexual experiences, and self-assertiveness was used. The sexual experiences were defined as dating, holding hands, putting arms on the shoulders, light kissing, French kissing, touching breasts, touching genitalia, and coitus. The self assertiveness measurement was developed by S. B. Chang et al.(2000) and has a Cronbach's alpha of .6031. Data was analyzed with SPSS 10.0 Program using descriptive statistics, reliability, and t-test. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The subjects were from 9th to 11th graders and 42.7% answered that they followed their partner's request. The range for the self assertiveness score was 7-21 out of a possible range of 7-21. The group of girls who were in vocational schools, lived away from family or in rural areas, attended night school, took part in drinking, smoking, and glue inhalation, who had cyber sex or phone sex or were exposed to pornography, and who had run away from home showed significantly lower self assertiveness scores than those without these characteristics (P<.05). 2. The group which had experience in dating(t=2.379, P=.017), French kissing (t=5.425, P=.000), touching breasts (t=8.637, P=.000), touching genitalia (t=6.057, P=.000), and coitus(t=6.057, P=.000) showed significantly lower self assertiveness scores than the group which had not had these sexual experiences. But there was no difference in the self assertiveness scores between the group which had experience of holding hands, light kissing, and using contraceptives compared to the group which did not. It can be concluded that the group which had delinquent behavior showed lower self assertiveness, and the lower self assertiveness led to unwanted sexual experiences. It is suggested that self assertiveness training be provided for the group with delinquent behavior as a first priority, and then analyze of the process of self assertiveness in relation to sexual experiences.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.179-188
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was conducted to analyze the discourse of puberty in the early teenage girls. Method: The participants were 24, 11-15years old girls who were interviewed in face-to-face using a semi-structured questionnaire. The interviews were done between October 29 and December 27 2003. Analysis of the qualitative data was done in 2 steps. Results: First, the theme of the girls' puberty discourse was identifying normality and consisted of 5 categories : i) defining puberty as experiencing changes, ⅱ) acknowledging their own puberty connecting it with their definitions of puberty, ⅲ) selectively excluding/recognizing the actual pubertal changes by seeing themselves as nonsexual and negative beings, ⅳ) recognizing the pubertal changes as becoming women and making them not peculiar but normal, and ⅴ) sharing the knowledge and experience of change inactively and exclusively and resisting the dominant discourse. Three main discourse frames, marking off sexual/nonsexual, man/women, and major/minor were revealed in the second step of the analysis. They were intricately woven with each other and converged on sex. Conclusion: The girls posited themselves as being asexual, unstable, and marginal. So there is a need to help them recognize their pubertal state as physical and mental paradigmatic changes and assure their pubertal changes as positive.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.770.2-771
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• 2000

• Proceedings of the KSCN Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2000

no Abstract, See Full Text