School girls and childbearing motives: A randomized clinical trial through hidden curriculum

BACKGROUND: Childbearing motives are considered as the primary stimulus of fertility and the importance of making fertility decisions in humans. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of a new form of interactional program on the childbearing motives of students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: According to a well-defined, single-blind randomized controlled trial, we selected eight government schools in Tehran. Students in the age range of 7-12 yr and 16-18 yr (130 students in each school with a total number of 260) were selected for a series of intervention from storytelling to free discussion on a special subject through the concept of hidden curriculum. We evaluate the outcome with pretest-posttest based on the Miller childbearing motives questionnaire. One month after the last intervention, final evaluation took place. RESULTS: The findings showed that after an intervention conducted in the best way, all positive scores were promoted while the negative ones declined. One the other hand, no matter what really the participant's groups were, their total intention score got better. In this way, the total positive scores were significantly increased in the intervention groups (p = 0.000) Also, the students in high school significantly improved in positive scores and the negative score decreased in them. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the fundamental childbearing motives even with small interventions can be improved. Our intervention could improve the positive childbearing motives among school girls. In this regard, the role of some confounding factor such as the role of some confounding factors such as religious beliefs in family, maternal education is most important.