Background: Adolescence is a crucial phase of human life. They are more
vulnerable to the psychological effect of COVID-19 epidemic than adults because of their
immature cognitive and emotional regulation systems and tend to show more negative
outcomes. Aim of study: to investigate the effect of Bio-Psycho-Educational health program
on adolescents' knowledge, anxiety and coping toward COVID-19 pandemic induced stress.
Research design: comparative quasi experimental research design was used. Setting: The
study was conducted through online educational channels for preparatory and secondary
school adolescent girls at El-Monoufia governorate- Egypt and Yanbau governorate, Saudi
Arabia. Sample: A multistage cluster sampling for selecting schools then a stratified random
sample for selecting 400 adolescent students' girls (200 Egyptian and 200 Saudi) was drawn.
Tools:
online questionnaire was designed and involved the followings, Tool one: A
structured interview questionnaire was designed by the investigator and consisted of two
parts; (1) socio-demographic characteristics of studied adolescents and (2) adolescents'
knowledge about COVID-19 pandemic.
Tool Two: State- Anxiety Inventory for Adults.
Tool Three: Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation. Results: There was a statistical
significant improvement among studied Egyptian and Saudi adolescents regarding their
knowledge, anxiety and
coping regarding COVID-19 induced stress before and after the
program
(P=<0.001). Conclusion: the implementation of the Bio-psycho-educational
program improved adolescents' knowledge, decreased their anxiety, and promoted their
effective coping regarding COVID9- pandemic induced stress. Recommendations: Bio-
psycho-educational health programs should be importantly
designed and implemented for
adolescent students to improve their knowledge, alleviating
their anxiety and
promote their
coping on the basis of actual physical and mental needs in
facing COVID-19
Pandemic and
other similar health crisis.