Effect of teaching leadership styles on the prevention of adolescence pregnancy: a case study conducted at Universidad C&eacute;sar Vallejo, Peru

José Manuel Delgado Bardales; Edward Freddy Rubio Luna Victoria; Orfelina Valera Vega; Rosa Mabel Contreras Julián; Gabriela del Pilar Palomino Alvarado; Keller Sánchez Dávila; Yoni Meni Rodríguez Espejo; Daniel A. Lowy

doi:10.12688/f1000research.28440.1

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Research Article

Effect of teaching leadership styles on the prevention of adolescence pregnancy: a case study conducted at Universidad César Vallejo, Peru

[version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations]

José Manuel Delgado Bardales¹, Edward Freddy Rubio Luna Victoria¹, Orfelina Valera Vega², [...] Rosa Mabel Contreras Julián ¹, Gabriela del Pilar Palomino Alvarado¹, Keller Sánchez Dávila¹, Yoni Meni Rodríguez Espejo², Daniel A. Lowy^3-5

José Manuel Delgado Bardales¹, Edward Freddy Rubio Luna Victoria¹, [...] Orfelina Valera Vega², Rosa Mabel Contreras Julián ¹, Gabriela del Pilar Palomino Alvarado¹, Keller Sánchez Dávila¹, Yoni Meni Rodríguez Espejo², Daniel A. Lowy^3-5

PUBLISHED 24 Mar 2021

Author details Author details

¹ Universidad César Vallejo, Tarapoto, Peru
² Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Tarapoto, Peru
³ Genesis Sustainable Future Ltd., Sárospatak, 3950, Hungary
⁴ Dama Research Center limited, Kowloon, Hong Kong
⁵ Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria, VA, USA

José Manuel Delgado Bardales
Roles: Data Curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Edward Freddy Rubio Luna Victoria
Roles: Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Orfelina Valera Vega
Roles: Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Rosa Mabel Contreras Julián
Roles: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Gabriela del Pilar Palomino Alvarado
Roles: Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Keller Sánchez Dávila
Roles: Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Yoni Meni Rodríguez Espejo
Roles: Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Daniel A. Lowy
Roles: Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

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Abstract

Background: In this study we aimed to determine the effect of university teaching and leadership styles at Universidad César Vallejo on the prevention of adolescence pregnancy.
Methods: We performed a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional study, with a correlational descriptive design using a survey. Participants were students in classes enrolled in the starting two semesters at Universidad César Vallejo, Peru. The questionnaire comprised three sections: (I) General demographic data, (II) Teacher leadership styles, and (III) Pregnancy prevention teachings.
Results: According to the students (n=793), teaching leadership styles are of three types: Laissez faire, transactional, and transformational. Types of pregnancy prevention from the students’ standpoint are the following: "high" level of "primary prevention" (44.4%), "medium" level of "tertiary prevention" (36.6%), and "high" level of "secondary prevention" (36.2%). Chi-Square test revealed that the three styles of leadership significantly affect the prevention of pregnancy: transformational (X² = 136.390), transactional (X² = 95.539), and Laissez Faire (X² = 80.557) (p <0.05). Overall, there is a significant impact of university teaching leadership on pregnancy prevention among higher education students (X² = 110,634, p = 0.0000), with a significance level of 5%.
Conclusions: It can be concluded that for college students, teaching leadership style significantly affects the prevention of adolescent pregnancy.

Keywords

leadership, university teacher, pregnancy prevention, public health

Corresponding authors: José Manuel Delgado Bardales, Rosa Mabel Contreras Julián

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Grant information: The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work.

Copyright: © 2021 Delgado Bardales JM et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite: Delgado Bardales JM, Rubio Luna Victoria EF, Vega OV et al. Effect of teaching leadership styles on the prevention of adolescence pregnancy: a case study conducted at Universidad César Vallejo, Peru [version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2021, 10:239 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.28440.1) First published: 24 Mar 2021, 10:239 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.28440.1) Latest published: 24 Mar 2021, 10:239 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.28440.1)

Introduction

In low- and middle-income countries, there are about 16 million young women, aged 15–19, and approximately 1 million girls less than 15 years old, who give birth over one year. Problems that occur during pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death of these women, worldwide. Also, every year about 3 million girls aged 15–19 undergo unsafe abortions (UNICEF, 2014). For this reason, pregnancy of adolescents and young women is a significant public health issue in South America, as it reduces the chances of educational development of pregnant woman and by this, it amplifies the risk of their poverty. To address these issues, there is an increasing number of studies that examine the role of teachers and lecturers in sexual education and prevention in the Latin American region (Anzoategui, 2015; Arroyave et al., 2015; Newman et al., 2008; Rosario, 2012). According to Arroyave & co-workers (2015), students are aware of the demanding responsibility of motherhood and fatherhood, nevertheless, they do not practice safe sex. Ramírez & Contreras (2013) emphasized that unfortunately, high school and university professors do not have sufficient knowledge related to this topic, for example, the ways in which HIV is transmitted. Therefore, they are not prepared to provide efficient sexual education. Reátegui & Carranza (2016) concluded that teaching style was likely the most important contributor to preventing adolescent pregnancy. Here, we present a correlation analysis between teaching leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez faire) and the prevention of adolescence pregnancy among university students at Universidad César Vallejo, in Peru.

Methods

Study design

We performed a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional study, with a correlational descriptive design.

Setting

The study was conducted from June 8, 2018 to July 20, 2018. Questionnaires were handed to students every Friday. Survey questions were administered in the classrooms, on the Universidad César Vallejo campus, a subsidiary on the Tarapoto campus. Average time of 25 min was allowed for completing the questionnaires.

Eligibility criteria

To strive for completeness and diversity, we invited all students in person during classes enrolled in the starting two semesters at Universidad César Vallejo, Peru. Students were only included if they (1) agreed to participate in the study voluntarily; and (2) had physical and mental capacity to answer the questionnaires.

Sample size

Our sample population consisted of 793 students, which equaled all students within the eligibility criteria.

Data collection

Our questionnaire described below was validated by exploring (i) ACE (Adverse childhood experiences), including possible emotional, physical, or sexual abuse experienced at the age of less than 18 years; this was tested in a randomized manner, on 40 students (this number represents 5% of the total number of students tested in our study); next a (ii) preliminary pilot testing was performed by engaging 80 students (this number represents 10% of the total number of students tested in our study), and finally, (iii) reliability testing was conducted on internal consistency, test-retest, and inter-rater. Result of our preliminary testing validated the survey, such that no changes had to be implemented.

The questionnaire comprised three sections: (I) General demographic data, (II) Teacher leadership styles, and (III) Pregnancy prevention teachings. Sections II and III had a rating scale from 1 to 5, according to the Likert scale (Boone & Boone, 2012). A copy of the questionnaire can be retrieved from the Extended data (Contreras & Lowy, 2020).

Section II contained 17 questions for transformational leadership, 14 questions for transactional leadership, and 9 for laissez faire leadership, to sum to a total of 40 questions. Based on results of section II, teaching leadership styles were grouped into three categories according to Vásquez (2012), namely (i) Transformational (high control and low acceptance), (ii) Transactional (high control and high acceptance), and (iii) Laissez faire (low control and high acceptance) (Table 1).

Table 1. Distribution of minimum, maximum, and low, medium, and high-level scores for each dimension of the leadership styles.

Dimensions	Max. score	Min. score	Low	Medium	High
Transformational	85	17	20 -41	42 – 63	64 – 85
Transactional	70	14	14 – 32	33 – 51	52 – 70
Laissez-faire	45	9	9 – 21	22 – 33	34 – 45
Total	200	40	40 – 93	94 - 146	147 - 200

Section III addressed 10 questions on primary prevention, 5 questions on secondary prevention, and 4 questions on tertiary prevention. Answers allowed to assess, whether the teacher provided low, medium, or high level teaching for each type of prevention, as follows: for > 63, high teaching level was assigned; at ≤ 63-42, medium teaching level was considered; while < 42 corresponded to low teaching level .

Statistical analysis

We applied Chi-Square for statistical analysis, using SPSS (version 26) to reveal possible correlations between teaching leadership styles and prevention of adolescence pregnancy. Significant correlations were accepted at the p <0.05 level, as widely applied in public health-related studies.

Ethical approval

The committee of the Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Universidad César Vallejo approved this study (021-2018-VI-UCV) on April 16, 2018. All participants were informed on the scope and content of the survey, on their rights as participants, and for additional information and possible questions, they were provided the name and electronic address of a designated contact person. All participants signed a consent form.

Results

Participant characteristics are listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Sociodemographic characteristics of participating students enrolled in semesters 1 and 2, in 2018 (n=793).

Characteristics	N	%
Age, years
16–19	671	84.6
20–23	73	9.2
24–27	34	4.3
≥ 28	15	1.9
Gender
Female	462	58.3
Male	331	41.7
Origin
Urban	623	78.6
Rural	159	20.1
Urban – marginal	11	1.4
Religion
Catholic	541	68.2
Evangelic	101	12.7
Atheist	33	4.2
Other	118	14.9

Based on the survey test results, there is no significant difference between the distribution of the various teaching leadership styles, e.g., according to students’ insight, the transformational, transactional, and laissez daire styles were 50.4, 51.5, and 55.5, respectively, at high perspective level (Table 3).

Table 3. Distribution of teaching leadership styles based on student survey results.

Student perspective	Transformational		Transactional		Laissez faire
Student perspective	Fi	%	Fi	%	Fi	%
High	400	50.4	408	51.5	440	55.5
Medium	343	43.3	351	44.3	309	39.0
Low	50	6.3	34	4.3	44	5.5
Total	793	100.0	793	100.0	793	100.0

We found that the types of pregnancy prevention, used by students were the following: 44.4% apply “high” level of “primary prevention”, 36.6% “medium” level of “tertiary prevention,” while 36.2% utilize a “low” level of “secondary prevention” (Table 4).

Table 4. Level of pregnancy prevention exercised by students over the first semester.

Level of prevention	First		Second		Third
Level of prevention	Fi	%	Fi	%	Fi	%
High	352	44.4	287	36.2	295	37.2
Medium	267	33.7	273	34.4	290	36.6
Low	174	21.9	233	29.4	208	26.2
Total	793	100.0	793	100.0	793	100.0

Via the non-parametric Chi square test, we determined that leadership styles transformational, Transactional, and Laissez Faire significantly impact the prevention of pregnancy (X2 = 136.390, p = 0.0000; X2 = 95.539, p = 0.0000; and X2 = 80.557, p = 0.0000, respectively) (Table 5). We evidenced a substantial correlation between the leadership variable and prevention of pregnancy of higher education students (X2 = 110.634; p = 0.0000 <0.05). Our results agree with findings by Jordán & Blanco (2015), i.e., that health education is unsatisfactory in the higher education system.

Table 5. Evaluation of university teaching leadership style, which significantly affects the prevention of pregnancy of students at the beginning of their higher education studies in the San Martín region (year 2018).

Teaching leadership style	Level of prevention			Total	X2 p < 0,05
Teaching leadership style	High	Medium	Low	Total	X2 p < 0,05
Transformational
High	217	65	118	400	X2 =136,390
Low	7	32	11	50	X2 =136,390
Medium	77	79	187	343	p =0,0000
Total	301	176	316	793	p =0,0000
Transactional
High	210	72	126	408	X2 =95,539
Low	8	18	8	34	X2 =95,539
Medium	83	86	182	351	p =0,0000
Total	301	176	316	793	p =0,0000
Laissez Faire
High	216	69	155	440	X2 =80,557
Low	7	29	8	44	X2 =80,557
Medium	78	78	153	309	p =0,0000
Total	301	176	316	793	p =0,0000

Discussion

Leadership implies an influential relationship between two or more people; therefore, the leadership of teachers constitutes a fundamental axis in education, training, and personal-social development of college students. Classroom education is triggered by a series of interactions between teachers and students, among students, and between diverse groups of students, all these collaborations being guided by rules of coexistence. Overall, these processes enable learning and integral development of students. Also important is the effectiveness of teachers in creating an appropriate climate for learning and collaboration.

Direct relationship between teaching leadership and coexistence sets the necessary characteristics for reducing pregnancy of college students and by this, to avoid consequences of desertion, low learning, discrimination, and more importantly, to prevent perinatal maternal morbidity and mortality. Our study documents the significant interconnection between leadership variables and pregnancy prevention of higher education students. Teaching leadership has been demonstrated as a key factor in pregnancy prevention, regardless of leadership style. From students’ perspective, the leadership style of university teachers is rated as 55.5% high level Laissez Faire leadership. Regarding types of pregnancy prevention, we found that 44.4% are a result of teachers high level instruction of primary prevention.

Limitations

Limitations and bias may be related to answers provided by college students in the presence of their teacher, or because of misinterpretation/misunderstanding of some questions. This inconvenience was avoided by allowing students to answer questions in the absence of the teacher and providing the research team’s assistance in clarifying doubts or mistakes that may arise. Hence, the research group contributed to elucidate unclear situations that occur during the survey. Directors of César Vallejo University authorized the development of the study and approved the time for its application.

Generalizability

Results can be considered as part of a general situation that exists at different universities of the country, as students starting their studies have the highest dropout rate, caused by pregnancy. In addition, the teacher is not only the facilitator of learning, but also a dynamic person, who exercises leadership by advising, mentoring, and guiding university students toward sustainable learning. Teachers are engaged active human beings, who can make positive decisions on students’ lives.

Conclusions

Based on our statistical analysis, one can conclude that for college students, teaching leadership style significantly affects the prevention of adolescent pregnancy. We believe that this is an important finding, which complements a prior study (Jordán & Blanco, 2015) that focused on the importance of health education in the higher education system.

Data availability

Underlying data

Figshare: Datasets, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13385612.v1 (Contreras, 2020).

Extended data

Figshare: Survey, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13385405.v1 (Contreras & Lowy, 2020).

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).

Acknowledgments

The authors express special thanks to all members of the Genesis Sustainable Future, Ltd., Sárospatak, Hungary, for their assistance in manuscript preparation and statistical analysis.

Faculty Opinions recommended

References

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