Young adolescents' beliefs concerning menstruation

Abstract

In order to explore the early socialization of attitudes and expectations about menstruation, 54 young adolescent girls (both pre- and postmenarcheal) and boys responded to a questionnaire assessing evaluative attitudes toward menstruation, expected symptomatology, perceived effects on moods and activities, and sources of information for these beliefs. The results showed that even premenarcheal girls and young boys have a reasonably well-defined and mostly negative set of attitudes and expectations. Most believed that menstruation is accompanied by physical discomforts, increased emotionality, and a disruption of activities and social interactions. Although the responses of the 3 groups were remarkably similar, premenarcheal girls had a somewhat less negative evaluation of menstruation than both postmenarcheal girls and boys. Other analysis showed that symptom expectations for "girls in general" were more severe than for selves, though these 2 sets of responses were highly correlated. On the basis of these findings and the data concerning sources of information, the possible role of socialization processes in the menstrual experience is discussed.