Young Adolescents' Beliefs concerning Menstruation

Author(s): Anne E. Clarke and Diane N. Ruble

Source: Child Development, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 231-234
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1128615
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Young Adolescents' Beliefs concerning
Menstruation

Anne E. Clarke and Diane N. Ruble

Princeton University

CLARKE, ANNE E., and RUBLE, DIANE N. Young Adolescents' Beliefs concerning Menstr
CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 231-234. In order to explore the early socialization of at
and expectations about menstruation, 54 young adolescent girls (both pre- and postmena
and boys responded to a questionnaire assessing evaluative attitudes toward menstruatio
pected symptomatology, perceived effects on moods and activities, and sources of informat
these beliefs. The results showed that even premenarcheal girls and young boys have
sonably well-defined and mostly negative set of attitudes and expectations. Most believ
menstruation is accompanied by physical discomforts, increased emotionality, and a disr
of activities and social interactions. Although the responses of the 3 groups were rema
similar, premenarcheal girls had a somewhat less negative evaluation of menstruation tha
postmenarcheal girls and boys. Other analyses showed that symptom expectations for "g
general" were more severe than for selves, though these 2 sets of responses were highly
lated. On the basis of these findings and the data concerning sources of information, the po
role of socialization processes in the menstrual experience is discussed.

Girls' early experience of menstruation is but also when ratings were done by
1976),
assumed to have major implications for theirboth men and women for "women in general"
adult experience of menstruation. One devel-(Parlee 1974), when women rated themselves
opmental textbook, for example, suggests"as that
if" they were in a particular phase (Brooks,
"it is vital" that a girl's "initial experience
Ruble, & Clarke 1977), and when women only
with this phenomenon be as favorable as believed
pos- they were premenstrual or inter-
sible" (Mussen, Conger, & Kagan 1974, p.
menstrual even though they were all tested at
about a week prior to menstruation (Ruble
520). Yet there is surprisingly little research
concerning young adolescent girls' experi- 1977). This combination of findings suggests
ences of menstruation, particularly around that
the our culture has strong beliefs about
time of menarche.
menstrual symptomatology, many of which
Menarche may be perceived, on theare negative. Such beliefs, if incorporated by
one
young adolescents, could shape their own ex-
hand, as "a symbol of sexual maturity" (Con-
perience in conformity with the cultural view,
ger 1973, p. 111), an apparently positive view.
In marked contrast, however, a study of as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy (Rosenthal
edu-
cational materials concluded that the main & Jacobson 1968).
message conveyed to adolescent girls is that As a first step toward greater understand-
menstruation is a hygienic crisis (Whisnant, ing of the effects of menarche on adolescents,
Brett, & Zegans 1975). Furthermore, research the present study sought to determine to what
with adults suggests thatmenstruation is often extent pre- and postmenarcheal girls are
associated with a variety of negative events, aware of the cultural views of menstrual
such as physical discomfort and moodiness. women and whether they incorporate any as-
These associations have been observed not pects of these beliefs into their own
only when women rate their own cycles (e.g., "menstrual self-concept." As in Parlee (1974),
Moos 1968; Wilcoxon, Schrader, & Sherif boys were included in the sample as a "con-

Preparation of this paper was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation,
NSF-76 02137. The paper is based on a senior thesis submitted to Princeton University by the
first author. Some of the findings were presented at the biennial meetings of the Society for
Research in Child Development, New Orleans, March 1977. The authors are grateful to Jeanne
Brooks for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Requests for reprints should be sent to Diane N.
Ruble, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.
[Child Development, 1978, 49, 231-234. @ 1978 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
0009-3920/78/4901-0031$00.75]

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232 Child Development
trol" group to help interpret differences be- The analyses of symptom expectations for
tween the two samples of girls. "girls in general" were performed on the
The subjects were 18 postmenarcheal eight symptom scales given by Moos (1968)
and on one individual item, "change in eating
girls (mean age 12-11), 18 premenarcheal girls
habits."2 The scores cluster in the 2-5 range,
(mean age 12-5), and 18 boys (mean age 12-
with the majority of responses being "a little
10). All were in the sixth to eighth grades of
four junior high schools in a white, middle- to
bit" (2-3). A 3 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA
upper-class area. Subjects were recruited via (group x phase) showed that all groups rated
girls' experience of symptoms significantly (p
advertisements in two local newspapers, and
parents' consent was obtained. < .001) higher in the menstrual phase than in
the intermenstrual phase, for all variables ex-
The subjects individually completed a cept Arousal, which was higher for the inter-
questionnaire assessing general attitudes to- menstrual phase. Similar to previous research
ward menstruation, expected symptoms, per- (e.g., Moos 1968; Parlee 1974), the largest
ceived effects on moods and activities, and phase differences were for Pain, Behavioral
possible sources of information. First, all Change, and Negative Affect. A main effect of
three groups of adolescents completed the group was found for only two of the scales,
Moos (1968) Menstrual Distress Question- Behavioral Change and Pain (p < .05). These
naire (MDQ) according to what they think group effects were not in a consistent direc-
"girls in general" experience during the tion and are not very meaningful, since the
menstrual phase and during the inter- interaction with phase, necessary to indicate
menstrual phase.' The order of presenting the differences in perceived changes over the cy-
two scales was counterbalanced across sub- cle, did not emerge.
jects. Then, girls only completed the MDQ a
Factor analyses were performed on the
third time, according to what they themselves
ratings of the effects of menstruation on ac-
experience (postmenarcheal) or expect to ex-
tivities and moods and on general attitudes,
perience (premenarcheal) during the
menstrual phase. Next, all subjects were resulting in three "effects" factors and two
"attitudes" factors.3 Overall, the effect of
asked to rate, from 1 (very negatively) to 6
(very positively), the effect of having the first
menstruation was seen as being either neutral
or second day of a menstrual period on 21 (49%) or negative (42%). One-way ANOVAs
performed on the three factor scores revealed
items representing "a girl's" moods and par-
ticipation or performance in several activities. that boys and postmenarcheal girls considered
Then, girls only were asked to indicate on a menstruation to have more of a negative effect
on the Moods and Schoolwork scales than did
six-point scale how much they agree (1) or
disagree (6) with 13 statements representing a premenarcheal girls, F(2,51) = 4.16, p < .05,
range of positive and negative attitudes to- and F(2,51) = 6.12,p < .01, respectively.
ward menstruation. Finally, all subjects rated The girls' responses to the attitude items
on a four-point scale (from "nothing" to "a seemed to indicate an ambivalent or mixed
lot") how much they have learned about reaction to menstruation. Neither group is
menstruation from each of 14 possible very comfortable talking about it, especially to
sources. All subjects completed the question- males; and over 50% of both groups indicated
naire in 30-40 min and received $2.00 for par- that they were worried someone would know
ticipation. they were having their periods. In contrast, ap-

1Ratings for the premenstrual phase were not included, since the questionnaire was quite
long and the girls were already rating the MDQ symptoms three times.
2Scale scores were computed by adding a subject's responses to each of the items in a scale
and dividing by the number of completed items. In Moos's (1968) and Parlee's (1974) work, scale
scores were computed by simply adding the responses to the items in each scale. Since average
scores are more easily interpretable in terms of the 1-6 scale, and since using sums of ratings
rather than averages would provide misleading comparisons whenever an item was uncompleted,
the present choice of scoring seems appropriate for our purpose.
3A varimax rotation procedure was used, and an eigenvalue > 1.5 was the cutoff criterion.
The three "effects" factors were (a) Activities (e.g., performance in sports; going out on a date), (b)
Moods (e.g., how easily a girl gets tired; getting along with family), and (c) Schoolwork (e.g., how
well a girl does on exams and homework). The two "attitudes" factors were (a) Comfort in Talking
(e.g., "I am comfortable talking about menstruation with my father), and (b) General Dislike (e.g.,
"Menstruation is something I would prefer not to have").

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 Clarke and Ruble 233

proximately 25% agree that "menstruation

Mostisbelieved that it is accompanied by phys-
something to be happy about." Analyses ical
per-discomforts, by increased emotionality
formed on the two factor scores indicated that and mood changes, and by disruption of ac-
postmenarcheal girls showed greater general tivities and social interactions. The three
dislike of menstruation than premenarcheal groups of adolescents reported similar beliefs.
girls, t(34) = 2.05, p < .05, but there was no This observation is noteworthy for two rea-
difference in comfort talking about it. sons. First, the similarity of the responses of
the groups to each other and to Parlee's (1974)
A 2 x 2 ANOVA (group x self/other ques- adult sample suggest that personal experience
tionnaire) revealed that the girls in this sam- of symptoms is not a sufficient explanation for
ple believed others experienced a sig- observed phase differences. Instead, the re-
nificantly (p < .05) higher degree of menstrual sponses may reflect cultural stereotypes, at
symptoms than they experienced themselves least in part (Parlee 1974). The significant cor-
(postmenarcheal) or anticipated (pre- relations between symptom ratings for self
menarcheal) for all the MDQ scales exceptand for others also supports this argument, at
Concentration and Arousal. There were no least to the extent that the direction of the re-
main effects of group, however, indicating
lationship indicates that the girls generalize to
that what postmenarcheal girls say they themselves
ex- the beliefs they have learned
perience during the menstrual phase does not
about others. Although it is possible instead
differ from what premenarcheal girls expect.
that girls generalize from their own experi-
Intercorrelations between scale scores for
ence to others, the similarity of the pre- to the
others and for self were computed for each
postmenarcheal girls' self-ratings suggests
group of girls for each symptom scale. Except
that this interpretation of the correlation is
for Autonomic Reactions, all of these correla-
less likely. Second, the similarity of the three
tions were significant at p < .05 or better.
groups suggests that the cultural beliefs are
Thus, although both pre- and postmenarchealreadily accessible at a fairly young age, since
girls' scores were lower for self than for girls
all three groups showed a high degree of
in general, these scores were consistently awareness.
di- Thus, a girl enters menarche with
rectly related to each other. a clear set of expectations, many of which are
quite negative; and most of her peers, both
Consistent with the few previous studies
male and female, hold similar expectations.
in the area (see Sherman 1971), the most fre-
Her experience of menstruation is, therefore,
quent sources of information about menstrua-
primed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
tion for the girls were mothers and, to a lesser
extent, female friends, health classes, andThe overall similarity of the subjects' re-
books. Onerway ANOVAs revealed that both sponses is striking, but there were also some
differences. The postmenarcheal girls in-
pre- and postmenarcheal girls reported learn-
dicated more general dislike of menstruation
ing more from most of the sources listed than
boys did, especially from mother and femalethan premenarcheal girls, and both boys and
postmenarcheal girls believed it was more
friend (p < .001). The majority of the boys'
disruptive of moods and school performance
responses were "nothing," although for a few
than premenarcheal girls. Thus, it seems that
items (e.g., TV and male friend), boys' mean
ratings were higher than girls'. These the
dif-premenarcheal girls have the least nega-
ferences are consistent with findings thattive
theevaluation of menstruation. One inter-
pretation is that the premenarcheal girls lack
euphemisms for menstruation are very differ-
direct, physical experience with symptom
ent for boys than for girls (Ernster 1975).
Overall, pre- and postmenarcheal girls' changes. However, although boys also lack di-
sources of information were similar. However,
rect experience with menstruation, their re-
sponses were the most similar to the post-
for two sources, female friend and magazines,
postmenarcheal girls' scores were menarcheal
sig- girls on several measures. In ad-
nificantly (p < .05) higher than premenarcheal
dition, premenarcheal girls anticipated expe-
riencing the same degree of symptoms that
girls' scores, possibly suggesting an increase
postmenarcheal girls reported for themselves.
in information seeking occurring shortly after
menarche. An alternative explanation for the pre-
menarcheal girls' somewhat less negative at-
In general, the findings of the present
titudes is that they received preparatory in-
study suggest that, for these young adoles-
formation, especially from mothers, emphasiz-
cents, menstruation is associated with a set of ing the positive aspects (e.g., that menarche is
mostly negative expectations and attitudes. a sign of maturation).

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234 Child Development
In conclusion, these results suggest that velopment and personality. New York: Harper
physiological explanations of "menstrual dis- & Row, 1974.
tress" may be overemphasized. Specific as-Parlee, M. B. Stereotypic beliefs about menstrua-
pects of the role of socialization processes in tion: a methodological note on the Moos
the menstrual experience, such as the nature Menstrual Distress questionnaire and some
and timing of information received from new data. Psychosomatic Medicine, 1974, 36,
others, must be carefully considered in future 229-240.
research. Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. Pygmalion in the
classroom: teacher expectations and pupils' in-
tellectual development. New York: Holt,
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