The effect of gender-role orientation on attitudes towards menstruation in a sample of female university students

Ashraf Ghiasi̇

doi:10.4274/jtgga.galenos.2018.2018.0122

Abstract

Objective:To examine the effect of gender role orientation on attitudes towards menstruation in a sample of Iranian female students of medical sciences.Material and Methods:Three hundred female university students (94%; response rate: 282) were enrolled in the study via stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ), and the short version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Data were analyzed using SPSS v.18. Analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney U test.Results:The mean scores of the MAQ subscales ranged from 3.7±1.35 to 5.6±1.3, indicating that most of the respondents had natural to moderate attitudes toward menstruation. When participants were classified into one of four gender-role categories of BSRI, the results showed that the undifferentiated group with 33.7% was higher than other gender-role groups. The undifferentiated group was significantly less likely than the other groups to perceive “menstruation as a natural event”.Conclusion:The study shows an association between gender-role orientation and attitudes toward menstruation in female university students. However, further research is still necessary in this issue.

Highlights

Menstruation, the cyclical shedding of blood and endometrium from the uterine cavity, is a physiologic process that occurs throughout a woman's reproductive years [1]
The mean scores on the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) subscales ranged from 3.7±1.35 to 5.6±1.3, indicating that most of the participants had natural to moderate attitudes toward menstruation (Table 1)
16.6% (n=47) of the participants were in the feminine gender role group, 16.6% (n=47) were masculine, 33.7% (n=95) were undifferentiated, and 33% (n=93) of the participants were in the androgynous gender role group

Summary

Introduction

Menstruation, the cyclical shedding of blood and endometrium from the uterine cavity, is a physiologic process that occurs throughout a woman's reproductive years [1]. Evidence suggests that attitudes toward menstruation can influence the reporting of perimenstrual symptoms [4]. Lu [5] found a significant association between negative attitudes toward menstruation and the experience of perimenstrual symptoms in Taiwanese women. Hoerster et al [9] compared Indian and American women’s attitudes toward menstruation They found that menstruation was perceived as significantly more debilitating and a less natural event by American women compared with Indian women [9]. A few studies investigated the effect of genderrole orientation – the extent to which a person believes or perceives that she/he possesses gender-typed characteristics – on attitudes toward menstruation [10,11]. 139 The effect of gender-role orientation on attitudes androgynous and feminine students to perceive menstruation as a debilitating event. In the present study, the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) and Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) were administered to a sample of female students with the aim of examining the impact of gender-role orientation on attitudes toward menstruation

Material and Methods

Results

Discussion