The Menstrual Joy Questionnaire Items Alone Can Positively Prime Reporting of Menstrual Attitudes and Symptoms

Abstract

Chrisler, Johnston, Champagne, and Preston (1994) reported that the title of the Menstrual Joy Questionnaire (MJQ) could prime participants to report positive changes on the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) and greater endorsement of “menstruation as a natural event” on the Menstrual Attitudes Questionnaire (MAQ). This study is a partial replication in which the questionnaire titles were removed in order to see if the MJQ items alone could replicate these priming effects. One hundred women participated: half completed the MJQ and the MAQ in the first week followed by the MDQ and the MAQ the second. The other half completed the MDQ and MAQ first followed by the MJQ and MAQ. Those who completed the MJQ first scored significantly higher on the “menstruation as a natural event” subscale of the MAQ. They also scored higher on the arousal subscale of the MDQ, although this trend did not quite reach significance. These findings suggest that the MJQ items alone are sufficient to produce positive priming of menstrual symptom reporting.