Timing of menarche and initial menstrual experience.

Abstract

This study sought to compare the relative importance of subjective and objective timing of menarche for initial menstrual experience. College women completed a survey in which they recorded their age at menarche, an estimate of the number of their peers reaching menarche before them, and their memory of their initial experience of menstruction. The results indicated that subjective timing was significantly related to menarcheal experience, but objective timing was not, with girls who experienced themselves as early remembering a more negative menarche than girls who experienced themselves as “on time” or late. The results validate the importance of the concept of “social clocks” in adolescent development and suggest that future studies of the importance of pubertal timing should include measures of subjective as well as objective timing.