Koff E, Rierdan J
Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, MA 02181, USA.
Adolescence. 1995 Winter;30(120):795-811.
This study asked adolescent girls who had been menstruating for one to three years how they would prepare younger girls for the event, and how they would advise parents to prepare their daughters. To this end, 157 9th-grade girls rated their own experience of menarche (in terms of preparation, initial response, parents' roles, and sources of information) and answered four open-ended questions. The girls emphasized the need for emotional support and assurance that menstruation was normal and healthy--not bad, frightening, or embarrassing. They stressed the pragmatics of menstrual hygiene and the subjective experience of menstruation (how it would actually feel), while down-playing the biological aspects and the link between menstruation and self-definition as a woman. Most girls had talked about menstruation with their mothers, but few had discussed it with their fathers. They saw mothers as critically important but often unable to meet their needs. Many girls felt uncomfortable talking about menstruation with fathers, wanting them to be supportive but silent; others believed that fathers should be excluded completely. Responses suggested several ways early preparation could be revised, including a shift in focus from the biology of menstruation to the more personal, subjective, and immediate aspects of the experience. Responses also supported a conceptualization of menstrual education as a long-term, continuous process, beginning well before menarche and continuing long after.
这项研究询问了月经初潮已有一至三年的青春期女孩，她们会如何让年纪更小的女孩为月经初潮做好准备，以及会如何建议家长为女儿做好准备。为此，157名九年级女孩对自己的初潮经历（在准备情况、最初反应、父母的角色以及信息来源方面）进行了评分，并回答了四个开放式问题。女孩们强调了情感支持的必要性，以及确保月经是正常且健康的——并非糟糕、可怕或令人尴尬的。她们强调了月经卫生的实用性以及月经的主观体验（实际会是什么感觉），同时淡化了生物学方面以及月经与作为女性的自我定义之间的联系。大多数女孩都和母亲谈论过月经，但很少有人和父亲讨论过。她们认为母亲至关重要，但往往无法满足她们的需求。许多女孩觉得和父亲谈论月经很不自在，希望父亲给予支持但保持沉默；另一些人则认为父亲应该完全被排除在外。回答表明了早期准备可以改进的几种方式，包括将重点从月经的生物学方面转向更个人、主观和直接的体验方面。回答还支持将月经教育概念化为一个长期的、持续的过程，在初潮前很早就开始，并在初潮后很长时间继续。
