Menstrual Awareness, Attitude and Associated Psychological Distress among Urban and Rural Adolescent Girls of Western Uttar Pradesh: Evidence from Greater Noida

Abstract

Background: Menarche and menstruation are indications of a girl’s puberty but not always pleasant and accompany lots of social restrictions guided by taboo and unawareness around it. Aim: The present study aims to find out the level of awareness, psychological distress and type of attitude held by rural and urban adolescent girls of Greater Noida Uttar Pradesh. Methodology: A sample of 30 girls was drawn from 2 schools in an urban and rural part of Greater Noida. A sociodemographic datasheet, an interview schedule on awareness towards menstruation, Adolescent Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (AMAQ) and Kesseler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10) was used to distinguish attitude, awareness and distress of rural and urban adolescent girls. Results: Overall, rural girls have a more positive attitude towards menstruation than urban adolescent girls after the result was reported to be significant at 0.05 level on Student T-Test. However, there is no significant differences have been found in distress and awareness of rural and urban adolescent girls. Further research with a robust sample size and in more districts of Western Uttar Pradesh will yield significant findings and will give more insight into the attitude and associated practices among teenage girls on menstruation.

Keywords: Attitude, menstrual awareness, psychological distress, adolescents, urban, rural