Abstract
Background Adolescence in girls is a period which is associated with stressful events like menarche, considered as the central event of female puberty. How a girl learns about menstruation and the changes it brings about may have an impact on how she responds to the menarche event. There are fewer studies on the prevalence of menstruation issues and their relationship with psychological stress in the literature. The study aimed to investigate stress from menstruation among early adolescent girls in selected primary schools in Livingstonia Zone.
Methods The study used analytical cross-sectional survey design utilizing quantitative methods of data collection. Participating schools were selected purposively, and respondents were selected using an unbiased selection method of random draws by using random computer number generator. Data was analysed using software package IBM SPSS Statistics version 27 and presented in tables and graphs.
Results The study results have revealed that most (64%) of early adolescent girls in primary schools had experienced high stress from menstruation. Factors like school topography (p=0.042), signs of menstruation (p=0.008), distance from home to school (p=0.043) and worrying about being observed washing absorbent (p=0.03) were significantly associated with stress. Adolescent girls schooling in lowland primary schools of Manchewe(AOR: 0.205, 95% CI: 0.075-0.560, p=0.002) and Thunda (AOR: 0.298, 95% CI: 0.113-0.787, p=0.014) were less likely to experience higher stress levels compared to adolescents from highland primary school of Livingstonia. In addition, adolescents who were not worried about washing the absorbent (AOR: 0.168, 95% CI: 0.033-0.867, p=0.033) were less likely to have higher stress levels compared to adolescents who were worried about washing the absorbent. Experiencing nausea (AOR: 0.310, 95% CI: 0.103-0.929, p=0.036) and headache (AOR: 0.396, 95% CI: 0.156-1.008, p=0.052) during menstruation were associated with less likelihood of having higher stress levels compared to experiencing abdominal cramps.
Conclusion We found that most adolescent girls experience stress from menstruation. The study recommends support structures for adolescent menstrual hygiene management that could include conducive school environment and training about puberty and menstrual hygiene management and educating the adolescent girls regarding the symptoms, prevention and effective management of menstruation period.