Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:809-814
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
A study of attitudes toward menarche in white middle-class American adolescent girls
L Whisnant and L Zegans
Material from interviews with 35 premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls
suggests that menarche is an emotional event related to the adolescent
girl's emerging identity as an adult woman, her newly acquired ability to
reproduce, and her changing relationship with her mother. However, our
culture tends to ignore the affective importance of menarche and instead
conveys the view that it is a hygienic crisis. The authors suggest the need
for developing a socially and culturally appropriate substitute to serve
the emotional function that more primitive societies have met with social
rituals, thus meeting the psychological needs of the young adolescent girl.
