Factors Related to Management of Unpleasant Premenstrual Syndromes in Female Adolescents

Abstract

Menstruation is one of the important experiences in women’s lives. Although a normal physiological mechanism, women often experience unpleasant premenstrual syndrome and suffer from such experiences. Effective management of the symptoms can prevent and reduce unpleasant symptoms which will lead to better quality of life. This descriptive correlational study aimed to examine the relationships between age, knowledge of self-care, perception of unpleasant symptoms, social supports and unpleasant symptoms management among female adolescents who experienced unpleasant premenstrual syndrome. A Stratified randomly selected samples of 785 female adolescents from secondary schools in the 29^th educational area, Ubon Ratchathani province were selected to the study. A questionnaire on self-care knowledge, perceptions of unpleasant symptoms, social supports, and unpleasant symptoms management with reliabilities of 0.79, 0.82, 0.89 and 0.95 respectively were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, ranges, and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients. 

The results showed that age (r=0.317, p<0.001), knowledge of self-care (r=0.354, p<0.001), perception of unpleasant symptoms (r=0.324, p<0.001) and social support (r=0.434, p<0.001) had a significant positive relationship with management of the unpleasant premenstrual symptoms among female adolescent all at a moderate level. These findings suggested that both health professionals and teachers should assess and provide interventions to enhance the management of unpleasant premenstrual syndrome among female adolescents by providing knowledge of self-care, improving perception of premenstrual symptoms and encouraging social supports for female adolescents.