The effect of gender-role orientation on attitudes towards menstruation in a sample of female university students

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of gender role orientation on attitudes towards menstruation in a sample of Iranian female students of medical sciences. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three hundred female university students (94%; response rate: 282) were enrolled in the study via stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ), and the short version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Data were analyzed using SPSS v.18. Analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: The mean scores of the MAQ subscales ranged from 3.7±1.35 to 5.6±1.3, indicating that most of the respondents had natural to moderate attitudes toward menstruation. When participants were classified into one of four gender-role categories of BSRI, the results showed that the undifferentiated group with 33.7% was higher than other gender-role groups. The undifferentiated group was significantly less likely than the other groups to perceive “menstruation as a natural event”. CONCLUSION: The study shows an association between gender-role orientation and attitudes toward menstruation in female university students. However, further research is still necessary in this issue.