Missing school during period: perspectives of adolescent schoolgirls in Cross River State, Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: adolescent in-schoolgirls often experience stigmatization, physical and psychological stress during their menstrual period that causes them to miss school. Menstruation-induced school absenteeism is preventable. The purpose of the study was to assess the factors associated with school absenteeism by both urban and rural school-going adolescent girls during their period. METHODS: adolescent female students in Junior and Senior Secondary classes, who have attained menarche, participated in the study. A researcher designed, pretested and validated self-administered questionnaire, consisting of questions related to perception about menstruation and reasons for missing school during menstruation was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive data were presented using percentages, while the association between the variables of interest, were verified using Chi-Square test. RESULTS: mean age of the girls was 14.4 (±1.8) years while mean age at menarche was 12.2 (±1.3) years. Although respondents identified several factors as responsible for school absenteeism, however, only fear of ridicule by other students (p ≤ 0.001) and unavailability of sanitary towels (p = 0.006) were significantly associated with missing school. Lack of sanitary towels was significantly associated with location (p = 0.012) and socio-economic status of mothers (0.006); while perception of menstruation as a disease was associated with feeling of tiredness and discomfort (p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: findings have shown that school absenteeism during menstruation is a serious problem among respondents capable of adversely affecting their academic performance. Access to sanitary towels and WASH facilities should be provided in schools to create an enabling environment to motivate school attendance by the adolescent girls.