Description
Adolescents are slowly being recognized as a generation, worldwide, that may require different policy approaches to aid in improving their health and wellbeing. Much anecdotal evidence exists from surveys and interviews that girls throughout the developing world face many hardships with menstruation due to a number of constraints, many of which result in poor emotional wellbeing Most of the research, up to this point, has consisted of purely qualitative analysis or at best, correlational evidence of linkages between girls’ background and their likelihood to practice good hygiene. This work, grounded in the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, evaluates the roles that cultural and school environments play in secondary appraisals of menstruation as a major life stressor. Further, emotional wellbeing is measured as an outcome indicative of the impact of these appraisals on coping strategies and their ultimate effectiveness. Using primary survey data from schools in both the Terai and Hill areas of Nepal, we performed fixed effect logit regressions utilizing multiple indexes building techniques, including principle component and multiple correspondence analysis. Robust results are found in support of our theoretical framework, showing that strong cultural norms during menstruation increase the probability of girls self reporting as feeling lonely, while presence of hygiene supporting infrastructure at schools reduces this outcome. Such evidence provides greater motivation for increasing government policies to provide stronger hygiene infrastructure in schools to improve problem management-based coping skills, and to emphasize more supportive cultural environments/social support to improve the effectiveness of emotional regulation-based coping strategies.
The Stressor in Adolescence of Menstruation: Economic Analysis of Effective Coping Strategies
Adolescents are slowly being recognized as a generation, worldwide, that may require different policy approaches to aid in improving their health and wellbeing. Much anecdotal evidence exists from surveys and interviews that girls throughout the developing world face many hardships with menstruation due to a number of constraints, many of which result in poor emotional wellbeing Most of the research, up to this point, has consisted of purely qualitative analysis or at best, correlational evidence of linkages between girls’ background and their likelihood to practice good hygiene. This work, grounded in the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, evaluates the roles that cultural and school environments play in secondary appraisals of menstruation as a major life stressor. Further, emotional wellbeing is measured as an outcome indicative of the impact of these appraisals on coping strategies and their ultimate effectiveness. Using primary survey data from schools in both the Terai and Hill areas of Nepal, we performed fixed effect logit regressions utilizing multiple indexes building techniques, including principle component and multiple correspondence analysis. Robust results are found in support of our theoretical framework, showing that strong cultural norms during menstruation increase the probability of girls self reporting as feeling lonely, while presence of hygiene supporting infrastructure at schools reduces this outcome. Such evidence provides greater motivation for increasing government policies to provide stronger hygiene infrastructure in schools to improve problem management-based coping skills, and to emphasize more supportive cultural environments/social support to improve the effectiveness of emotional regulation-based coping strategies.