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Title
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Attitudes about menstruation: a qualitative study of implicit and explicit attitudes.
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Author
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Baldwin, Kaitlyn
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Abstract/Description
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Studies have been conducted to understand menstrual stigma, supporting the hypothesis that women internalize stigma and feel required to modify their behaviors to adapt to societal rules surrounding menstruation. Conflicting results have been reported regarding current attitudes toward menstruation, with some reporting that the stigma is still prevalent, while others have found no evidence of stigma. The purpose of the current research is to expand on these studies, further exploring the...
Show moreStudies have been conducted to understand menstrual stigma, supporting the hypothesis that women internalize stigma and feel required to modify their behaviors to adapt to societal rules surrounding menstruation. Conflicting results have been reported regarding current attitudes toward menstruation, with some reporting that the stigma is still prevalent, while others have found no evidence of stigma. The purpose of the current research is to expand on these studies, further exploring the prevalence of and reasons for menstruation stigma and to explore individual perceptions surrounding the discussion of women's menstrual cycles in college women and men. In a pilot study (Study 1) we found that, on a 7-point Likert scale, women and men self-report neutral to slightly positive attitudes toward menstruation, averaging slightly positive. In contrast, 87.7% of women and 76.9% of men have witnessed menstruation related bullying, and 52.3% of women have personally experienced it. These findings expose a discrepancy between experienced menstruation stigma and expected biases. As such, we modified our previous survey with more direct questions to better reveal the true attitudes of college students. The modified survey (Study 2) included questions regarding perceived stigma, internalized stigma, experienced stigma, and menstruation related stereotypes and an Implicit Association Task (IAT) to measure internalized menstruation stigma. We expected that Study 2 would replicate previous results regarding societal perceptions of menstrual stigma and personal attitudes toward menstruation trending positively. In addition, we expect to find that the IAT reveals participants to hold implicit negative associations about menstruation.
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Date Issued
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2020
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Identifier
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1151766549, WFE0000684
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Format
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Document (PDF)