The meaning of menarche: A cross-cultural semantic network analysis

ABSTRACT

The psychological meaning of menarche was explored in 102 college students from Mexico and the United States. The Natural Semantic Networks Technique was used and participants were asked to respond to the prompt “My first period was …” The strongest components of the Mexican women's semantic network were scary, confusing, and unexpected; the strongest components of the American women's semantic network were unexpected, annoying, and painful. Only the Americans listed positive words (i.e., nice). The Mexicans' network contained the most negative words (i.e., dirty). The results suggest a need for better education and greater social support, especially in Mexico.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Kristian Jasso who assisted them in the collection and analyses of data, and Jacinto Terrazas who assisted them in joining the thesauruses.