Liminality, Maternal Menstrual Knowledge and Socialization of Adolescent Daughters: A Qualitative Study in Pakistan

Abstract

This qualitative study explores mothers’ understanding of the pubertal process and how they socialize their daughters regarding menstruation at the advent of the adolescence stage. Thematic analysis of data from 34 females who had adolescent daughters revealed four themes: Daughters become adolescent earlier than before; onset of gender and religious socialization; understanding of female bodily processes; and euphemisms as communication tools. Findings indicate mothers focus on reproductive maturity that involves biological aspects of the transition from girls to women, along with an emphasis on social maturity that pertains to the need for girls to undergo gender and religious socialization to embrace new roles and relationships as women. Puberty may pose estrangement for mother anddaughter owing to informal control behind female reproductive health.

Keywords:

• Gender
• menstruation
• puberty
• reproductive health

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the mothers for sharing their beliefs and practices regarding a sensitive topic like female sexual and reproductive health that contributed to our study. We also appreciate the dedicated facilitation of the hospital staff.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research, supporting data is not available.