Emotions and Moods during Menstruation as Predictors of Adaptability, Resilience, and Mental Wellness of Young Women

Abstract

Background: Emotional and mood fluctuations are common during menstruation, particularly during menarche and the menopausal period of women’s lives. The extent to which it bears on the mental well-being and personality of women throughout their lives is less studied.

Objectives: This is an exploratory study aimed at exploring the effects of menstruation on behavioural and personality aspects of young women to understand determinants of certain behavioural and personality traits that may possibly develop during the course of menstruation and the challenges therein in responding, which is felt to be contributing to the emergence of behavioural and personality traits. This also revealed some of the effects of menstruation on the development of behavioral and personality traits, and determined the extent to which these emerged and the role played by menstrual events from adolescence.

Methods: The data from the inventory, gathered by administering it to young women, have been used to explore the behavioural and personality aspects of these young women. The inventory has been used in the exploratory study, with permission from the owners of the copyright of the inventory. The inventory comprises 72 items and encompasses various behavioral dimensions, including locus of control, mental wellness, critical thinking, and resilience, which may be influenced by menstruation, resulting in the development of both negative and positive traits. Through this exploratory study, an attempt has been made to determine whether the development of behavioral traits during adolescence has any carryover effect on young women. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were also applied by converting the Likert scale to low and high scores.

Results: A total of 114 girls responded to the inventory. The Cronbach alpha value of each component ranged between 0.91 and 0.92, and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was

.682, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant. Principal Component Analysis using varimax and Kaiser normalisations, rotation converged in 6 iterations, extracted 4 components, and all 12 variables were identified with 4 major components. Running the regression analysis,

it was found that awareness and low fearfulness during menstruation were significant predictors of traits such as adaptability, resilience, and mental well-being.

Conclusion: High awareness and low fearfulness were predictors of mental health, which is characterized by traits such as locus of control, curiosity, awareness, critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and inquisitiveness, ultimately leading to the development of various skills and competencies in young women.