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Clinical Psychology

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Browsing Clinical Psychology by Subject "African cultural beliefs."

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    An exploration of young women’s menstrual experiences in the African context: a scoping review.
    (2023) Pillay, Lorelle.; Valjee, Sachet Rabindranath.
    Introduction: Limited research has been conducted on menstrual experiences and the impact of menstrual experiences on young women in the African context. Growing bodies of research show that young women experience menstruation negatively due to lack of knowledge and adequate resources within low- and middle-income countries. The research that currently exists around the topic of menstruation is mostly quantitative and the in-depth narratives of young women’s menstrual experiences are only minutely explored. It was found that socio-cultural beliefs and practices play a role in influencing certain negative menstrual experiences and perceptions of menstruation. This study aims to examine and map the impact of menstrual experiences on young women in Africa as well as the socio-cultural influences on menstrual experiences. Method and analysis: This study was conducted by means of a scoping review. Data was extracted from multiple databases on EBSCOHost. The process of data extraction was presented in the form of a PRISMA Flow diagram. A total of 15 articles were included in the present study. Results and Discussion: It was found that young women’s experiences of menstruation in Africa have mostly been negative and that these experiences were attributed to a lack of adequate water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in their respective environments, the misinformation about menstruation and menstruating females portrayed by cultural norms and the lack of education around menstruation and menstrual processes. The major themes identified from the thematic analysis were 1) The impact of menstrual experiences amongst young women in Africa and 2) The socio-cultural influences on menstrual experiences. The sub-themes identified in relation to the impact of menstrual experiences included 1) Attendance, 2) Mental distress, and 3) Lack of sanitary facilities. The sub-themes identified in relation to socio-cultural influences on menstrual experiences included 1) Lack of menstrual knowledge, and 2) Concealment. Conclusion and recommendations: Two overarching themes were identified during the process of analysis and were divided into a total of 5 sub4 themes. There exists a need for future research to focus on intervention, exploring qualitative research and expanding research in different countries within the African context.