The Psychological Response to Menarche in Elementary School Students is Influenced by Age, Perception, Knowledge, and Information Sources

Background: Menarche causes anxiety in some teenagers, because they consider menstruation to be a disease and dirty blood. Purpose: The aim of the research is to determine the factors related to the psychological response during menarche at Khadijah Elementary School, Surabaya. Methods: This research is an analytical observational study with a cross-sectional approach. It was conducted at SD Khadijah Surabaya on May 3, 2024. The sample consisted of 47 female students who had experienced menarche. The sampling technique used was stratified random sampling. The research instruments included questionnaires on age at menarche, sources of information, knowledge and perceptions about menstruation and menarche, as well as psychological responses during menarche. The data were analyzed using the Chi-square test with a significance level of α = 0.05. Multivariate analysis was not performed to avoid overfitting due to the small sample size. Results: The results of the Chi-square test showed significant associations between psychological responses at menarche and the following variables: age at menarche (p = 0.001), knowledge (p = 0.000), perception (p = 0.000), and source of information (p = 0.035). Conclusion: Based on the results of the research and discussion that have been described, it can be concluded that there is a relationship between the age of menarche, knowledge, perception and sources of information with the psychological response during menarche at Khadijah Elementary School Surabaya.