Pengetahuan Remaja Awal dalam Menghadapi Menarch

Abstract

Puberty is the stage of development in one's life from a child into an adult. Generally, there is no exact boundary that marks the end of children stage and the beginning of puberty. However, it can be said that puberty may come once the ovary starts developed and end when the ovary has completely functioned. First menstruation or menarche is a common thing that every woman normally experiences. Regarding the aforementioned characteristics of puberty, menarche is considered as the basis concern that differentiates the puberty between men and women. Along with menarche, some changes also occur at puberty, namely thelarche (breast development), adrenarche (development of pubic hair and axillaries hair), faster increased height, and psychological changes. This present study aims to analyze early teenagers' knowledge about experiencing menarche. Thus, this study employs descriptive approach since the researcher tends to identify the understanding of early teenagers in dealing with menarche. The result showed that there are nine respondents (25.7%) are well-informed about menarche, 10 respondents (28.6%) have adequate knowledge and 16 respondents (45.7%) are lack of knowledge about menarche. This result suggests that further studies on the topic are of significant to be conducted, particularly concerning menarche on teenagers. This is due to the insignificant numbers of studies on teenagers that are available.