Mother-daughter communication about puberty in Egypt

Parental communication during puberty can be a protective factor for adolescents. In Egypt, girls have poor access to sexual and reproductive health services and there is a lack of information on puberty in school curricula. Yet little is known about girls' other sources of information about pu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Culture, health & sexuality Vol. 24; no. 12; pp. 1665 - 1680
Main Authors:	Bader, Norhan, Ali, Ahmed K., Sieverding, Maia
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Taylor & Francis 01-12-2022 Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:	adolescence Adolescent Adolescent girls Adolescent mothers Communication Communication skills Curricula Daughters Delayed Egypt Embarrassment Female Girls Health services Humans Hygiene Information sources menstruation Mother-Child Relations mother-daughter communication Mothers Nuclear Family Parent-child relations Protective factors Puberty Reproductive health Sexual behavior Sexuality Social norms Stigma Women Young mothers Egypt adolescence puberty mother-daughter communication menstruation Egypt
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Summary:	Parental communication during puberty can be a protective factor for adolescents. In Egypt, girls have poor access to sexual and reproductive health services and there is a lack of information on puberty in school curricula. Yet little is known about girls' other sources of information about puberty, including communication with mothers. We analysed 29 in-depth interviews with young mothers of girls in Greater Cairo to better understand mother-daughter communication about puberty. We examine respondents' motivations for communication with their daughters, the type of messages they provided or expected to provide, and barriers to mother-daughter communication, paying particular attention to intergenerational dynamics with respect to how women learn about puberty. We found that while mothers wanted to, and did, play a primary role in communicating with girls about puberty, discussions were constrained by lack of information and embarrassment. Mothers were more open to discussing some aspects of puberty, such as hygiene, than others. Conversations may also be delayed due to social norms about what is appropriate for girls to know and when. Messages were often fear-based and embedded in norms that stigmatised girls' sexuality. Programmes and interventions targeting mothers' knowledge and communication skills around puberty should be adapted and tested in the context of Egypt.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1369-1058 1464-5351
DOI:	10.1080/13691058.2021.1995049