Study, 2022
What factors affect how severe premenstrual symptoms are in female college students?
Women with higher self-compassion and better sleep had milder premenstrual symptoms. Those who felt shame about their body or had a family history of menstrual disorders had more severe symptoms.
What they did
Researchers studied 525 female college students and examined how different factors affected their premenstrual symptoms. They looked at body shame (feeling bad about appearance), self-compassion (being kind to oneself), sleep, caffeine use, menstrual flow, and family history of menstrual disorders. They analyzed which factors were linked to higher or lower symptom severity.
What they found
Students aged 19 to 20, those with no caffeine or only one cup per day, those with light or normal menstrual flow, and those with higher self-compassion had lower premenstrual symptom scores. Students unsatisfied with their sleep, those with a family history of menstrual disorders, or those with higher body shame had higher symptom scores.
What it means for you
Being kind to yourself and getting good sleep may help reduce premenstrual symptoms. Concerns about your body appearance and family history of menstrual problems were linked to worse symptoms. The study only looked at college students in Korea, so findings may not apply to all women.
525
female college students studied
19-20 years
age group with lowest symptom scores
About the study
- Original title
- "Effects of Objectified Body Consciousness and Self-compassion on Premenstrual Syndrome Among Female College Students"
- Authors
- Jungyoon Keum, Sunghee Lee
- Journal
- The Journal of Humanities and Social sciences 21
- Year
- 2022
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None (observational study examining relationships between factors and symptoms).
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.22143/hss21.13.3.158
Topics
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