Puberty Experience among daughters of Single Fathers; Qualitative Study in Yazd

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

2 Master student of sociology , Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

3 Master student of Social science research, Department of Cooperation and Social Welfare, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

Abstract

Puberty is a biological, complex and a social constract phenomena which is experienced diffently among girls. Daughters with Single Fathers can have a different experience of puberty. This issue can be related to the quality of the father's and other family members' interaction with the girl's puberty. In the absence of mothers, daughters of Single Fathers have several problems. They don’t have a clue and a pattern of female for a successful passage through puberty. The main question of the current research is to explore the experience of puberty among daughters of Single Fathers. For this purpose, the challenges of the health behaviors of these groups’ daughters during menstruation, their understanding of puberty and their experience about the subject were also studied under the main objective. This is a qualitative study that was conducted in 2022-2023 in Yazd. The participants are 10 girls aged 13-16 from Yazd who have lived with their father for more than 6 months. Sampling was done purposefully in schools. The participants cooperated with us voluntarily, in order to achieve maximum diversity, the samples were selected from different schools. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews in the teachers’ room. Using thematic analysis method for data analysis. Using the theme analysis method, the patterns and themes in the qualitative data were identified. The explored themes of the research showed that puberty and its experience among the daughters under fathers’ custody is a masculine thing which is related to the way the father behaves. The experience of puberty is closely related to the father's behavior. This means that the father's attitude and behavior in this field can bring different experiences for the participants. Fathers who try to understand the issue correctly and accept it and are in line to support their daughter, help a lot to accept the issue in their youth. Unlike those fathers who are indifferent to the issue and neglect it, he has turned puberty into a problematic phenomenon in which the girl experiences a sense of shame and secrecy, and in some cases, a decrease in self-confidence and disgust from this natural phenomenon. The three themes which explored are: supportive father, neglectful father and problematic puberty. The experience of puberty among girls with fathers’ custody is more related to the father's point of view and the role of fatherhood. This shows that in these cases puberty experience is more social than biological. In fact, the girl's puberty experience is a social, masculine and paternal thing that is related with social and cultural values. The problematization of puberty and menstruation in families where the mother is not present and the society is taboo is more, which is the result of lack of knowledge about the natural mechanism of the body, necessary care during menstruation, etc. It is suggested that due to the expansion of single-parent families especially fathers, education about puberty and menstrual health should be promoted in schools, educational booklets for girls and fathers about menstruation should be published, and open and honest communication between fathers and daughters should be encouraged.

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References

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Woman in Development & Politics
Volume 22, Issue 1
April 2024
Pages 115-142

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