To find out mean age of menarche, possible factors affecting the onset of menarche, and attitude and knowledge toward menarche among college women, a questionnaire survey was done on 1, 353 female college students in a freshman class in 1985 born from 1957 to 1969.
1. Mean age of menarche was 13, 91.23 years as a whole ; 13.8--1.25 years for students grown -up in urban areas (Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, 4 major cities in Korea) and 14. 01. 19 years for those in rural areas (z = 2. 63, p<0. 01).
2, Mean age of menarche showed distinct difference between those who were born before 1965 and those after 1966, showing the value of 14. 31. 44 years old for the former and 13. 84-1. 14 years old for the latter(z=5.47, p<0.01).
3. Majority(90. 3%) of the females experienced menarche between age of 122 and 15 years : 31.0% at 14, 26,. 9% at 13, 21.5% at 15. and 8.0% at age of 16 and 17 years. A few (1, 3%) experienced it at 11 years of age.
4. Menarche occurred most commonly in winter (33. 4,0) , and in summer (29. 750, in autumn (19.4%) and in spring (17.5 o) in order.
5. Number of brothers, feeding methods during infancy and parents´ educational level had no influence on the onset of menarche.
6. As for the emotional feelings that they experienced at menarche, "surprised" was most common(46.6 %), "shyness" (24.0%)´ came next, and "discomfort" (11.0%), "indifference" (9.8%), "mistaken feeling of illness" (2. 4%), "pleasure" (2, 1%), "guilty feeling" (0. 4%), and "others" (3.7%) in order,
7. Majority of the female students (84. 8%) had some knowledge about menarche prior to its occurrence, but the rest of them (13.8%) had not.
S. Sources of information from which they obtained some knowledge about- menarche.. were teachers (49.2%), parents(33.0/), friends (9.3%), mass media(6.6%,); relatives(0.10), and others(1.7%) in order.
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