Problems of Growing Age

According to the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA), only 29 percent girls and 41 percent boys have access to correct information about puberty and hygiene in Pakistan. Furthermore, most Pakistani parents are uneasy discussing sensitive but vital health issues with their growing up children. Seventy- two percent of participants believed that they should be given proper information about puberty and the changes of adolescence so they could deal with them better.

A proportion of 8.4% has linked emotional changes with puberty. Among emotional changes, most commonly reported was mood swings, which was mentioned by 33.9% boys and 35.3% girls. Among emotional changes, anger, frustration, lack of confidence and personality conflicts were mentioned. An important point mentioned by girls was that there was a change in attitude of people at this time, which scared them.

Adolescents expressed that sometimes puberty related changes caused confusion and frustration, especially because of lack of proper information, as they were not informed about these changes in time by either their parents or teachers. Other problems of growing age mentioned by adolescents were: lack of guidance from parents, wrong information on physical changes from peers, no knowledge about religious obligations after puberty, neatness, lack of self-esteem and self-confidence, lack of decision making power and no guidance about how to handle the situation.