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Managing midlife: Examining coping strategies of menopausal women using a qualitative study
Boschman, E. (2025) Managing midlife: Examining coping strategies of menopausal women using a qualitative study.
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| Abstract: | The menopausal transition is a phase all women will experience in their lives. It brings about physical symptoms like hot flashes as well as psychological symptoms such as low mood or concentration problems. To manage the symptoms so greatly affecting women’s lives, menopausal women often make use of coping strategies. While previous research, most frequently cross-sectional, mainly focuses on emotional responses to menopause and discovering coping strategies that are considered effective in reducing symptoms, research lacks an approach in which coping strategies implemented in daily life are examined. Therefore, this study investigated the applied coping strategies of eight (peri)menopausal women by conducting semi-structured interviews. A qualitative interview study approach was chosen to allow for an in-depth understanding of the participants’ experiences, and to allow for elaboration on motivations and personal needs. The interviews lasted about 47-75 minutes per participant, after which the recordings of these were transcribed and coded. Cohen’s kappa was calculated for two large codes. A thematic content analysis on the data brought about four main themes: lifestyle adjustments, emotional coping, gathering relevant information and utilising social support networks. The main findings revealed that women often used multiple coping strategies simultaneously, with particular emphasis on lifestyle adjustments, the role of female peer support and light-hearted emotional coping, such as the implementation of humour, which was not found in prior literature. Implications of the study included sampling bias due to convenience sampling, a sample of solely Western women and a low kappa score for one of the codes. Findings could be implemented in practice by, for instance, establishing support groups. Since this study is merely a snapshot of women’s menopausal experiences, longitudinal studies for future research are recommended. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107204 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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