Puberty challenges of female adolescents with visual impairment

Abstract

Physical, psychological, emotional, and social maturity is one of the main challenges occurring during adolescence and is associated with dramatic changes in adolescents. However, these challenges are worsened when the adolescent has a disability in addition to pubertal changes. Accordingly, the present study aimed to explore the puberty challenges of female adolescents with visual impairment.This study is qualitative in terms of its design and an applied study in terms of its objectives and was conducted using a descriptive phenomenology. The research population included all female adolescents with visual impairment who were studying in high school in Tehran in 2020. The participants were blind and visually impaired girls who were selected from the Narjes educational Complex for Blind Girls using purposive sampling. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were saturated after interviewing 15 participants. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method of data analysis.

The challenges faced by the female adolescents with visual impairment were categorized into four main themes including “worrying emotions experienced during puberty,” “development of emotional and love needs,” “redefining social relationships with family and others,” and “lack of information resources on puberty.” This study showed that the lack of information resources, awareness about puberty for female adolescents with visual impairment, the way others treat the puberty of girls, and adolescents’ own reaction to the phenomenon of puberty affect their quality of life in this period. Therefore, paying attention to the experience of female adolescents with visual impairment about the phenomenon of puberty provides a true picture of the feelings, needs, and challenges for visually impaired female adolescents during puberty, their families, school health educators, health professionals, and school counselors.