“I know your problems; take your bag and go home”: a qualitative study using the social-ecological model to understand drivers of suboptimal school and social participation among secondary schoolgirls in Northwest Tanzania

Background: School attendance and completion among girls protect them from multiple sexual and reproductive health problems. However, inadequate resources for managing menstruation remains a barrier to school participation and learning in low- and middle-income countries. With the increased global focus on closing the gender gap in education, schoolgirls’ voices are important in understanding drivers of suboptimal social and school participation during menstruation. This paper explores how menstruation influences social and school participation from the perspectives of schoolgirls. Methods: We conducted 40 in-depth interviews with purposively-selected secondary schoolgirls aged 13–20 years in two rural and two urban schools in Northern Tanzania from 2021 to 2022. To be eligible for participation, the schoolgirls must have reported missing school during their last menstruation. We used an in-depth interview guide to elicit girls’ menstrual experiences and how such experience influenced their school and social participation. We used NVivo 12 software to code data and employed thematic analysis using the social-ecological model. Results: The respondents described the drivers of suboptimal social and school participation at the individual level (negative menstrual experience, i.e. menstrual pain and constant worries of menstrual blood leaking, and individual economic constraints); interpersonal level (the fear of menstrual status disclosure, and peer’s attitude); school level (inadequate emergency pad at school, lack of private place to change, and unhygienic school WASH); and societal level socio-cultural restrictions (girls are prohibited from touching plants/vegetables, engaging in household chores/religious worship, or physical contact with men during menstruation, and refusal to use conventional painkillers to relief menstrual pain). Conclusions: The findings suggest that drivers of suboptimal social and school participation among secondary schoolgirls exist at the individual, interpersonal relationship, school, and societal levels. Multi-level evidence-based multicomponent interventions to improve menstrual health at all socio-ecological levels are warranted for optimal social and school participation among schoolgirls.