IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0310832.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coping strategies employed by older Nepalese migrant women to manage their mental distress in the UK: A qualitative research

Author

Listed:
  • Lalita Kumari Sah
  • Rajeeb Kumar Sah
  • Devendra Raj Singh
  • Rochelle A Burgess

Abstract

Introduction: Mental health and wellbeing is a global public health concern. However, there is limited evidence on managing the mental health needs of the Nepalese migrant population in the UK. This paper is focused on exploring coping strategies employed by older Nepalese migrant women in managing their mental distress. Methods: A qualitative study informed by a narrative approach was conducted among twenty Nepalese older women living in London. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Findings identified three major coping strategies used by Nepalese older women: i) Engaging others to access human, social and economic resources in problem focussed strategies; ii) Using emotion-focussed strategies through drawing on human and social resources; and iii) Employing emotion-focussed strategies through prayer and acceptance. Each strategy reflected the strategic use of existing resources, highlighting a strong sense of ownership over their mental wellbeing. Conclusion: Nepalese women used both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies to manage their mental distress while living in the UK. However, they had poor awareness of the availability or potential benefits of mental health services in managing their distress and were not able to identify their everyday survival as strengths. We assert social interventions that build on women’s abilities are essential to promote mental health and wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Lalita Kumari Sah & Rajeeb Kumar Sah & Devendra Raj Singh & Rochelle A Burgess, 2024. "Coping strategies employed by older Nepalese migrant women to manage their mental distress in the UK: A qualitative research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(12), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0310832
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310832
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310832
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310832&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0310832?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke Brian Connelly, 2018. "Out of sight but not out of mind: Home countries' macroeconomic volatilities and immigrants' mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 189-208, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hoang, Thu, 2025. "The effect of home countrys income on immigrant-origin childrens education: Evidence from Australia," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 84, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    2. Hasan, Syed & Ratna, Nazmun & Shakur, Shamim, 2019. "Exchange rate, remittances and expenditure of foreign-born households: evidence from Australia," GLO Discussion Paper Series 331, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Zhao, Yuejun, 2023. "Job displacement and the mental health of households: Burden sharing counteracts spillover," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke & Le, Huong Thu & Mitrou, Francis & Taylor, Catherine L. & Zubrick, Stephen R., 2019. "Sources of ethnicity differences in non-cognitive development in children and adolescents," EconStor Preprints 205801, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Hasan, Syed & Shakur, Shamim & Breunig, Robert, 2021. "Exchange rates and expenditure of households with foreign-born members: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 977-997.
    6. Francis Mitrou & Ha Trong Nguyen & Huong Thu Le & Stephen R. Zubrick, 2024. "The causal impact of mental health on tobacco and alcohol consumption: an instrumental variables approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 1287-1310, March.
    7. Hailemariam, Abebe & Yew, Siew Ling & Appau, Samuelson, 2021. "Gender health gaps: The role of risky addictive behaviors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 639-660.
    8. Prakash, Kushneel & Kumar, Sanjesh, 2025. "Smoking to your kids gain? Childhood exposure to parental smoking and obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    9. Prakash, Kushneel & Kumar, Sanjesh, 2021. "“Smoking your child’s job away”: Parental smoking during one’s childhood and the probability of being employed in adulthood," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 86-98.
    10. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Lisa Farrell & Russell Smyth, 2019. "Neighbourhood ethnic diversity and mental health in Australia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(9), pages 1075-1087, September.
    11. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Locus of control and the mental health effects of local area crime," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    12. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim & Prakash, Kushneel & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Locus of control and the gender gap in mental health," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 740-758.
    13. Bharadwaj, P. & Doiron, D. & Fiebig, D. G. & Suziedelyte, A., 2020. "Psychological Costs of Migration: Home Country Natural Disasters and Mental Health," Working Papers 20/03, Department of Economics, City University London.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0310832. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.