Reactions to Environmental Stressors

Abstract

Male and female residents of four slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and four slums in Islamabad, Pakistan, were interviewed about household and environmental stressors and about their mental distress and physical health. Within each city, the slums differed in terms of household-level variables (e.g., number of people and number of rooms per house) and contextual variables (e.g., number of families sharing a water source). Although there were gender differences in both cities, there were more gender differences and the gender differences were stronger in Islamabad than in Dhaka, consistent with the Islamic influence in the two countries.