Coping Strategies of Women in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

Background and Purpose: Women living in informal settlements - defined as areas lacking durable housing, access to basic infrastructure and secure tenancy - are more susceptible to extreme weather events (e.g. floods, heatwaves, cold spells). As we seek to better understand the lived experiences of residents of informal settlements and work collaboratively with communities to develop strategies to improve health and wellbeing amidst threats posed by climate change, our social work values lead us to strengths-based research and program design processes. Using community based participatory methods, the aim of this study was to understand the coping strategies of women in informal settlements so that research and program development can be tailored to communities’ needs and strengths, and honor the ways that women have and continue to navigate challenges in their lives.

Methods: As a part of a large community-participatory, longitudinal study investigating the impacts of climate change on women’s health and mental health, we analyzed data on women’s coping strategies collected through monthly surveys (September 2022- February 2023) completed by a probability sample of 800 women living in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. We used relative frequency distributions to analyze women’s responses to questions asking them to identify the coping strategies they use to deal with stress.

Results: Participants reported a range of coping strategies, including those that are social, spiritual/emotional, self-care, and media-based. The most common social strategies included talking with friends (58.3%) and talking with family (39.2%). Others included engaging in more family activities (17.9%), helping others (7.1%), talking to health providers more frequently (2.9%), talking with a mental health counselor (2.3%), and talking to people who are pregnant or parenting (1.1%). Spiritual and emotional coping strategies included meditation and/or mindfulness practices (20.1%) and increased time reading books or doing puzzles (2.7%). Participants who identified “other” strategies (33.1%) also highlighted praying and listening to music. Self-care strategies included getting a good night's sleep (31.9%), taking baths or applying makeup (9.5%), increased food intake (7.4%), and decreased food intake (6.4%). Media-based coping strategies included increased television time (22.2%), increased (9.7%) or decreased (.9%) time on social media, and increased (3.3%) or decreased (.8%) time following news coverage (3.3%). Other coping strategies included using alcohol (3.3%) and drugs (.8%). In addition, 1.8% of participants indicated none/nothing in response to this question.

Conclusions and Implications: Despite the great need for them, coping and resilience and climate adaptation strategies that incorporate these mechanisms remain understudied in these communities. Findings suggest that women in informal settlements in Kenya employ a number of positive coping strategies, especially social-, spiritual, and media-based, that could be integrated into and bolstered by climate adaptation strategies for these communities. Findings also highlight a need for more research focused on integrating coping strategies of women in informal settlements into programs and policies targeted at addressing health risks exacerbated by climate change.