Mental distress and physical symptoms in the slums of New Delhi: The role of individual, household, and neighborhood factors

Same-gender researchers interviewed 218 male and 198 female residents of 7 slums in New Delhi, India, which varied in terms of both household-level variables (e.g., number of people and number of rooms per house) and neighborhood-level variables (e.g., number of families sharing a water source). Consistent with prior research, women rated household stressors more negatively than did men. In contrast, men rated environmental stressors (traffic, garbage, air pollution, and crime) more negatively than did women. Individual-level factors (age and psychological variables) significantly predicted both mental distress and physical symptoms. However, multivariate analyses revealed significant householdand neighborhood-level effects on mental distress, but not physical symptoms.