A study on mental health status and coping skills in female household heads in Birjand

Female heads of households stand as a vulnerable group who are exposed to various psychological and social harms. The purpose of this study was to determine the mental health and coping skills of female heads of households in Birjand in 2017.
This cross-sectional study incorporated 200 women (age range: 20-50 years) that were covered by the Relief Committee. They were selected by cluster sampling method where participants were selected via proportional allocation from each region in Birjand. The data were collected by Lazarus’ Ways of Coping Questionnaire and the standard General Health Questionnaire. Data were analyzed in SPSS 19 using Chi-square, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests.
The mean age of women was 38.5 ± 36.7 years old. They acted as heads mainly because of divorce (48.5% of them). Only 11.6% had a satisfactory mental health and 77.5% had problem-oriented coping skills. There was no significant relationship between mental health and coping skills. Among demographic variables, only employment status and education correlated with mental health, so that social dysfunction was significantly greater in employed women. Women with higher education levels had higher depression. Employment status was also significantly associated with coping styles where unemployed women were more emotion-oriented than the employed ones.
The female heads of households in this study fail to have proper mental health. Thus, there is the need for planning effective interventions and consequently improving living conditions and mental health of these women.