Neighborhood Structural and Social Stressors and Mental Health: Urban Slums of Ghana

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Neighborhood Context

Abstract

Urban health in developing counties is a major public health challenge. It has become
increasingly evident that the dialogue must expand to include mental health outcomes, and to shift
focus to the facets of the urban environment that shape them. Population-based research is necessary,
as empirical findings linking the urban environment and mental health have primarily derived from
developed countries, and may not be generalizable to developing countries. Thus, the current study
assesses the prevalence of mental health problems (i.e., depression, perceived powerlessness), as well
as their community-based predictors (i.e., crime, disorder, poverty, poor sanitation, local social capital
and cohesion), among a sample of 690 residents in three poor urban communities in Accra, Ghana. It
uncovers that residents in poor urban communities in developing countries suffer from mental health
problems as a result of local stressors, which include not only physical and structural factors but social
ones. Social capital and social cohesion show complex, often unhealthy, relationships with mental
health, suggesting considerable drawbacks in making social capital a key focus among policymakers.

Authors

• Meredith Greif, Johns Hopkins University

• F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo, Pennsylvania State University