Social Stress and the Health of Women in the Andean Highlands: An Explorative Study

Abstract

Social stress and health were explored among Andean highlanders to understand what stressors Andean women experience. The women’s stressors were investigated using the research methods of cultural domain analysis: free listing, unconstrained pile sorting, and constrained pile sorting. Analysis of the data has shown insight into how Andean women process the stressors they experience. The collected data was analyzed using cultural domain analysis to examine relationships between demographic variables and social stress. The findings reflect a shared consensus among women in the Andean highlands surrounding the kinds of stressors they experience, as well as how they categorize these stressors.