A Cultural Perspective of Housewives' Adaptation to Mental Health Issues Caused by COVID-19

Abstract

The lockdown situation during the COVID-19 pandemic was a substantial pressure for housewives, especially in terms of the psychological effects. Before the pandemic, housewives in Indonesia took care of their husbands and children as a mother and as a wife. During the pandemic, that role increased: they had to be a teacher for their kids and with the husband they needed to think about the economic factors of income. To maintain their mental health, they needed to have strategies of coping mechanisms. This research aimed to examine the mental health of housewives in Sungai Bawang Culture Village and the process of adaptation from the cultural perspective of Dayak Kenyah Tribe. The researchers used mixed methods approaches. Interviews were conducted with 10 respondents to understand about the cultural perspectives, and the DASS-21 questionnaire and Ways of Coping questionnaire were used to measure the level of stress and coping mechanisms used by 50 housewives. The results of Fisher’s exact test showed that culture had an impact on the coping strategies used by the housewives. Most of the housewives used coping strategies to focus on their problems (to overcome the core of the problems or try to reduce the negative effect due to the problems) and most of them did not have stress. Keywords: COVID-19, mental health, cultural perspective, coping strategies