The Cultural Construct of Stress in Luganda-Speaking Women in Uganda

Luganda, the primary language spoken in Uganda has no word for stress, but this does not necessarily preclude the Luganda-speaking population from experiencing stress. There is currently no research that reveals the stress phenomenon from a Ugandan’s perspective. The purpose of this study was to examine how Luganda-speaking Ugandans conceptualize stress. Two theoretical foundations formed the basis of this study: the cognitive appraisal of stress theory and the coordinated management of meaning. Using a qualitative interpretive design, this study examined the conceptualization of stress by Luganda-speaking women in terms of understanding, experiencing, and communicating the stress phenomenon. Participants were 7 native Luganda-speaking Ugandan women who were fluent in English and moved to an English-speaking Western country. They provided stories via video conferencing which became the data that was analyzed using the LUUUUTT model. The main finding surrounding stress conceptualization showed that participants had no cultural construct of stress in Uganda even after cultural immersion in the West. Noting this lack of a stress construct within Uganda may help Luganda-speaking community workers better understand the lived experiences of difficulties from the Luganda-speakers’ perception and could be an aid in creating culturally sensitive and helpful management strategies for promoting mental and emotional well-being in the face of hardship