Exploring the Role of minority stress on South African Muslim Women’s Psychological Help-Seeking Behaviour

Minority identities of all types regularly experience poorer mental and physical health due to discrimination based on intersections of race, religion, ethnicity and gender. This process was coined by Meyer (2003) as minority stress and has come to represent the effects that discrimination, based on identity, has on an individual. Amongst the many minority identities that exist, Muslim women have in recent years experienced escalated rates of discriminatory treatment, due to political and social trends. The aim of this study was to explore the role of minority stress on South African Muslim women’s psychological help-seeking behaviour. The study employed a qualitative research design and made use of the purposive sampling method followed by the snowball sampling technique to identify participants. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and four themes were reported. These were: 1) descriptions of life as a Muslim woman 2) challenges faced by Muslim women in South Africa 3) psychological influences on mental health and 4) barriers to seeking psychological help. The researcher found that Muslim women do experience minority stress and it does influence help-seeking behaviour, however, it is not the only factor. Gender was found to be a greater stressor and contributed more to the minority stress experience.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 202