The nexus of the risk of depression and residential mobility for urban poor mothers in Nairobi
The nexus between mental well-being and residential mobility is understudied in African urban settings. Identifying the relationship between the two among mothers in urban Africa is critical. The World Health Organization estimates that as a whole, the African continent has the world’s highest rates of depressive disorders, especially for young mothers, who face high risks of depression and poor postpartum mental health with few resources to lean on. Children born from mothers with mental disorders are at an increased risk of low birth weight, malnutrition and stunting, delays in immunization, and diarrheal and infectious disease. Therefore, addressing the mental health needs of women is of critical importance in attempts to reduce the burden of ill health and deaths among mothers and children in Africa.
Residential mobility and the risk of depression among mothers may be linked through changes in the availability of help from family and community members, and changes in neighborhood characteristics, such as crime and socioeconomic development. This paper by Faculty Associate Sangeetha Madhavan and her colleagues uses longitudinal data to assess the nexus of residential mobility and the risk of depression among urban mothers in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.
Observational survey data from the first four waves of the JAMO study (March 2022 - October 2023) were used for analysis. A group of 1,023 mothers aged 18-29 with at least one child 0-24 months were enrolled using simple random sampling at Wave 1 of the JAMO study. This was done to understand the relationships between marriage, kinship, and children’s health development outcomes in two informal settlements: Korogocho and Viwandani. Mental health data was also collected using the CES-D-10 scale. Longitudinal regressions were then used to test whether changes in risk of depression are associated with changes in residential mobility, and vice versa.
This study found that one in four women have experienced at least one residential movement over the study period in both Korogocho and Viwandani. Mothers who move to Viwandani in particular, were found to have an elevated risk of depression. This risk seems to be driven mostly by mothers who were not born in Nairobi. While residential mobility can be a driver for personal, familial, and societal betterment in urban poor settings, the movement inevitably comes with changes in neighborhood contexts and is associated with dislocation and stress.
Myroniuk, T.W., Sidze, E.M., White, M.J., Mberu, B., Madhavan, S. (2025). “The nexus of the risk of depression and residential mobility for urban poor mothers: New longitudinal evidence from Nairobi.” SSM - Mental Health Vol. 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2025.100430
