Year: 2026
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Fisher women (FSW) are major contributors to the coastal economies in fish catching, processing, marketing and management of household affairs.Although they make significant socioeconomic contributions, they are disproportionately vulnerable to occupational stress, livelihood insecurity, gender discrimination, climate related disasters and lack of access to health care and social protection, which negatively impact their psychological wellbeing.This is a systematic literature review which aimed to synthesize the existing evidence on the psychological well-being of FSW and the major determinants influencing their mental health and quality of life.The review was carried out as per PRISMA 2020 guidelines.Literature search was carried out in Google scholar, PubMed and Semantic scholar, which resulted in 800 records.After duplicate removal, title and abstract screening, and fulltext eligibility assessment, 100 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2026 were included in the qualitative synthesis.The results show that the main causes affecting the psychological well-being of FSW are occupational stress, poverty, financial instability, family burden and gender inequality.Emotional distress and livelihood insecurity is also compounded by climate change, coastal disaster, environmental degradation and diminishing fisheries resources.In contrast, factors such as resilience, social support, community engagement, empowerment of women, livelihood diversification, and coping mechanisms emerged as protective factors that promote psychological well-being.The review also points to important areas of research that are currently underdeveloped, such as a lack of standardization of the psychological assessment tools, limited longitudinal studies, and weak incorporation of mental health in fisheries and coastal development policies.To enhance the psychological well-being and quality of life of FSW, there is a need to strengthen gender responsive health policies, occupational safety, community-based resilience programmes and psychosocial support services.There is a need for future interdisciplinary research to produce strong evidence for sustainable and inclusive policy development.
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7223182964