Worries and worriers in Thailand

Abstract

How the health and well‐being of families in northern Thailand might be gendered and class linked was assessed. First, ethnographic data were gathered to contextualize and elaborate the local meanings of the indigenous concepts kaan khit maak, "thinking‐a‐lot,” and kaan khit maak kern pai, "thinking‐too‐much.” What informants were thinking a lot about was assessed. The health implications of the concept of “thinking‐too‐much” were then evaluated in 318 middle‐aged women and their 24‐year‐old children (147 daughters and 154 sons) using the Symptoms of Stress Inventory (SOSI). Findings from the SOSI complemented those from fieldwork, demonstrating that both worrying and symptoms of stress were sex linked as well as associated with poverty and with life cycle stage. It is recommended that educational programs to promote khwaan khit pen, the “ability to think”, among the disadvantaged of society be resumed.