• Abstract

    The vulnerability of women has positioned them to an untoward mental health status in comparison to men. The criticality of research on women's mental health is invincible, reflecting the unique biopsychosocial, factors influencing their psychological well-being. The present bibliometric analysis offers an approach for assessing trends, influential works, and gaps in women's mental health research. This study aims to perform a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of scholarly articles on women's mental health with a secondary emphasis on career and noncareer women's mental health, by utilizing data extracted from the Scopus database from 2013 - 2024 and analyzing the 655 research articles. Statistical descriptive analysis in combination with performance analysis and coword analysis was used to understand the research trends, leading countries and country collaborations studying women's mental health. The first publication appeared in 2013, with little research through 2019. Consistent publishing started increasing through 2020, with the largest increase occurring between 2021 to and 2023, constituting 90 publications. The United States of America is the leading country for studying mental health and women, including career women, with 1151 papers. This was followed by the second-highest contributor, the united kingdom, with 309 publications. Rajkumar (2020), reviewed the most influential piece of research, with 2320 citations. The Journal of Social Science and Medicine is noted as the leading journal publishing work on women's mental health, followed by the Journal of Affective Disorders.  The analysis reflects the increasing importance of women's mental health in developing nations, with meager contributions coming from developing and underdeveloped countries in the form of influential research in this area.

  • References

    1. Abrams, J. A., Hill, A., & Maxwell, M. (2018). Underneath the Mask of the Strong Black Woman Schema: Disentangling Influences of Strength and Self-Silencing on Depressive Symptoms among U.S. Black Women. Sex Roles, 80(9-10), 517–526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0956-y
    2. Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). bibliometrix : An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4), 959–975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007
    3. Berryman, C., Ferguson, C. J., & Negy, C. (2018). Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(2), 307–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6
    4. Bramley, O., Healy, L. C., & Sarkar, M. (2024). Mental ill-health in semi-elite women’s soccer in England: a mixed-methods approach. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 22(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2024.2311752
    5. Buckley, R., & Westaway, D. (2020). Mental health rescue effects of women’s outdoor tourism: A role in COVID-19 recovery. Annals of Tourism Research, 85(6), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103041
    6. Carroll, N., Sadowski, A., Laila, A., Hruska, V., Nixon, M., Ma, D. W. L., & Haines, J. (2020). The Impact of COVID-19 on Health Behavior, Stress, Financial and Food Security among Middle to High Income Canadian Families with Young Children. Nutrients, 12(8), 2352. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082352
    7. Clark, S., McGrane, A., Boyle, N., Joksimovic, N., Burke, L., Rock, N., & O’ Sullivan, K. (2021). “You’re a teacher you’re a mother, you’re a worker”: Gender inequality during COVID‐19 in Ireland. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(4), 1352–1362. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12611
    8. Coelhoso, C. C., Tobo, P. R., Lacerda, S. S., Lima, A. H., Barrichello, C. R. C., Amaro Jr, E., & Kozasa, E. H. (2019). A New Mental Health Mobile App for Well-Being and Stress Reduction in Working Women: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(11), e14269. https://doi.org/10.2196/14269
    9. Connor, J., Madhavan, S., Mokashi, M., Amanuel, H., Johnson, N. R., Pace, L. E., & Bartz, D. (2020). Health risks and outcomes that disproportionately affect women during the Covid-19 pandemic: A review. Social Science & Medicine, 266 (113364).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113364
    10. Devries, K. M., Mak, J. Y., Bacchus, L. J., Child, J. C., Falder, G., Petzold, M., Astbury, J., & Watts, C. H. (2013). Intimate Partner Violence and Incident Depressive Symptoms and Suicide Attempts: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies. PLoS Medicine, 10(5), e1001439. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001439
    11. Drydakis, N. (2015). The effect of unemployment on self-reported health and mental health in Greece from 2008 to 2013: A longitudinal study before and during the financial crisis. Social Science & Medicine, 128, 43–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.025
    12. Excellent Chireshe. (2024). Covid-19, Women’s Mental Health, and Religion in Zimbabwe: Insights from Christian Women and Clergymen in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Pharos Journal of Theology, 4(105), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.46222/pharosjot.105.45
    13. Fineran, S., & Gruber, J. E. (2009). Youth at work: Adolescent employment and sexual harassment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 33(8), 550–559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.01.001
    14. Fitzpatrick, K. M., Drawve, G., & Harris, C. (2020). Facing New Fears During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The State of America’s Mental Health. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 75(7), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102291
    15. Goodell, J. W., Kumar, S., Lim, W. M., & Pattnaik, D. (2021). Artificial intelligence and machine learning in finance: Identifying foundations, themes, and research clusters from bibliometric analysis. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 32(1), 100577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2021.100577
    16. Győrffy, Z., Dweik, D., & Girasek, E. (2016). Workload, mental health and burnout indicators among female physicians. Human Resources for Health, 14(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0108-9
    17. Hammoudeh, D., Coast, E., Lewis, D., van der Meulen, Y., Leone, T., & Giacaman, R. (2017). Age of despair or age of hope? Palestinian women’s perspectives on midlife health. Social Science & Medicine, 184, 108–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.028
    18. Hollerbach, B. S., Kaipust, C. M., Poston, W. S. C., Haddock, C. K., Heinrich, K. M., & Jahnke, S. A. (2020). Injury Correlates Among a National Sample of Women in the US Fire Service. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 62(8), 634–640. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000001918
    19. Lufler, R. S., & McNulty, M. A. (2022). The glass ceiling thickens: the impact of COVID-19 on academic medicine faculty in the United States. Medical Education Online, 27(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2058314
    20. Malhotra, S., & Shah, R. (2015). Women and mental health in India: An overview. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 57(6), 205. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.161479
    21. Minhas.A (2023). India: mental health disorders by gender 2021. Statista; Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1315256/india-mental-health-disorders-among-indians-by-gender/. Accessed on July 30, 2023.
    22. Nock, M. K., Borges, G., Bromet, E. J., Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M., Beautrais, A., Bruffaerts, R., Chiu, W. T., de Girolamo, G., Gluzman, S., de Graaf, R., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Huang, Y., Karam, E., Kessler, R. C., Lepine, J. P., Levinson, D., Medina-Mora, M. E., & Ono, Y. (2008). Cross-national prevalence and risk factors for suicidal ideation, plans and attempts. British Journal of Psychiatry, 192(2), 98–105. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.107.040113
    23. Preis, H., Mahaffey, B., Heiselman, C., & Lobel, M. (2020). Vulnerability and resilience to pandemic-related stress among U.S. women pregnant at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Science & Medicine, 266(23), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113348
    24. Rajgariah, R., Malenahalli Chandrashekarappa, S., Venkatesh Babu, D. K., Gopi, A., Murthy Mysore Ramaiha, N., & Kumar, J. (2020). Parenting stress and coping strategies adopted among working and non-working mothers and its association with socio-demographic variables: A cross-sectional study. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health, 9(1), 191–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2020.08.013
    25. Rajkumar, R. P. (2020). COVID-19 and mental health: A review of the existing literature. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(102066), 102066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066
    26. Rossi, A. S. (1965). Women in Science: Why So Few?: Social and psychological influences restrict women’s choice and pursuit of careers in science. Science, 148(3674), 1196–1202. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.148.3674.1196
    27. Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S. D. (2005). Stress and health: Psychological, behavioral, and biological determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1(1), 607–628. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.144141
    28. Seedat, S., Scott, K. M., Angermeyer, M. C., Berglund, P., Bromet, E. J., Brugha, T. S., Demyttenaere, K., de Girolamo, G., Haro, J. M., Jin, R., Karam, E. G., Kovess-Masfety, V., Levinson, D., Medina Mora, M. E., Ono, Y., Ormel, J., Pennell, B.-E., Posada-Villa, J., Sampson, N. A., & Williams, D. (2009). Cross-National Associations Between Gender and Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(7), 785. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.36
    29. Shepherd-Banigan, M., Bell, J. F., Basu, A., Booth-LaForce, C., & Harris, J. R. (2016). Workplace Stress and Working from Home Influence Depressive Symptoms Among Employed Women with Young Children. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 23(1), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-015-9482-2
    30. Shui, Y., Xu, D., Liu, Y., & Liu, S. (2020). Work-family balance and the subjective well-being of rural women in Sichuan, China. BMC Women’s Health, 20(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-019-0871-6
    31. Sommer, I. E., Brand, B. A., Gangadin, S., Tanskanen, A., Tiihonen, J., & Taipale, H. (2022). Women with Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders After Menopause: A Vulnerable Group for Relapse. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 49(1), 136–143. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac139
    32. Steel, Z., Marnane, C., Iranpour, C., Chey, T., Jackson, J. W., Patel, V., & Silove, D. (2014). The global prevalence of common mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis 1980–2013. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(2), 476–493. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyu038
    33. Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (pp. 379–440). Academic Press.
    34. Tripodi, S. J., & Pettus-Davis, C. (2013). Histories of childhood victimization and subsequent mental health problems, substance use, and sexual victimization for a sample of incarcerated women in the US. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 36(1), 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.11.005
    35. Vazquez-Vazquez, A., Dib, S., Rougeaux, E., Wells, J. c., & Fewtrell, M. S. (2020). The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the experiences and feeding practices of new mothers in the UK: Preliminary data from the COVID-19 New Mum Study. Appetite, 156, 104985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104985
    36. Wei, Y., Chen, Q., Wu, D., Fu, X., & Song, H. (2024). Exploring the role of psychological assistance hotlines in improving mental health problems among Chinese adult women: a perspective based on social expectations and gender roles. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 96, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104026
    37. World Health Organization. (2023). Maternal Mental Health. https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/promotion-prevention/maternal-mental-health. Accessed on August 19, 2023.
    38. Yan, X., Sayer, L. C., Negraia, D. V., Rinderknecht, R. G., Doan, L., Drotning, K. J., Fish, J. N., & Buck, C. (2022). Mothering and Stress during COVID-19: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Employment. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 8(1), 1-24. http://doi.org/10.1177/23780231221103056.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2025 The Authors

How to cite

Priya, V. B., Savitha, N., & Sharma, P. (2025). A decade of networking in women’s mental health: A bibliometric analysis. Multidisciplinary Reviews, 8(8), 2025237. https://doi.org/10.31893/multirev.2025237
  • Article viewed - 265
  • PDF downloaded - 127