Public PhD Defense of Madalena Vanda Ramos

Madalena Vanda Ramos, a PhD candidate in the Doctoral Program in Psychology, will defend the thesis titled "Com o mundo às costas: Stress e identidades sociais nas zungueiras de Luanda". The public defense is scheduled for July 4, 2025, 10:00 at Sala de Provas, B327 (Building 4) of Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon.

Information about online participation and any updates should be consulted at Iscte's website.

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to characterise stress in the work of zungueiras (women who sell in informal markets) in the city of Luanda, Angola. It also sought to understand the role of groups in mitigating the impact of stress on the health of these women. From a conceptual point of view, we used the transactional theory of stress by Lazarus and Folkman (1984, which emphasises the importance of meaning attribution in determining the stress reaction) and also the theory of social identity (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) and its link to health (Haslam et al., 2009), which shows the positive role for health of identification with social groups. The research included a first qualitative study in which 32 zungueiras were interviewed with the aim of identifying the stress factors and groups relevant to this professional group. The data was analysed using Nvivo 12 and served as the basis for constructing the questionnaire. In quantitative study 2, the questionnaire was administered to 252 zungueiras, and the data was processed using SPSS version 26. The results show the existence of four types of stress factors (F1: Problems with the authorities, F2: Insecurity, F3: Poor physical working conditions and F4: Lack of income), the third being more closely linked to the general level of stress and the last with more systematic links to health indicators. We identified and assessed the importance and support of various groups (family, friends, neighbours, zungueiras, church, Kixikila and AVAL), but only the last three had a significant moderating effect on stress and health. Thus, for zungueiras who identify more with the church, Kixikila and Aval groups, situations of moderate stress have less impact on health than for those who do not identify with these groups. We conclude that stress is detrimental to health in the day-today activity of street vending practised by zungueiras, especially those who sell on the street and are not part of collective associations. Furthermore, although street vending is considered a means of subsistence for families, it is a public health problem. This work therefore aims to contribute to zunga being considered formal work, registered with the social security service.

Members of the jury:

• Mariana Miranda (Ispa-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)

• Denis Sindic (Portugal)

• Alice Ramos (Universidade de Lisboa)

• Maria Luísa Lima (Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)