Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: “Living like I am in Thailand ”: Stress and coping strategi es among Thai migrant 
masseuses in Oslo, Norway  
 
Version: 0 Date: 18 Jul 2019  
 
Reviewer: Maureen Seguin  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
This was an interesting paper. I have a few suggestions, outlined below, which I believe could 
strengthen it.  
 
 
Background  
 
I would have appreciated a bit more information on marriage migration - are the re any stats 
worldwide? Is this phenomenon increasing? Etc.  
 
 
Approach and objective  
 
The first sentence states that you were informed by theoretical approaches to stress and coping 
put forward in psychology, and later cite Folkman and Lazarus. This is a h uge field in 
psychology - I think it would be helpful to explicitly state that you drew upon Folkman and 
Lazarus, and say a bit more on exactly how you used their theory.  
 
 
Methods  
 
I have a number of questions about the methodology.  
 
Can you justify why the sample was limited to women who were working in Thai massage 
shops? Are there other Thai women in Norway not working in these shops, and if so, how does 
this impact on your findings? Ie, do they represent other Thai women in Norway?  
 
The workshop ment ioned on line 9 - where did this occur? Was the workshop attended by 
potential research participants?  
 
How were participants actually selected? Did anyone who wanted to participate (and meet the 
eligibility criteria, which are stated) then participate? Di d participants suggest other potential 
participants? (snowball sampling)  
 
How did you ensure that participants did not feel compelled to take part?  
 
As the interview topic guide touched upon mental health conditions, what measures were taken 
to ensure th at participating in the interview did not harm the participant?  
 
How were the massage shops selected, and how many?  
 
What measures were taken to ensure that the translations of the interview transcripts were 
accurate?  
 
How were the questions in the interview topic guide chosen, and what probes were used? Did 
you turn to existing research to decide on the questioning, or existing theories? Earlier, Lazarus 
and Folkman are cited - do their theories come into play here? It may be helpful to append a 
copy of the topic guide so the reader can see the range of questions asked. Perhaps this could be 
an online appendix, which should not affect the word count.  
 
Who interviewed the participants?  
 
 
Results  
 
I think Table 1 would be  more meaningful if it were restructured a bit. All participants were 
female, which is clear throughout, and so there is no need to report this in the table. Could it be 
restructured so that the reader knows the age, years in Norway, Fluency in Norwegian, marital 
status, and monthly income per participant? For instance, could Anong's demographic features 
be listed in one row, followed by the other participants, each in their own row, with the 
demographic features forming the columns? I think this format wou ld work better than the 
current table, as the overall sample is quite small. As such, it is not very meaningful, as a reader, 
to know that 3 out of 14 participants were aged 34 to 39.  
 
It occurred to me while reading the results section that I was unclear  on whether the participants 
all owned their own shops, or whether some were employed at others' shops. Can this be 
clarified somewhere? Perhaps this feature could be integrated into table 1. I appreciate that this is 
clarified on page 10, but please ensur e this information is presented sooner in the draft.  
 
Page 6, lines 47 -51 states: Excess drinking among spouses led to arguments and put a financial 
strain on relationships. Kanok (44, single) illustrates, "Many of them (men) have problems with 
excessive drinking. That is the most common reason why Thai ladies decide to break up a 
relationship". The quote does not support the financial strain aspect you have suggested to the 
reader.  
 
I found the section/theme on administrative tasks a bit thin, compared t o the other stress sections. 
Can this section be added into one of the other themes? Perhaps it can be added to the financial 
section, as it seems that the Anong quote in the admin section relates to finances anyway.  
 
In reading your sections on coping st rategies, I was curious how Folkman and Lazarus's theories 
impacted on your thinking, which is stated in the 'approach and objective' section. Did the 
authors come up with these three coping approaches themselves? Or, were these suggested in 
other literatu re?  
 
I am a bit confused about the three coping approaches reported. I'm unclear on what is meant by 
self-coping (defined as using one's own resources to independently deal with stress). If 
participants are 'fighting back,' can they not use their own reso urces independently to fight back? 
I am a bit clearer on how 'seeking help' differs from 'self coping,' though I'm unsure whether this 
is a justifiable way of dividing coping strategies. Is the key difference whether the coping 
strategy involves other peop le or not? I think that some of the examples given for 'seeking help' 
would fit into 'fighting back.' For instance, contacting Anne in order to better navigate health 
services could be considered 'fighting back.' I suggest re -thinking the categorisation sc heme used 
for the coping data. I appreciate that these themes were deducted from the data, but there are 
many coping taxonomies which you can draw upon to better organise this data, and your themes 
could fit in nicely. Consider looking at Lazarus and Folkm an, or EA Skinner (2003, or more 
recent) for some ideas.  
 
 
Discussion  
 
I'm unsure whether BMC allows footnotes. I suggest incorporating the information in footnote 1 
into the main text, deleting any unnecessary parts.  
 
Page 11, lines 12 -14 states "Element s of this approach have been observed in other countries, 
however our study is the first to describe this as a comprehensive strategy (22)." Which 
approach? Please define the approach, and how it acts as a 'comprehensive strategy' in this study.  
 
 
Strengt hs and limitations  
 
This section does not list any limitations. Please reflect on the study and report the limitations. 
The small sample size (even for a qualitative study) should be reported. It seems that none of the 
authors conducted the interviews (is this correct? If not , please clarify in the methods section). 
How did the interviewees perceive the interviewer(s) and/or the study authors and/or the study 
itself? Did they perceive the authors as people who may help them? Or people who may make 
their lives more difficult? D id they think that participating in the study may benefit them in some 
way? I suggest reflecting on these issues and whether this impacted on the data/findings. There 
may be some limitations related to these issues.  
 
 
Editing issues  
 
Pg 3, line 2 or 3 - NGO usually means non -governmental organisation, not non -profit 
organisation.  
 
Pg 6, lines 39 -41 - "A few experienced some type of violence in their relationships, be it 
economic, psychological or sexual, which had a significant impact on wellbeing Waan (57 , 
divorced), "They just pay for their beers, men here drink heavily. They also physically hit 
women too." I think you are missing a period.  
 
Usually, quotes longer than 3 lines should be indented, tabs justified, and font reduced to 10. I 
suggest checkin g the requirements for BMC to ensure that your longer quotes are correctly 
presented.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript : 
 
Needs some language corrections before being published  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding , or salary 
from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financial ly from the 
publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat may in any way gain or 
lose financially from the  publication of this manuscript, either now or in the 
future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents  relating to the content 
of the manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization 
that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, writ e 'I declare that I have  no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
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