Resilience to COVID-19-related stressors: Insights from emerging adults in a South African township

Abstract

There is widespread recognition that stressors related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) jeopardize the development of emerging adults, more particularly those living in disadvantaged communities. What is less well understood is what might support emerging adult resilience to COVID-19-related stressors. In response, this article reports a 5-week qualitative study with 24 emerging adults (average age: 20) living in a South African township. Using digital diaries and repeated individual interviews, young people shared their lived experiences of later (i.e., month 4 and 7) lockdown-related challenges (i.e., contagion fears; livelihood threats; lives-on-hold) and how they managed these challenges. An inductive thematic analysis showed that personal and collective compliance, generous ways-of-being, and tolerance-facilitators enabled emerging adult resilience to said challenges. Importantly, these resilience-enablers drew on resources associated with multiple systems and reflected the situational and cultural context of the township in question. In short, supporting emerging adult resilience to COVID-19-related stressors will require contextually aligned, multisystemic responses.

Mediating Effects of Social Support and Resilience on the Association between COVID-19-Related Stress and Mental Health in Korean Young Adults

“…Therefore, this study supports the sequential mediating effects of social support and resilience on the relationship between stress related to difficulties due to social distancing and mental health (depression and anxiety) among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with these findings, a previous study emphasized social support from family and resilience to COVID-19-related stressors as protective factors for young adults’ mental health [ 50 ]. Given these findings, we suggest that interventions to increase social support and enhance resilience can be effective strategies to reduce the risks of depression and anxiety among young adults suffering from stress related to difficulties due to social distancing.…”

The Association Between Stress-Related of COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health

“…Consistent with these fi ndings, another study highlighted social support and resilience against COVID-19-related stressors as protective factors for the mental health of young adults [42]. Thus, the research results indicate the successive mediating eff ects of social support and resilience on the relationship between stress-related problems due to social distance and mental health (anxiety and depression) among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

The inhibitors and enablers of emerging adult COVID-19 mitigation compliance in a township context

“…The primary analysis of the sub-study's data had the same focus. 33 While compliance and non-compliance played into those risks and resilience, they were not the focus of the primary analysis. Secondary analyses are appropriate when they extend or supplement a pre-existing analysis.…”

“…The methodology of the primary sub-study, which followed a phenomenological design and subscribed to social constructivist principles, is comprehensively detailed elsewhere. 33 As in other secondary analyses 35 , what follows is a summary of that methodology.…”

“…Instead, systems thinking urges attention to the variability of human resilience relative to a specific risk, developmental stage, or situational/cultural context. [14][15][16][17][18] While personal strengths and social connections have been reported in studies of South African emerging adults' experiences of COVID-19-related challenges and their resilience to those challenges 33,34 , it is unclear what role -if any -these or other multisystemic resources play in South African emerging adults' compliance with physical distancing, face masking and hand sanitising in township contexts. Hence, the purpose of the current study was to explore the lived experiences of 24 emerging adults from eMbalenhle township in Mpumalanga Province to better understand what inhibited and what enabled their compliance with public health measures in this township context.…”