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

Linda Theron, Diane Levine and Michael Ungar

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-25

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.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0260613

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260613

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