'We Can Manage this Corona Disaster': Psycho-Social Experiences of a Diverse Suburban Middle-Class Community in South Africa: Interview-Based Study

The study concerns psycho-social domains experienced in the context of a diverse suburban middle-class community, reporting the most positive cases and deepest suffering, and interactions towards adaptation in stressful situations, such as the Coronavirus pandemic. This qualitative investigation used a descriptive design, with a strengths-based perspective directing a two-phased method. Non-probability convenience sampling selected 80 participants who 1, completed a web-based qualitative questionnaire, from those, 2) 20 purposely selected volunteers participated in individual, open-ended unstructured interviews. Themes, interpreted as one set, show how strengths and resilience appear despite shock and uncertainty. Transitional processes in psycho-social spheres reveal conscious decisions towards dynamic engagement, embracing change, reflecting on life’s value, and regarding novel meaningful priorities in contrast with 'before'. The relational sphere is the most prominent with human connections in the close and community circles. Personal, meaningful relationships strengthen social bonds. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) assisted in the transitional process to co-construct awareness of the positive core, emotional agility, and pride in embracing and expanding on newly developed strengths. Interpreted inductively, meaning described in abstracted knowledge can be transferred to and integrated with other contexts, identifying new initiatives and trans-, multi-, and inter-disciplinary debates mitigating psycho-social consequences and fostering resilience during disasters. Funding Information: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public commercial or not-for profit sectors. Declaration of Interests: The author declares no conflict of interest in conceptualization, design, data collection, interpretation, the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish results. Ethics Approval Statement: Participants signed informed consent before taking part and gave oral informed consent during the audio-recorded interviews, as required by the North-West University HREC ethics committee preventative strategy of privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality criteria. Ethical clearance (HREC- NWU-00160-21-S1).