The resilience of emerging adults in a stressed industrialised environment in Eswatini

Abstract

Transitioning to adulthood can be stressful, particularly when young people live in challenging contexts. One such context is Eswatini, a low-income African country challenged by structural violence. Still, how Swazi emerging adults mitigate related challenges is unknown. To redress this knowledge gap, we report a qualitative study with 30 Swazi emerging adults (15 men; 15 women; 18-to-24-years) living in Matsapha, an industrial hub characterised by relentless physical, social, and financial stressors. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we found that a mix of resources (personal drive, enabling connections, a resourced ecology) co-supported resilience to stressors that emerging adults perceived as unavoidable. The detail of this resource-mix implies that emerging adult resilience is a developmentally and contextually responsive process. The findings also signpost that emerging adult resilience is a collaborative effort, one that requires an enabling physical and relational environment, and government commitment to co-facilitating that environment.