Abstract
The challenges that young adults encounter today present greater risks to their
mental wellbeing compared to those experienced by previous generations. For those young
adults living with mental health disorders, they suffer even more when having to deal with its
burdens. Many of these young adults face floods of negative and powerful emotions,
discrimination and isolation; however, they are likely to cope well with these difficult situations
if they are resilient.
Aim: This study purported to report on resilience among young adults living with mental
disorders in the City of Tshwane.
Setting: The study was conducted in Atteridgeville in the City of Tshwane, Gauteng province
in South Africa.
Methods: A qualitative exploratory and descriptive research was conducted among 10
purposefully sampled young adults aged between 18 years and 34 years old. Data were
collected using individual, semi-structured interviews in primary healthcare clinics and
analysed using Tesch’s method.
Results: Two themes, namely, harnessing purpose in building resilience and confidence enhances
positive interactions along with four related sub-theme emerged from the results. The themes
indicated how a sense of purposefulness and confidence help young adults living with mental
health disorders build resilience.
Conclusion: For young adults to be resilient, approaches such as psychotherapy for treating
mental health issues need to incorporate strategies to develop a sense of purpose and
confidence.
Contribution: This study elucidated the role of purposefulness and confidence in building
resilience, and further provided some suggestions on strategies that could be used to build
resilience in conjunction with medical management of mental health disorders among young
adults.