Abstract
In a pandemic, such as COVID-19, with every single person struggling to deal with the unknown, it is often within the family that support is found but it is also within the family that circumstances, contexts and behaviours could further drive the pandemic and where they struggle to cope. This is novel research in the South African context with no known information regarding family life during and post the pandemic. This study, therefore, explores the lessons learnt during COVID-19 by South African families. A qualitative approach was employed to guide the gathering and analysis of the data. Data were collected from a sample of 31 family members above the age of 18 years from communities of the Western Cape Province and analysed through thematic analysis. According to the participants interviewed some of the significant lessons learnt from the lockdown include hygiene and health consciousness, appreciation for family, valuing life, self-introspection, less dependency, remote working, and financial savings. The realisation of such lessons even post-pandemic has the potential of strengthening families to be a resource of coping and resilience during very difficult times at the same time, contributing to greater physical, social, and economic functioning of families across South Africa.
Highlights
One of the main themes identified in the broader study on COVID-19 and family life as identified by the respondents pertains to the lessons learnt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the hard lockdown period
These findings reveal novel insights into how the initial stages of the COVID-19 social restriction/isolation measures offered lessons to South African families
Based on the shared views from the respondents who participated in the study, there is evidence of greater caution related to health and hygiene among South African families than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Academic Editors: Michela Gatta and Marina MisciosciaReceived: 18 October 2021Accepted: 23 November 2021Published: 29 November 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is of a magnitude most individuals today have never witnessed. The outbreak was publicly reported to arise in late 2019, on31 December 2019, a case of pneumonia with clinical symptoms of patients such as dyspnoea, dry cough, and fever whose unidentified cause was discovered in Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China [1]. COVID-19 was later declared a worldwide pandemic in
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