Relational maintenance, collectivism, and coping strategies among Black populations during COVID-19

Abstract

The current study, adopting community resilience and social creativity, explores Black individuals’ relational maintenance and collectivist strategies employed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 410 Black adults across the United States answered open-ended web-based survey questions about identifiable shifts in relational dynamics and examples of mutual support exhibited among community members amid COVID-19. Findings include individuals implementation of media technologies to maintain communication and social support, the groups’ concentrated efforts toward providing health and wellness-based information, increased communal interaction, and the redistribution of monetary donations and volunteerism to support organizations promoting gender and racial equity. Outcomes demonstrate that Black populations embrace collectivist-orientated tendencies as a means of community resilience, extending the community resilience framework amid the ongoing crisis and absent of specific geographic location.