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In contexts of extreme adversity and oppression, trauma exists as an open-ended ongoing threat, requiring us to recognise the ways people cope as adaptive survival mechanisms shaped by external hardship. Through a Black feminist lens, we explored the narratives of 17 young people in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, detailing their day-to-day experiences navigating hardship and potentially traumatic events, collected as part of a co-produced community-based initiative. Using grounded thematic network analysis, we offer an understanding of the young people’s emotional experiences and the spectrum of strategies they use to cope. Feeling through Survival consists of five themes representing emotion experience of trauma, ranging from heaviness and fear to joy and pride. Coping as an Act of Resistance encompasses eight themes depicting young people’s efforts and subtle agentic acts to persevere; including collective patterns, sacrifices, adaptive efforts to create a sense of safety, escapism, breaking free and boundary-setting, support systems, sense-making, and for some, meaning-making. Our analyses provide insight into the complex experience of trauma and survival, where multiple, at times, seemingly conflicting, realities co-exist. By adopting a non-judgemental approach to coping, we move beyond simplistic dichotomies of risk or resilience, deepening our understanding of what it means to live and cope amidst persistent adversity. Our findings highlight the importance of contextualising individuals’ emotional and behavioural functioning within the circumstances that drive their efforts to cope. This understanding necessitates a shift in approaches to therapeutic interventions with individuals and communities facing open-ended trauma, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Recognising the risks of assuming safety or closure from trauma, interventions should be re-oriented towards supporting navigation of ongoing traumatic contexts, addressing barriers to accessing safety, and facilitating community empowerment.

在极端逆境与压迫的语境中，创伤作为一种无明确终结的持续性威胁存在，这要求我们认识到，人们的应对方式实为受外部苦难塑造的适应性生存机制。本研究采用黑人女性主义视角，对南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的17名年轻人的叙事展开探究，细致呈现他们周旋于逆境与潜在创伤性事件中的日常经历；该叙事数据采集自一项协同共创的社区项目。本研究运用扎根理论主题网络分析（grounded thematic network analysis），深入解析这些年轻人的情感体验与他们所采用的多元应对策略谱系。本研究的「感知即生存」（Feeling through Survival）框架包含五大主题，涵盖创伤相关的情感体验谱系，从沉重、恐惧直至喜悦与自豪。「以应对彰显抵抗」（Coping as an Act of Resistance）框架包含八大主题，描绘年轻人为坚持下去所付出的努力与隐秘的能动性行动，具体包括集体行动模式、自我牺牲、构建安全感的适应性举措、逃避行为、挣脱束缚与边界设定、支持系统、意义阐释，以及对部分群体而言的意义建构。本研究的分析揭示了创伤与生存的复杂体验——多种（有时看似相互矛盾的）现实在此交织共存。本研究以非评判性视角审视应对行为，突破了「风险或韧性」这类简单化的二元对立框架，深化了我们对在持续逆境中生存与应对之内涵的理解。研究结果凸显了将个体的情感与行为功能置于驱动其应对行为的具体环境中进行情境化解读的重要性。这一认知要求我们转变针对面临持续性创伤的个体与社区的治疗干预方式，在资源受限的场景中尤为如此。鉴于人们误以为创伤可带来安全感或终结的风险，干预措施应重新定位，转而支持个体在持续的创伤性环境中周旋应对，破除获取安全感的障碍，并推动社区赋权。