Table 4.

Applying the Transactional Stress and Coping Model to Focus Group Participants’ responses.

Potential Stressor	Primary Appraisal “Am I OK or in trouble"	Secondary Appraisal and Evaluation “What can I do about it"	Coping Strategies Passive and Active	Stress Outcome
COVID-19 and associated stressors e.g. health, financial, isolation, the unknown	Calm but there’s a little worry in the back of my mind Panic and fear of the unknown, Scared for my elderly parents. I know if my mom who has health issues gets the covid19 she won’t survive it. I don’t know whether I’m overreacting I am used to working from home, so its relatively the same as normal life … But I can’t shake this feeling in my chest …. , you know, is this a COVID symptom or is this just a lot of anxiety- this tightness in my chest	Stressing out doesn’t help me out one bit so I’m trying to remain calm and do what I need to do to disengage when necessary. I was reminded my job right now is to keep her safe and make her feel that she is safe and everything else is secondary So I feel like I don’t even have time to process what’s going on a lot of the times it’s just a lot of putting out fires	Currently stable. Learning ways to keep my mind busy A lot of people will ask why I’m so quiet and it’s ‘cause I need to distance myself from the news for a bit. Stressing out doesn’t help me out one bit so I’m trying to remain calm and do what I need to do to disengage when necessary I’m generally doing well but I just realized recently that I’m in the self-preservation mode where I am avoiding the news coz I don’t want to get fearful. I think for my own good I just don’t want to think a lot about what’s going on around the world.	Not good. Too much anxiety. I have PTSD and agoraphobia and that doesn’t bode well right now. And so I try to reflect on that and think about that too as I’m going through this but it’s not helping with my own personal mental health in my own fear I’m not as stressed as I should … I cannot do anything beyond what I’m already doing to keep myself my family safe and it’s out of my control I’m not as stressed as I thought I would be although the stress increases as time goes on and more people are diagnosed especially closer and closer to me. I am stressed out and it does impact her (daughter)
Coping resources	Physical	Material	Social	Psychological
	I do reflect on my privilege … I’ve been organizing mutual aid drives for folk …. that gives me a sense of pride and destresses me … Online Yoga and working out in the park I just shut off every electronic in my house for two days and just had a meditation and that kind of helped Catching up on sleep and spending time growing my faith My hands are completely dry and cracked from washing and bleaching and sanitizing ….and that’s how I can exercise control	Sometimes I can turn it off and I watch Real Housewives of Atlanta and kind of laugh … I’ve been reading books Eating a lot … A lot of drinking and sulking …	Being informed is one thing but being inundated with all the bad news isn’t helpful. The memes are fun though. I’ve been finding myself going for walks, like multiple times a day and smiling at everybody. I see on the street just because I’m hoping it’s some kind of like human interaction.”	Stressed and worried but I put on a professional calm mask in order to not cause panic. I think it’s just to take it day by day as opposed to thinking about. What is the next week going to bring? What’s the next month going to bring? What’s the next year going to bring because I feel like that’s really beyond my control and beyond anyone’s knowledge or awareness That’s why I’m so calm, you know for me. I’m the kind of person who I’m like if I can’t control it then, you know, you know, I don’t worry about it.