Preprint- Cultural Logics of Parenting and Coping in Crisis

Coping with crisis is a culturally situated process shaped by models of self, moral obligation, and interdependence rather than by individual stress regulation alone. Drawing on cultural psychology frameworks, this study examines how parents of young children in low-resource settings coped with adversity situated within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Using a constructivist qualitative design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 parents of children under six years of age living in economically marginalized urban contexts. Data were analyzed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, guided by Kirmayer’s (2007) model of sociocentric and cosmocentric selves. Sociocentric coping reflects a relational orientation in which well-being is understood as collective, caregiving is morally central, and emotional regulation is oriented toward preserving family harmony. Cosmocentric coping reflects an orientation toward higher-order forces through which uncertainty is accepted, distress externalized, and endurance cultivated. The study challenges individualistic models of coping and highlights how care, endurance, and meaning-making are collectively organized in contexts of structural vulnerability. The paper contributes to cultural psychology by extending theoretical understanding of coping, resilience, and parenting as culturally mediated processes and calls for a contextually grounded model of parental coping to inform culturally responsive interventions and policies promoting family and child well-being in low-resource settings.Key words: cultural coping, parenting, sociocentric self, cosmocentric self, Covid 19, low-resource setting, crisis, family stressors