Parenting Under Pressure: Maternal Self-Efficacy and Coping Among Jewish and Arab Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examined cross-cultural differences and shared psychological processes in Israeli mothers' parenting experiences during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jewish and Arab mothers were compared due to well-documented differences in family structure, social support systems and exposure to structural stressors, offering a meaningful context for examining parental adaptation under crisis. The study focused on parental self-efficacy (PSE) and its associations with resilience, anxiety, social support and pandemic-related coping. A total of 429 Jewish and Arab mothers of children under 18 completed an online survey assessing parenting self-efficacy, perceived resilience, anxiety, familial support and pandemic-related stressors. Despite widespread disruption, most mothers (77%) reported high or very high PSE, and 71.6% rated their parenting performance as good or very good. Regression analyses showed that greater resilience, lower anxiety and stronger coping predicted higher PSE in the combined sample. Parenting self-efficacy was positively associated with resilience and social support and negatively associated with anxiety. Cross-cultural comparisons revealed both convergence and divergence. Arab mothers reported stronger emotional support and more effective parental coping, alongside slightly higher anxiety and heavier caregiving burdens than Jewish mothers. These findings highlight the importance of psychological resources, particularly resilience and anxiety regulation, in sustaining parenting confidence under prolonged crisis and supporting culturally sensitive family interventions.