Toward a communication theory of coping: COVID-19 and the MotherScholar

ABSTRACT MotherScholars are women, mothers, and academics that intentionally blend these identities as an act of resistance to the academic institutions that often devalue and under support their respective maternal and professional roles. As MotherScholars, we experienced dramatic shifts during the onset and persistence of COVID-19 that precipitated in a re-imagining of MotherScholar coping. This collaborative autoethnographic study employs a modification of interactive interviewing to produce a verbal text of COVID-19 MotherScholar analyzed thematically. A discourse of MotherScholar coping and resiliency clustered in thematic stages: acknowledging a triggering event, triaging (adjusting the current situation), prioritizing (adjusting more as circumstances continue to change), misdiagnosing (using dark communication, such as guilt and questioning sense of self), and surviving (realization that life goes on).