Worldwide, previous studies have expressed concerns regarding the broad psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among college students as they are considered an especially vulnerable group. However, few studies have examined the prevalence of, risk of, and protective factors associated with fear of COVID-19 among college students in Europe. We have sought to address gaps in the literature by conducting a cross-sectional survey among 517 college students (79.1% women and 20.9% men) from a public university in the southeast of Spain. Participants were asked to complete the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) questionnaire and answer questions related to resilience, social support, anxiety, and suicide risk levels using validated scales. The results of the analysis of the variables associated with fear of COVID-19 suggest that, in addition to gender, the factor of anxiety shows a robust positive association and effect with COVID-19 fear (p < 0.001). According to our results, university institutions must adopt support mechanisms to alleviate psychological impacts on students during this pandemic, treating it similarly to other disasters. Implications for social work to reduce COVID-19 fear are also discussed.

Between March and May, Spain was one of the hardest-hit European countries by the COVID-19 pandemic and registered one of the highest death rates in the world. Among other measures, the political response was a lockdown of more than three months that was applied by means of six fifteen-day extensions. The Spanish Sociological Research Centre (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas; CIS, in its Spanish acronym) carried out a survey in early June (n = 4,258) asking respondents about their rating of the response to the situation and their ability to cope with further extensions of the state of emergency. The concept of resilience is key to understanding this situation and the population's ability to face up to it. This paper analyses factors that help bolster resilience, which include confidence in the political leader and in the perception or rating of the measures adopted. The conclusion highlights the importance of political communication, both of leadership and of political measures, in fostering social resilience.

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Education policies in Bolivia and other parts of Latin America have improved significantly in recent years. However, there continue to be barriers to higher education for students with specific educational support needs and difficulties are still found in the institutional management of inclusive education. This paper aims to better understand the elements that facilitate and hinder university inclusion of students with functional diversity in Bolivia. The methodology used is qualitative. The discourses of key informants within the university community were collected using the focus group technique. The software Atlas.ti-8 was used for data processing and inductive coding was performed using the constant comparison method. The study’s main findings indicate that both the categorization of functional diversity and the financing model in place have a great impact on inclusive education actions at the university level. The research also reveals a lack of correspondence between the rights of people with functional diversity and the resources allocated to them. The conclusions point to the need to establish intersectional institutional strategies based on the recognition of diversity as an essential value in the development of inclusive and sustainable education.

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