The New Normal: Amotivation, Sense of Purpose, and Associated Factors Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study examines differences in college students' responses to COVID-19-related stress over time, beginning in fall 2019 before the pandemic and continuing through fall 2022. A total of 957 students completed measures of motivation, sense of purpose, academic adjustment, grit, and COVID-related stress across 7 semesters. Results indicated that motivation stayed steady throughout much of the pandemic as compared to the fall 2019 semester, with the exception of the spring 2022 semester. Academic adjustment, grit, and sense of purpose all fluctuated during the pandemic. After the onset of COVID-19, students reported high levels of stress and reported that they were experiencing higher than usual levels of stress. However, as the pandemic continued, students continued to report high stress levels, but no longer reported that the stress was unusual. That is, over time, high levels of stress and anxiety related to COVID-19 became viewed as normal. This pattern of results suggests that the student response to the pandemic has differed over time and, since COVID-19 remains prevalent, highlights the need for colleges to continue to be prepared to address students' COVID-related adjustment and well-being.

Woe is the dark Web: the main challenges that governments of the Commonwealth Caribbean will face in combating dark Web-facilitated criminal activities

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the potential challenges that governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean are likely to face combating crimes facilitated by the dark Web.Design/methodology/approachThe "lived experience” methodology guided by a contextual systematic literature review was used to ground the investigation of the research phenomena in the researchers' collective experiences working in, living in and engaging in research with governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean.FindingsThe two major findings emerging from the analysis are that jurisdictional and technical challenges are producing major hindrances to the creation of an efficient and authoritative legislative framework and the building of the capacity of governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean to confront the technicalities that affect systematic efforts to manage problems created by the dark Web.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate the urgency that authorities in the Caribbean region must place on reevaluating their administrative, legislative and investment priorities to emphasize cyber-risk management strategies that will enable their seamless and wholesome integration into this digital world.Originality/valueThe research aids in developing and extending theory and praxis related to the problematization of the dark Web for governments by situating the experiences of Small Island Developing States into the ongoing discourse.