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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented mental health repercussions in the lives of every individual including university students. Therefore, study on students’ psychological state and its associated factors during the pandemic are of importance. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

An online survey was done on a total of 207 university students of Pakistan to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, concerns or fears amidst COVID-19 and mental distress. Validated tools; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)-Depression were used to assess stress, anxiety and depression, respectively.

Around 14% of the university students were experiencing severe stress and anxiety, while 8.2% had severe depression. The authors found that stress among university students was related to psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 5.1: 1.1, 22.9) and unpredictability due to the pandemic (OR = 3.7: 1.2, 11.2). The significant determinants of anxiety were psychiatric illness/symptoms (OR = 6.6: 3.4, 12.9), implementation of public health measures (OR = 3.7: 1.1, 11.6), employed mothers (OR = 2.4: 1.1, 5.0) and lack of support from university administration (OR = 2.2: 1.0, 5.0). While the factors associated with depression included psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 8.4: 3.3, 21.5), unpredictability due to pandemic (OR = 6.8: 2.2, 20.7), impaired social support system (OR = 3.7: 1.3, 10.4) and studying without a scholarship (OR = 2.1: 1.0, 4.4).

These findings call for an urgent need to develop appropriate interventions and educational programs that could address the psychological needs of students.

The study directs the role of university and faculty in dealing the mental health needs of the student in COVID-19 pandemic time.

Educational programs are important that could address the psychological needs of students in COVID-19 pandemic.

University students reported mental distress during COVID-19 pandemic which shows that younger people are at risk of COVID-19 repercussions. Moreover, several stressors (i.e. impaired social support system and lack of support from universities) were revealed that could be mitigated by implementing appropriate strategies.

This study sheds light on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on self-employed women in Mauritius and delves into their coping strategies amid unprecedented circumstances.

The study employs a comprehensive methodology encompassing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative analysis is conducted via interviews with self-employed women in Mauritius, capturing their experience with COVID-19. Quantitative analysis uses survey data from 732 firms to investigate factors affecting online sales, a major survival strategy adopted by businesses.

The study finds a notable trend wherein many interviewed women have transitioned their businesses online – a pivot that stands out as a common response within the sample. The quantitative analysis indicates the significance of a strong online presence, particularly on social media and web-based platforms designed for the sale of goods and services. These factors correlate with higher online sales, potentially enhancing resilience during pandemic-induced lockdown periods.

This study stands out for its originality, representing the first study investigating how women entrepreneurs in Mauritius have navigated the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.

This research aims to investigate the attitudes of young children toward learning science in the early educational grades.

The study involved conducting interviews with seventy-three children attending institutions in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The structured interview method was employed to collect valuable data.

The findings of the interviews shed light on the inclination of young children to foster positive attitudes toward science education. These inclinations include the facilitation of knowledge acquisition that enables children to develop skills for applying scientific concepts in real-life contexts, the incorporation of hands-on activities both inside and outside the classroom, and the prioritization of child-centered approaches to learning.

This research aims to explore the attitudes of young children in early educational grades toward learning science. Interviews were conducted with seventy-three children in Sharjah, UAE, using a structured interview method. The findings highlight children’s inclination toward positive attitudes in science education, including the importance of knowledge acquisition for applying scientific concepts in real-life contexts, hands-on activities inside and outside the classroom, and child-centered learning approaches. Based on these findings, the study provides recommendations and conclusions to enhance science education experiences for young children.

This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the gender gap effects of childcare restrictions. Specifically, not using professional childcare services due to issues like access, quality or costs. Additionally, we explore the long-run consequences of extended work interruptions for childcare.

Using a specialized cross-sectional module from the 2018 Spanish Labor Force Survey, we estimated a set of linear regression models to capture the short and long run effects of childcare restrictions in labor market outcomes.

We identify substantial gender gaps in labor force, employment, full-time employment and hours worked among parents facing childcare constraints. In contrast, parents without such restrictions experience much lower gender gaps. The long-run analysis reveals that mainly career breaks lasting 2 years or more significantly diminish the labor supply and employment rates of mothers.

Our study goes beyond examining the effects of childcare restrictions on mothers’ labor market behavior and explicitly studies the gender disparities related to these restrictions. Moreover, our database includes information on work flexibility for childcare, allowing us to explore whether such flexibility can help mitigate these gender gaps. Additionally, we assess the long-term effects of work interruptions due to childcare responsibilities on women’s labor outcomes.

As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.

Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.

The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.

The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.

Employability skills have transformed from the acquisition of university degrees to possessions of cognate skills other than only degrees that can help employees secure employment in contemporary work environments. This study evaluates essential skills that will prepare millennia of youths and graduates for employment in the present job market. The study investigated four major hypotheses to underscore the employability opportunities of graduates in challenging 21st-century work environments.

To clearly gain an understanding of women’s disparity in society, the study employed a qualitative approach to evaluate the incidence of gender prejudice in a men’s dominant world. The study utilised two distinguished sampling strategies, purposive and snowballing sampling techniques, which were deemed suitable and useful due to the nature of the study. The study recruited 42 participants by conducting semi-structured interview sessions for the study. The study employed a deductive approach to analyse the data obtained from participants. A thematic content analysis was used to take away prejudice and establish an overarching impression of the interviewed data. Atlas.ti was used to analyse the transcribed interview data from the participants to establish common themes from the surveyed informants.

The results of this investigation indicated that there is a deep-rooted trend of institutionalised men’s dominance in politics and religious leadership. Women perceived less representation and men dominated the two domains of existence in their local environment. The study established that women are optimistic about a turnaround narrative on gender equality in politics and religious leadership. They expressed their concern about strengthened public debate and campaigns on women’s representation, and against gender discrimination. The study further shows that women are influencing the ethical and moral sense for change against women’s neglect in society. They expressed their concerns against the selection of people into political offices for elected political posts and observed the peculiarity of political godfathers fixing their favourite men into those offices.

The study discovered that women are leading campaigns for their representation in politics as well as church leadership today. The novelty of this study bothering around two domains of women’s lives – politics and religion, in particular, church leadership. These have not been evidence before in a study.

Drawing on the politeness theory, this study explored the dubbing of English children's cartoons into Modern Standard Arabic, focusing on negative face speech acts such as compliments, suggestions, rejections, and suggestions in rejections.

Through quantitative and qualitative comparative analyses, this study investigated the influence of cultural differences on the selection of dubbing strategies, analyzed the politeness strategies employed in dubbing, and examined the maintenance of pragmatic equivalence in translated speech acts. Data were collected from the cartoon series “The Loud House” from popular digital platforms Shahid and Netflix, chosen for their regional (the Arab world) and global popularity, respectively.

The findings revealed shifts and adaptations in the dubbing process influenced by linguistic and cultural factors, particularly emphasizing social norms and power dynamics (e.g. respect for elders) prevalent in the Arab culture. Translators strategically employed politeness strategies, such as off-record and bald on-record strategies, to ensure cultural appropriateness and maintain the integrity of familial relationships depicted in the content. The comparative analysis of translators' approaches on Shahid and Netflix platforms highlights significant differences in the translation of negative face-threatening act scenarios. Netflix shows a tendency to adjust politeness pragmatic levels to better suit the preferences of the target audience, indicating a proactive effort to enhance viewer engagement through effective translation strategies. In contrast, Shahid adopts a more conservative approach, maintaining a consistent politeness level in its translations, which aligns closely with cultural norms and expectations. This comparative analysis underscores the divergent translation strategies employed by the two platforms, with Netflix prioritizing adaptation to audience preferences and Shahid favoring preservation of established politeness levels. The cultural social factors that influenced the translation and adaptation of face threatening acts can be grasped by considering elements such as social distance, power dynamics, and relative imposition. In Arabic culture, these factors play a crucial role in determining the social dynamics and interactions between individuals. The observed patterns of shifts and adaptations in the translation of face threatening acts on Shahid and Netflix reflect the nature of stratified Arabic societies where communal relationships are defined by factors like family ties, elder-younger dynamics, and friendships. These cultural factors shape the social norms and expectations surrounding face threatening acts, which, in turn, influence the translation choices made on these platforms.

The study has several limitations that need acknowledgment. Firstly, the sample size was limited, focusing on the dubbing of only two versions of an animated series and four seasons, comparing translations across two platforms. Additionally, there were challenges related to the accessibility and availability of data, with limited information about the translators involved in the dubbing process. Furthermore, the study's focus on specific types of translations may have overlooked other important factors influencing translation practices. Lastly, regional variations in translation practices within the Arab world were not considered. Despite these limitations, the study provides valuable insights into translation practices in animated series on Shahid and Netflix platforms, highlighting the need for future research to address these limitations and provide a more comprehensive understanding of translation practices in the Arab world.

The findings of this study have significant practical implications for a wide range of stakeholders, including translators, educators, textbook writers, and even non-specialists. For translators, especially those working in the field of audiovisual translation, understanding the nuances of politeness strategies and their application in different cultural contexts is essential. The findings suggest that translators should be sensitive to cultural and social factors when translating negative face-threatening act scenarios in cartoons. By making strategic decisions to adapt translations to align with audience preferences while still preserving cultural appropriateness, translators can enhance viewer engagement and ensure that the translated content resonates effectively with the target audience. Educators and textbook writers can also benefit from these findings by incorporating insights into politeness theory and cross-cultural communication into their curriculum and materials. By teaching students about the importance of politeness strategies in translation and providing them with practical examples and exercises, educators can help prepare the next generation of translators to navigate complex linguistic and cultural challenges in their work. Additionally, non-specialists, such as viewers of translated content, can gain a better understanding of the intricacies involved in translation and the impact of cultural factors on communication. By being aware of these issues, non-specialists can become more discerning consumers of translated media and appreciate the skill and artistry involved in the translation process.

This study underscores the cultural competence and sensitivity of Arab translators in navigating linguistic and social dynamics, contributing to the creation of culturally resonant and entertaining content for young Arabic-speaking audiences.

In a country that is marred by an excessively high unemployment rate, there is a need for policymakers to prioritise entrepreneurship in South Africa. The study aims to explore the determinants of self-employment among the youth in South Africa and in the process answer the following question: Who are the self-employed youths in South Africa?

Different potential predictors of self-employment empirically used in the literature were used in this study. A probit regression model was used with the binary self-employment variable as the dependent variable and a host of independent variables. A nationally representative survey consisting of youths was used in the analysis.

The findings show that financial literacy increases the odds of being self-employed. Secondly, the odds of being self-employed increase with age as mature people are expected to have gathered enough networks and wisdom over the years. Thirdly, being male decreases the odds of being self-employed. When it comes to education, the only category that statistically increases the odds of being self-employed compared with no schooling is the tertiary level of education. The other educational levels are all statistically insignificant. From a policy perspective, the government should promote self-employment by investing in financial literacy as well as increasing access to tertiary education among disadvantaged groups.

The study is one of the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine the characteristics of the self-employed using a nationally representative survey in South Africa.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) research has focused on high-growth scale-up entrepreneurship, whereas the role of EEs in nurturing the ventures of marginalised groups like migrant women entrepreneurs (MWEs) has often been elided from extant discussions. This research explores how the EE's structure, policies and programmes advance diversity, equity and inclusion to foster MWEs, and MWEs' contribution to the dynamics and sustainability of the host country's EE based on EE actors' perspectives. We contribute to EEs' diversity, equity and inclusion, which are important but neglected social aspects of sustainable EEs.

The qualitative data was collected through thematic interviews with EE actors, including NGOs and entrepreneurial support-providing organizations based in Finland. The collected data was complemented by interviews with MWEs, archival data and published supplementary materials on ecosystem actors.

EE structure, policies, programmes and individual agency, coupled with MWEs' proactivity in lobbying the necessary actors in the required places for their interests, enhance their businesses' development. There were both impeding and fostering dynamics, which may have idiographic and contextual features. Evidently, by being occupied in various sectors, from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to socially beneficial niche service sectors, MWEs contribute to the host country's EE dynamics not only through their productive entrepreneurship but by enriching the ecosystem's resource endowments and institutional arrangements.

We argue that exploring the gender and inclusivity aspects of EEs as the accommodating context is particularly relevant, given that the United Nation's sustainable development goals 5, 8 and 10 aim to improve women's empowerment at all levels, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and ensuring equal opportunities and reduced inequalities within the population. Inclusion and embeddedness in EEs positively affect diversity and sustainability in the host country. Theoretically, our contribution is twofold. First, by exploring female migrants' entrepreneurial experiences within the EE based on EE actors' perspectives, we broaden the research on inclusivity in EEs and gender aspects and enrich the research on their societal impact, which has received scant attention from scholars. More specifically, we contribute to EE research with (1) a novel understanding of MWEs and EE elements, their interconnections and dynamism, (2) identifying previously ignored elements shaping MWE and (3) providing EE actor insights into the co-creation of EE for MWE. Second, by analysing the impact of MWEs' businesses on the host country's EE, we contribute to calls for research on MWE contributions to its economic environment.