When Universities closed all over the world: Educational Continuity, Coping Strategies and Resilience; UNAN-Managua

Abstract

This article discusses the results of the research titled “When Universities closed worldwide: Educational Continuity, Coping Strategies and Resilience; UNAN-Managua”, carried out in June 2020, when the impact of the pandemic was spreading raídly and had created an environment of uncertainty and stress in the university community and throughout all the Nicaraguan society. The students who participated in the study are scholarship holders living on campus and they did so on a voluntary and informed basis. The purpose of the study was to establish which strategies the students resorted to face the stress generated by the COVID-19 disease and how they perceived the university and government´s strategies. The study used a mixed methodology that included the implementation of measurement scales applied online and comments collected from student focus groups, based on their own experiences. The study verified an empirical fact: that the majority (56%) of students living on campus are teenage women (51%) who come from different geographical locations. The study also determined that the most used coping strategies were the following: problem solving focus, positive reassessment, and avoidance. Similarly, it was established that resilient factors with significant scores were favored by an environment that provides psychosocial support as established by the institutional protocol for safety and care of life, facing the challenge of learning, undertaking and prospering in the midst of the pandemic. These results show a micro perspective of the family and community context that exists in the country.