Experiences With Online Teaching and Psychological Adjustment of High-School Students at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia.

Vastly changed schooling arrangements due to the COVID-19 crisis have generally limited the opportunities and resources for schools to provide necessary psychological and other support to their students. Given this, all parties involved in the schooling system need to understand the kinds of experiences students have via distance learning and how students adapt to novel living and studying conditions. This study examines the relevant sources of stress that students encounter with regard to online classes, and the frustrations they face due to living in social isolation, as well as how these stressors relate to the measures of students' emotional wellbeing and psychological adjustment.

Interactions of School Bonding, Disturbed Family Relationships, and Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents.

Background: Substance use, gambling, and violence represent a great risk for adolescent health. Schools are often referred to as the "best" places for health promotion and prevention, where positive school bonding serves as a strong protective factor for the development of risk behaviors and poor school bonding is associated with various risk behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk effect of disturbed family relations, the protective effect of school bonding, and the extent to which school can compensate for the negative effect of an adverse family environment related to the risk behaviors of the adolescents.

Patterns of internet use and mental health of high school students in Istria County Croatia: cross-sectional study.

Aim: To examine associations between different forms of internet use and a number of psychological variables related to mental health in adolescents.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out on a representative sample of students (N=1539) from all high schools in the region of Istria in Croatia (14-19 years). The associations between four factors of internet use and nine mental health indicators were analyzed using canonical correlation analysis.

Sex differences in patterns of relations between family interactions and depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Aim: To gain insight into the relations between protective/risk family interactions and depressive symptoms in adolescent boys and girls.

Method: A self-reported cross-sectional survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1191 secondary school students (617 girls and 574 boys) aged from 14 to 19 years, with a median of 16, from all secondary schools in the Primorsko-goranska County, Croatia in January and February 2010. Students reported their depressive symptoms, perceptions about the relationship with their mother and father, family activities, and parents' conflict resolution strategies.

Perceived exposure to substance use and risk-taking behavior in early adolescence: cross-sectional study.

Aim: To examine the relation between perceived exposure to parents, siblings, and peers' substance use and self-reported substance consumption among early adolescents in Primorsko-goranska county, Croatia, and between perceived exposure to substance use and risk-taking behaviors such as going out late at night, gathering at secluded places, skipping school, and gambling.

Method: A self-reported cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2007 among 2219 eight-grade (14-year old) pupils in elementary schools in Primorsko-goranska county. Exposure to substance use in their immediate social environment, self-reported consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, inhalants, and marihuana, ways of spending free time, and family and peer relationships were assessed.

A cross-cultural study of the Need for Cognitive Closure Scale: comparing its structure in Croatia, Italy, USA and The Netherlands.

This study was designed to compare the factor structure of Need for Closure Scale (NFCS) as it emerges from three European samples (Croatia, Italy and The Netherlands) to the structure emerging from a USA sample, and to test the invariance of the structure of the scale both across three European contexts and across European and US samples. This comparison was conducted to examine the generalizability of results obtained with the NFCS across cultures. The sample sizes employed in this study range from 201 (Croatia) to 418 (Italy) participants.