Many studies consider family communication to be one of the most important protective factors for the positive development of children and adolescents in the family environment. This paper aims to ...clarify whether some characteristics of the family environment influence the quality of family communication in order to provide guidelines for the planning of prevention strategies that effectively improve the quality of family communication and, thus, the positive development of adolescents. Specifically, the aim is to investigate whether there are gender- and age-related differences in the assessment of the quality of family communication and whether there are differences in the assessment of the quality of family communication depending on some family characteristics. High school students from five large Croatian cities (Zagreb, Osijek, Split, Pula, and Varazdin) took part in this study. The quota sample is stratified by three Croatian high school programs, as well as by individual program orientations within each school. The results show that there are differences in assessment of the quality of family communication in relation to gender, age, living with both or one parent, and the educational and working status of the parents. The data suggest that, in addition to the timely implementation of evidence-based parenting and/or family-based prevention interventions, there is a need to invest in high-quality social policies that could lead to a better quality of family life by increasing the chances of higher educational attainment for (future) parents as well as adequate employment opportunities.
Leisure time is considered an important context for adolescent development. The purpose of this article is to investigate what contributes to the frequency of adolescents' participation in structured ...leisure activities (SLA). Participants were aged 14-21 years (M = 18.87, SD = 1.23) and 44.8% of participants were female. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results indicate that boys and adolescents who perceive the context of participation in SLA as safe, are externally or intrinsically motivated, and perceive that participation has contributed to their identity development and experiences of initiative, as well as their experiences of stress, are more likely to participate frequently in SLA. On the other hand, these findings indicate that girls and adolescents who are unmotivated to participate in SLA and who experience negative peer influences while participating in SLA are less likely to frequently participate in SLA. It can be concluded that it is important to think much more broadly than just the setting of the activities themselves when promoting young people's participation in SLA. Some of the features of SLA that promote positive youth development are presented in this paper.
One of the most important contexts for adolescent development, along with family, school, and community, is leisure. However, leisure time can be associated with risk behaviours such as substance ...use, as adolescence is also known as a time of experimentation. This study aims to determine the extent to which adolescents' frequency of participation in structured leisure activities (SLA), perceptions of context, motivational factors, and the experience of participating in SLA contribute to adolescents' alcohol use (lifetime prevalence, monthly prevalence, binge drinking). Regression analyses were conducted with 1.431 high school students who reported having participated in SLA. This cross-sectional study showed that perceptions of context, motivational factors, and experience of participating in SLA contribute to adolescent alcohol use. The study confirms that leisure context can have a protective effect on the substance use path. The findings may be helpful in developing strategies and interventions within SLA context.
Family resilience is a concept that has wide and deep roots, ranging from the development of the concept of individual resilience to the postulates of general systems theory, including family systems ...theory and related therapeutic models as well as studies on family stress and coping. Integration of these roots into a comprehensive theory remains incomplete. Consequently, numerous ambiguities in the conceptualization and operationalization of the concept of family resilience remain. This has important implications for both research and the application of the concept to practice. This article aims to contribute to the clarification and understanding of this evolving concept by reviewing the foundations upon which the concept of family resilience has emerged and has been developing. Our work connects family resilience to the concepts of individual resilience, as well as, community resilience, presenting key challenges but also possible solutions in operationalizing indicators of risk, protective factors, and good outcomes. This article discusses the influence of context and dominant social discourses in defining both risk exposure and family adaptation, highlighting community engagement as a core resilience resource. The article concludes by presenting the challenges that remain in the field of family resilience research, especially in light of the relevance of this concept to interventions and practice pertaining to child and youth care practice.
The aim of this study was to examine cross-sectional associations of protective factors within a family and school context with adolescent risk behaviors. The study was conducted among adolescents (
...= 9682) from five cities in Croatia. Mean age of participants was 16.2 years (
= 1.2), and 52.5% were female. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to examine relations between school attachment, school commitment, family communication, and family satisfaction with gambling, substance use, violence, and sexual risk behavior. Data analyses were conducted in two sets, the first using the full sample, and the second using a subsample (excluding Zagreb) for which there was data on sexual risk behavior. In the first model, school attachment was negatively associated with gambling and violence, while school commitment was negatively associated with students' gambling, substance use, and violence. Gambling was also associated with family satisfaction in this model. Results from the subsample model were similar with regards to school and family factors associated with gambling, substance use, and violence, with a few exceptions. In this model, family protective factors were found not to be significantly related with any risk behavior. These study results emphasize the importance of strengthening school protective factors, school attachment, and school commitment in preventing risk behaviors in adolescents.
The aim of this paper is to give a critic overview on the context of leisure, from defining to analysing contribution of leisure to developmental outcomes of children and youth, and to reach a ...conclusion based on comprehensive analysis. Leisure can be viewed as an important context that promotes the positive, healthy and normative developmental pathway of adolescents. On the other hand, leisure can represent a context that carries with it risk factors for youth involvement risk behaviours. LACE Model (Leisure Activity-Context-Experience Model) is a model focused on understanding adolescent development through leisure (Caldwell, 2005; Caldwell, 2011) and is presented in this paper in greater detail. Furthermore, this paper gives an overview of research studies linking quality of leisure with youth developmental outcomes. Evaluation research of interventions based on leisure did not provide unambiguous answers regarding their efficiency, therefore a need still exists for scientific studies to find answers on the conditions in which structured leisure time, i.e., interventions in the context of children’s and youth’s leisure, can lead to positive developmental outcomes. Key words: developmental outcomes for children and youth; LACE model; leisure---Svrha ovoga rada jest kritički se osvrnuti na kontekst slobodnoga vremena, od definiranja do analize doprinosa slobodnoga vremena razvojnim ishodima djece i mladih te donijeti zaključak na temelju cjelokupne analize. Slobodno se vrijeme može promatrati kao značajni kontekst koji promovira izgradnju pozitivne, zdrave i normativne razvojne putanje adolescenata. S druge strane, slobodno vrijeme može predstavljati i kontekst koji pogoduje uključivanju mladih u rizična ponašanja i/ili razvoju problema u ponašanju. LACE Model, odnosno model slobodnih aktivnosti-konteksta-iskustva (eng. model Leisure Activity-Context-Experience), predstavlja model usmjeren na razumijevanja adolescentskoga razvoja kroz slobodno vrijeme (Caldwell, 2005; Caldwell, 2011) te je detaljnije predstavljen u radu. Isto tako, dan je pregled istraživanja koja povezuju kvalitetu slobodnoga vremena s razvojnim ishodima mladih. Evaluacijska istraživanja intervencija koje se temelje na slobodnom vremenu nisu dala jednoznačne odgovore o njihovoj učinkovitosti te ostaje potreba da se znanstvenim istraživanjima odgovori na pitanje pod kojim uvjetima strukturirano slobodno vrijeme, odnosno intervencije u kontekstu slobodnoga vremena djece i mladih, doprinose njihovim pozitivnim razvojnim ishodima.Ključne riječi: LACE model; slobodno vrijeme; razvojni ishodi djece i mladih
A framework for understanding the interrelationship of individual and environmental factors that influence adolescent health and well-being, as well as opportunities for policy-level interventions, ...is known as Positive Youth Development (PYD). The current study represents one of the largest studies of Croatian adolescents to date, and aimed to examine associations between school and family factors linked to PYD, and mental health outcomes experienced by Croatian youth.
A multi-site survey study was conducted among adolescents (
= 9,655) residing in the five most populous cities in Croatia, with the aim of examining cross-sectional associations of family and school factors with adolescent mental health. The mean age of participants was 16.3 years (
= 1.2), and 52.5% of participants were female. School and family factors included school attachment, school commitment, family communication, and family satisfaction. Depression, anxiety, and stress were assessed as outcomes. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine relations of interest among female and male adolescents.
Among school factors, increased school attachment was found to be significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents, and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents. Increased school commitment was significantly associated with decreased depression and anxiety for female adolescents; conversely, an increase in school commitment was associated with an increase in anxiety and stress for male adolescents. Increases in family communication were significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress only for male adolescents, while increased family satisfaction was significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents.
Findings suggest that interventions for mental health promotion and prevention of internalizing problems should address both school and family contexts, and may be more effective when accounting for differing developmental experiences of female and male adolescents.
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the connection between the concept of individual resilience and the concept of satisfaction with family life as a basis for evidence-based intervention ...planning to promote positive development and prevent risk behaviours among children and young people. The survey included a representative sample of 4,821 students from the City of Zagreb, and the age of the participants was from 14 to 19 years old. Modified versions of the Resilience and Youth Development Module CHKS (California Department of Education, 1997) and the Family Satisfaction Scale FACES IV (Olson & Gorall, 2006) were applied. In the aim of achieving the goals of this paper, the following statistical methods and analyses were used: Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Chi-Squared test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, as well as simple and multiple regression. There were significant gender differences: girls showed higher Empathy, Problem Solving & Cooperation and Communication than boys, while boys showed higher Self-efficacy & Self-awareness. Furthermore, there was a gender difference in satisfaction with family life: boys were more satisfied with family life than girls. There were significant positive correlations between aspects of individual resilience and family life satisfaction, and a higher level of aspects of individual resilience significantly predicted satisfaction with family life.
Spremnost zajednice za preventivna ulaganja Ferić, Martina; Belošević, Matea; Serdar, Katarina
Kriminologija I Socijalna Integracija,
06/2024, Letnik:
32, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Sustavna preventivna ulaganja u zajednice se sve više nameću kao učinkovito i dugoročno rješenje za prevenciju rizičnih ponašanja i problema u ponašanju te promociju pozitivnog razvoja i mentalnog ...zdravlja. Epidemiološki podaci na nacionalnoj i svjetskoj razini pokazuju kako su problemi u ponašanju kao i problemi mentalnog zdravlja djece i mladih u porastu. S druge strane evaluacijska istraživanja dokazuju učinkovitost kvalitetno implementiranih preventivnih intervencija u zajednice. Procjena spremnosti i ulaganje u spremnost zajednice za prevenciju ističu se kao ključan prvi korak učinkovitog procesa implementacije preventivnih intervencija u zajednice. U radu je opisana važnost ovog koraka u cjelokupnom procesu, dât je pregled najčešćih modela procjene spremnosti zajednice za preventivna ulaganja te su istaknute prednosti i nedostaci svakog prikazanog modela. Također su prikazana neka iskustva procjene spremnosti zajednice za preventivna ulaganja u Hrvatskoj.
Systematic preventive investments in communities are increasingly enforced as an effective and long-term solution for preventing adolescent risk behaviours and behaviour disorders and promoting positive children and youth development and mental health. Epidemiological data at the national and global level show that children and youth behavioural problems and their mental health problems are increasing. On the other hand, evaluation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of well-implemented prevention initiatives in communities. Assessing community readiness and investing in community readiness for prevention is a critical first step in effectively implementing prevention strategies in communities. The paper describes the importance of this step in the overall process. Moreover, an overview of the most common models for assessing community readiness for prevention investments is given, and the advantages and disadvantages of each model are highlighted. Finally, some experiences with assessing community readiness for preventive investments in Croatia are presented.
Svrha je ovoga rada istražiti povezanost koncepta individualne otpornosti i koncepta zadovoljstva obiteljskim životom kao temelja planiranja znanstveno utemeljenih intervencija za promociju ...pozitivnog razvoja/prevenciju rizičnih ponašanja djece i mladih. Istraživanje je provedeno na reprezentativnom uzorku od 4.821 učenika Grada Zagreba, a raspon dobi kreće se od 14 do 19 godina. Za potrebe ovog rada korištena je modificirana verzija Resilience and Youth Development Module (California Department of Education, 1997) i modificirana verzija Family Satisfaction Scale, FACES-IV (Olson i Gorali, 2006). U svrhu ostvarivanja ciljeva istraživanja korištene su sljedeće statističke metode i analize: Kolmogorov-Smirnovljev test, hi-kvadrat test, Pearsonov koeficijent korelacije, standardna jednostavna regresijska analiza i standardna višestruka regresijska analiza. Podaci dobiveni na temelju analize pokazuju kako postoje spolne razlike u odnosu na pojedine aspekte individualne otpornosti. Djevojke u odnosu na mladiće postižu više vrijednosti na aspektima empatije, suradnje i komunikacije te vještina rješavanja prroblema, dok mladići postižu više vrijednosti na aspektima samoučinkavitosti i samosvijesti od djevojaka. Nadalje, dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da postoje spolne razlike u zadovoljstvu obiteljskim životom i to na način da su mladići zadovoljniji obiteljskim životom u odnosu na djevojke. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da postoji srednje pozitivna povezanost izmed strok signu ispitivanih aspekata individualne otpornosti i zadovoljstva obiteljskim životom te da viša razina aspekata individualne otpornost sudionika istraživanja značajno predvid strok signa njihovo zadovoljstvo obiteljskim životom.
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