The aim of this nested study is to provide the reference intervals for already published measurements of salivary cortisol from the Croatian Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS).
A total of 969 ...individuals (372 males and 597 females) were included in the reference sample (age range: 18-21 years). Salivary cortisol concentrations were determined by the enzyme immunoassay (LUCIO-Medical ELISA Salivary Cortisol Kit, Nal von Minden, Germany) in the Department of Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Split. Nonparametric statistics were used for calculating the reference intervals (RIs) and 90% confidence intervals (90% CIs).
The lower limits of RIs determined by the direct method were higher in females (> 10%) than in males for the cortisol concentrations at awakening (SCC
), 30 to 45 after awakening (SCC
) and at bedtime (SCC
). The upper limits of RIs for the SCC
were higher (> 10%) in males than in females. Females also had higher upper limits of RIs for the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and the diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) and higher lower limits of RIs for the CAR and the area under the curve with respect to ground (AUC
). The lower limits of RIs for the DCS were higher in males than in females.
Obtained reference values open the arena for introducing salivary bioscience in Croatian clinical laboratory practice and provide important data for better understanding of gender differences in adaptation to stress during late adolescence.
► Research on media violence remains inconsistent and politicized. ► Aggressive personality, but not media violence predicts violent crime among Mexican Americans and English. ► Among Croatians, ...violent video game use predicted fewer violent crimes, but television predicted slightly more violent crimes. ► Depression is predicted by neurotic personality but not media violence exposure. ► Theories linking violent media with violent acts are likely mistaken.
The issue of potential media effects on psychological health of youth and young adults has been debated for decades. Research on media effects has not always been consistent. One issue that has been raised regards whether the relatively modest media effects found in some research might be explained through mediating personality variables. This hypothesis was examined in three samples of young adults: Mexican–Americans (
n
=
232), Croatians (
n
=
455) and English (
n
=
150). Results indicated that trait aggression was a consistent predictor of both violent crimes and depression across samples. General personality variables were less consistent predictors of violence, although neuroticism consistently predicted depression across samples. Media violence exposure did not predict negative outcomes except among Croatians for whom exposure to violent video games predicted fewer violent crimes, and exposure to television violence predicted increased violent crimes.
In this article, we describe the construct validation of a General Social Attitudes Scale
(SAS_G), designed to measure the basic dimensions of social attitudes in both self-reports and
peer-ratings. ...A large sample of Croatian university students (N = 452) used the
SAS_G to describe their own social attitudes, which were also described by 452 of their
acquaintances using the same instrument. All SAS_G subscales showed reasonably high internal
consistency reliability estimates as well as appropriate convergent and discriminant validity based
on self/peer correlations. Separate Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) of both self-reports and
peer ratings yielded five replicable factors and acceptable indices of fit. However, the validation
analyses against lexically based Saucier's
(2008) ISMS instrument showed little convergence, indicating that these two
approaches to general social attitudes scale construction can lead to the identification of
different basic constructs.
In order to obtain an insight into the problems that lead to early school dropout, a large-scale qualitative & quantitative research was conducted, by means of focus groups & surveys, on ...representative samples of high school students, their teachers & parents, & young people who dropped out of school. The data revealed that most frequent reasons of school dropout include low academic achievement, lack of motivation, discipline issues, & financial problems. Other reasons, like early employment & inability to balance school & work, or specific ones like illness, pregnancy or marriage were cited less frequently. Regression analysis additionally confirmed such results, indicating low school grades, grade retention, low socioeconomic status & low level of mother's education to be the strongest predictors of early school dropout. Cluster analysis identified three types of school dropouts which differed in regards to their school achievement, family sociodemographic characteristics, & reasons for leaving school. The necessity to acknowledge the diversity of school dropout was pointed out, especially in development & adoption of prevention programs & help strategies. Adapted from the source document.
The paper presents an analysis of statistical data on various characteristics of educational systems and educational efficiency (collected on a sample of 33 European countries, members or candidate ...countries to the EU), which was conducted in order to assess the efficiency of the extended compulsory education regarding the reduction of dropout rates. Regression analysis was used to examine if the number of years of compulsory education could be a relevant predictor of the dropout rate and of the expected educational attainment. Additionally, quasi-experimental methodology was applied to evaluate the effects of the extended compulsory education on the reduction of dropout rates. The results of the regression analyses have shown that the duration of compulsory education, after partializing out the effects of other relevant variables, does not correlate significantly with the dropout rates. Furthermore, the quasiexperimental approach to the analysis of the extended compulsory education could not prove clearly enough the efficiency of such an intervention. The observed reductions in the dropout rates could be attributed to a long-term trend or nonsystematic temporal variations, rather than to the intervention itself. However, the existing data cannot substantiate a conclusion of inefficiency of the extended compulsory education – due to the inability of monitoring the long-term effects, but only observing the direct ones.
ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: Recently the frequent refusal of participation in surveys represents a growing problem because it is threatening the probabilistic nature of the sample, and thus the validity of ...the data gathered in the survey. In this paper the authors attempted to examine the reasons for accepting or refusing participation in surveys by analysing and comparing the answers given by the persons who agreed to participate in the survey against those who refused to do so. The theories used so far in attempts of interpreting survey refusal served as a referential framework. A questionnaire about participation/non-participation in surveys was used to examine a sample of 408 citizens of Zagreb, 293 of which agreed to while 115 refused to do the survey. It was proved that among the reasons offered for participation in the survey the most significant ones were those connected with the interviewers, while the most frequent reasons for survey non-participation were a lack of time or momentary indisposition. A comparison between persons who refused to and those who agreed to participate in the survey showed that the decision of the latter is predominantly influenced by the wish to assist the interviewer and generally by the interviewer's assessment, as well as by a greater belief in the importance of surveys and a stronger need to express one's own opinion. The reasons for refusing a survey are grouped into two factors, momentary indisposition and dislike of interviewer. The research indicates that participation or non-participation in questionnaires in conditions of typical surveys can best be explained by the theory of pro-social behaviour and assistance. // ABSTRACT IN GERMAN: In jüngerer Zeit meldet sich immer öfter das Problem, dass die Teilnahme an Umfragen verweigert wird, wodurch der probabilistische Charakter der befragten Personengruppe und somit die Glaubwürdigkeit der durch die Umfrage erhobenen Daten in Frage gestellt werden. Die Autoren gehen in ihrer Arbeit den möglichen Gründen für eine Einwilligung zur Umfrageteilnahme bzw. für ihre Verweigerung nach und analysieren in einem Vergleich die Antworten, die sie in beiden Fällen erhalten haben. Als Referenzrahmen dienten dabei verschiedene Theorien, die bislang eingesetzt wurden, um eine verweigerte Umfrageteilnahme zu erklären. Die Umfrage zur Ermittlung der Gründe für und gegen eine Umfrageteilnahme wurde unter 408 Einwohnern der kroatischen Hauptstadt Zagreb durchgeführt; 293 Personen willigten zur Teilnahme ein, 115 verweigerten sie. Es zeigte sich, dass von den zur Auswahl stehenden Gründen für eine Umfrageteilnahme das Auftreten der mit der Umfrage beauftragten Person genannt wurde, während eine Teilnahmeverweigerung am häufigsten auf Zeitmangel und momentane Indisponiertheit zurückzuführen war. Ein Vergleich zwischen den Befragten ergab, dass Personen, die eher zu einer Umfrageteilnahme neigten, sich von ihrer Wahrnehmung des Umfragebeauftragten beeinflussen ließen, ihm helfen wollten, eher von Sinn und Zweck der Umfrage überzeugt waren und ein stärkeres Bedürfnis zeigten, ihrer Meinung Ausdruck zu verleihen. Die Gründe für eine Umfrageverweigerung gruppieren sich um die Faktoren momentane Indisponiertheit und Abneigung gegenüber dem Umfragebeauftragten. Die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt, dass eine Umfrageteilnahme bzw. -verweigerung am besten anhand der Theorie prosozialen Verhaltens und der Bereitschaft zu helfen erklärt werden kann. Reprinted by permission of Drustvena Istrazivanja
The article analyzes the differences in conditions & quality of life on representative samples of young adults (aged 18-25) who have dropped out of school before high school graduation (N=451) in ...comparison to those who have successfully completed the high school education (N=1096). The size & significance of differences were examined on composite variables covering areas of employment, living conditions, material resources, frequency of social contacts, & subjective well-being, which can all be considered as indicators of the umbrella construct of social exclusion. In addition, structural modeling was used to test the suitability of a hypothetical model which postulates causal relationship between early school dropout & a series of unfavorable social outcomes related to social exclusion. Results show statistically significant & sizeable differences in the social position between dropouts & high school graduates. Depending on the specific indicator, the average dropout falls into the category of 2 to 12% of socially most endangered persons of comparable age. It was also shown that the analyzed model, which assumes the dropout to be the (direct or indirect) causative agent of adverse social outcomes, explains well the empirical data. The interpretations & implications of such results were further discussed. Adapted from the source document.
The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between the Five Factor Model of personality and the belief in the paranormal. Participants (N=307) were students from the University of Zagreb, ...Croatia. The measures used were the IPIP version of the Five Factor Model questionnaire (Goldberg et al., 2006) along with the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (Tobacyk, 1988). The factor analysis of the latter yielded three previously unreported paranormal belief dimensions named: General paranormal belief, Traditional religious belief and Rituals and practices. The most significant personality correlations with all three factors were found for Openness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism, respectively. Results to an extent confirmed previous findings, suggesting that open individuals accept more General paranormal beliefs, while rejecting Traditional religious belief. Conscientiousness displayed an opposite trend being positively related to Traditional religious beliefs and negatively to General paranormal beliefs. Finally, Neuroticism was related to Rituals and practices, i.e. superstitions, divinations and occult control of life outcomes. The relations are however modest ranging from 0.11 to 0.25. Both the novel paranormal belief structure and its significance to personality are discussed within an evolutionary perspective, with guidelines for further research highlighted in the end.
U istraživanju, u kojem je sudjelovalo 296 studenata, ispitali smo
ulogu ishoda kriza prvih šest Eriksonovih stadija i emocionalne
kompetentnosti u predikciji dimenzije izbjegavanja bliskosti i ...dimenzije
anksioznosti u ljubavnim vezama. Kad govorimo o varijablama
ličnosti, jedino se intimnost pokazala značajnim
prediktorom u objašnjavanju dimenzije izbjegavanja bliskosti.
Uvođenjem vještina emocionalne kompetentnosti u analizu, značajno
smo povećali postotak objašnjene varijance, čemu je najviše
pridonijelo izražavanje i imenovanja emocija. Pokazalo se
da su sudionici koji su intimniji u bliskim odnosima i bolje
izražavaju svoje emocije manje skloni izbjegavanju bliskosti u
ljubavnim vezama. Odabranim prediktorima objašnjena je
približno trećina varijance dimenzije anksioznosti u ljubavnim
vezama, pri čemu su se značajnima pokazali jedino povjerenje i
nezavisnost, odnosno osnovne snage ličnosti koje se javljaju u
najranijoj dobi. Regresijske analize upućuju na različitost procesa
u podlozi dviju dimenzija privrženosti, što je u skladu s teorijski
utemeljenim očekivanjima.
Recently the frequent refusal of participation in surveys represents a growing problem because it is threatening the probabilistic nature of the sample, and thus the validity of the data gathered in ...the survey. In this paper the authors attempted to examine the reasons for accepting or refusing
participation in surveys by analysing and comparing the answers given by the persons who agreed to participate in the survey against those who refused to do so. The theories used so far in attempts of interpreting survey refusal served as a referential framework. A questionnaire about participation/non-participation in surveys was used to examine a sample of 408 citizens of Zagreb, 293 of which
agreed to while 115 refused to do the survey. It was proved that among the reasons offered for participation in the survey the most significant ones were those connected with the interviewers, while the most frequent reasons for survey non-participation were a lack of time or momentary indisposition. A comparison between persons who refused to and those who agreed to participate in the survey showed
that the decision of the latter is predominantly influenced by the wish to assist the interviewer and generally by the interviewer’s assessment, as well as by a greater belief in the importance of surveys and a stronger need to express one’s own opinion. The reasons for refusing a survey are grouped
into two factors, momentary indisposition and dislike of interviewer. The research indicates that participation or nonparticipation in questionnaires in conditions of typical surveys can best be explained by the theory of pro-social behaviour and assistance.
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