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The aim of this paper was to investigate the experience of possible positive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and their connection with indicators of mental health and well-being, and to identify themes by which people describe the positive consequences of the pandemic. As part of a broader longitudinal project, participants completed a comprehensive online survey on various aspects of the pandemic. This paper presents the results obtained from 1,201 adult participants (50.1% women) on a quantitative measure of the experienced positive consequences, and on the qualitative answers to an open question about the positive aspects of the pandemic. The quantitative measure was created for the purposes of this research. Measures of sociodemographic factors, mental health (DASS-21) and well-being (WHO-5) were also used. The results show that participants experience positive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic through three factors: Awareness of life values, More time for oneself, and New job opportunities. Awareness of life values was ranked as the most important, then More time for oneself, and finally New job opportunities. Participants who were more aware of these three aspects of the positive effects of COVID-19 also showed significantly greater subjective well-being and resilience, while associations with depression, anxiety, and stress were negligible or low. Women were more aware of changes in their life values than men, while men had a greater experience of new job opportunities. The results of the qualitative responses show that 83.4% of participants recognised some form of positive consequences of the pandemic on their lives, on the lives of other people, and on society. Analyses revealed seven themes: better family relationships, reflection and personal growth, social well-being, digitalisation of work and education, improved personal life, environmental effects, and competent pandemic management. Together, the results point to the importance of thinking about and exploring positive consequences of crisis events in the context of individual resilience and well-being.

Background: The COVID-19 related health concerns, financial uncertainty, and imposed change of life patterns have been shown to increase the risk for mental health. Amid the national lockdown due to the pandemic, a disastrous earthquake of 5.5 magnitude hit the city of Zagreb, Croatia, and its surroundings in March 2020. Objective: To assess and compare the mental health status of people who have lived through double adversity: COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, and the earthquake disaster. Method: Online cohort survey of the general population was done between 9 and 17 July 2020. The adult sample (18 to 65 years) of 1201 participants nationally representative for age (M=41.37 years, SD=12, 864), gender (50.1% female), level of urbanization, and country regions was recruited through the online panel. The assessed mental health indicators included depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21, PHQ-4), adjustment problems (ADNM-8), posttraumatic symptoms (PC-PTSD), wellbeing (WHO-5), and psychological resilience (RES), as well as a set of pandemic-specific stressors and positive outcomes. Results: The subsample of earthquake survivors (n=408) was compared to the subsample of participants who were not exposed to the earthquake (n=793). Groups did not differ on any of the mental health indicators, except the posttraumatic symptom score, where the double exposure group scored higher (p=.009), but were not more likely to meet the PTSD diagnosis (15% in double exposure and 13.1% in pandemic-only 9 exposure group). Conclusions: In contrast, the double exposure made a difference on several positive insights: appreciation of own health, advantages of home working, the potential for increased income, and developing new skills.

Focus on youth internalizing and externalizing problems was prominent in larger number of studies and in many of them was concluded that these two groups of mental problems are often interconnected in the way that behind adolescents’ externalizing problems there are hidden some internalizing as well. The aim of this paper is to analyse the differences between adolescents who have different combination of internalizing and externalizing problems and to address prevention and intervention strategies according to given results. In research participated total of 618 students (52% males) from higher grades of primary and lower grades of secondary schools situated in five smaller cities in Croatia. Questionnaire consisted of five instruments – Socio-demographic data, Youth Self-Report (measuring internalizing and externalizing problems), Bullying Scale (measuring perpetrated and experienced peer violence), subscale of Peer attachment of Inventory of parent and peer attachment and subscale of Family satisfaction of Quality of Family Interactions Scale. According to results on Youth Self-Report and 30% cut-off points (30th and 70th percentile) separately for subscale of internalizing problems (IP) and subscale of externalizing problems (EP), participants were sorted in 4 groups – (1) without symptoms (n=111), (2) high IP and low EP (n=109), (3) high EP and low IP and (n=100) and (4) combined IP and EP (n=91). 207 participants who have some kind of internalizing or externalizing problems but aren’t in top 30% of those with most expressed IP/EP, were excluded from further analysis. Four groups of adolescents differ largely regarding their socio- demographic data and psychosocial adjustment. The greatest risk factors for IP are female gender, high school (especially gymnasium program) and beyond average family financial status, while for EP risk factors are male gender, younger age and high family income. Psychosocial variables are good in prediction of group membership, with all variables (life satisfaction, family satisfaction, peer satisfaction, peer attachment, perpetrated and experienced bullying) significant in distinction of different groups. Further elaboration of given results and their practical implication shall be discussed.

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati prediktorsku ulogu nekih sociodemografskih obilježja, iskustva, otpornosti, socijalne podrške, stresa i profesionalnog sagorijevanja u odnosu na mentalno zdravlje udomiteljica djece (emocionalno stanje, anksioznost i depresivnost). Istraživanje je provedeno na prigodnom uzorku na području pet županija Slavonije i Baranje, u kojem je sudjelovalo 135 udomiteljica za djecu, koje udomiteljstvo obavljaju kao tradicionalno i specijalizirano udomiteljstvo za djecu. Glavnom istraživanju prethodilo je kvalitativno istraživanje koje se provelo kroz dvije fokusne grupe sa 16 udomiteljica djece s područja Osječko - baranjske županije, a sa svrhom provjere sadržajne valjanosti novo konstruiranih instrumentarija za mjerenje profesionalnog stresa udomitelja djece i samoprocjene specifičnih kompetencija udomitelja: Upitnik prisutnosti izvora stresa udomitelja za djecu i Upitnik samoprocjene specifičnih kompetencija udomitelja djece. Za provedbu glavnog istraživanja korišteni su instrumenti Skala otpornosti (Resilience Evaluation Scale (RES) Meer et al, 2018) za mjerenje psihološke otpornosti, Maslachin inventar sagorijevanja (eng. Burnout Inventory MBI-HSS; Maslach, Jackson i Leiter, 2001) za mjerenje sagorijevanja, Multidimenzionalna skala percipirane socijalne podrške (Zimet i sur., 1988, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support - MSPSS) i Ljestvica percipirane socijalne podrške (Social Support Scale, prilagođena skala Simons, 1996) za mjerenje socijalne podrške, Skala dobrobiti (WHO Well-Being Index, WHO, 1998) za mjerenje emocionalnog stanja te PHQ4 skala (Patient Health Questionnaire-4, Kroenke i sur., 2009) za mjerenje anksioznosti i depresivnosti kod udomiteljica. Na konstruiranom Upitniku prisutnosti izvora stresa udomitelja za djecu koji pokazuje dobre metrijske karakteristike, zaključuje se kako udomiteljice pokazuju umjereno prisutnima profesionalne izvore stresa, pri čemu je značajno kako su izvori stresa povezani s obilježjima udomljenog djeteta. Na konstruiranom Upitniku samoprocjene specifičnih kompetencija udomitelja djece, rezultati pokazuju kako udomiteljice procjenjuju visoko na ljestvici svoje specifičnije kompetencije za udomiteljstvo. Prediktori profesionalnog stresa udomiteljica za djecu su udomljenje djeteta koje pokazuje eksternalizirane probleme u ponašanju, kao i nedostatak socijalne podrške socijalnih radnika. Prediktori sagorijevanja su podijeljeni na tri dimenzije: emocionalna iscrpljenost, depersonalizacija i osjećaj osobnog postignuća. U pogledu anksioznosti i depresivnosti prediktori su broj osoba o kojima udomiteljica brine osim o udomljenom djetetu, udomljenje djeteta koje pokazuje internalizirane probleme u ponašanju, udomljenje beba, niska percipirana podrška obitelji. U pogledu depresivnosti na nju utječe veći broj osoba o kojima udomiteljice brinu, veća razina emocionalne iscrpljenosti te niža socijalna podrška socijalnih radnika. Ovim istraživanje potvrđen je teorijski okvir na kojem istraživanje počiva: transakcijska teorija stresa i model profesionalnog sagorijevanja po C. Maslach, Introduction and goal: Foster care for children in the Republic of Croatia is a form of providing social housing services to children, who are provided with daily care and care in this way. Foster parents are often exposed to numerous challenges in their daily work with children who have experienced neglect and abuse and traumatization. It is also an area of care in which private and business activity cannot be clearly separated, because the work of a foster parent includes providing allday care and concern for children. Although foster parents receive compensation from the social welfare system for their work, they are not employees of the social welfare system, but collaborators. The multitude of roles in which foster parents find themselves can lead to a state of professional stress, and then possible burnout, which can further affect their mental health. Therefore, this research aims to examine the predictive role of some sociodemographic characteristics, experience, resilience, social support, stress and professional burnout in relation to the mental health of foster mothers (emotional state, anxiety and depression). It is a research with an exploitative goal. The theoretical origin of the doctoral research is the transaction theory of stress, the model of professional burnout according to C. Maslach, and the concept of social support and psychological resilience. Participants: Before the implementation of the main qualitative research, preliminary research was conducted in which 16 foster mothers from Osijek - Baranja county participated, and which was conducted through two focus groups. 135 foster mothers from five counties of Slavonia and Baranja participated in the main research, namely Osijek - Baranja, Požega - Slavonia, Brod - Posavina, Vukovar - Srijem, Virovitica - Podravina. In the main research, only foster mothers took part, and they perform foster care as traditional or specialized foster care for children. Most of the respondents are between 40 and 60 years old. Instruments: For the purposes of the research, a survey questionnaire was created that consists of several scales that examine the respondents' general sociodemographic data, their experience, psychological resilience, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and perception of personal achievement, then social support, the presence of sources of stress, specific competencies for foster care and mental health. The measuring instruments used in the research are Questionnaire of sociodemographic characteristics, Experience of foster care, Resilience Evaluation Scale (RES) Meer et al, 2018; Maslach's burnout inventory (Burnout Inventory MBI-HSS; Maslach, Jackson and Leiter, 2001); Multidimensional scale of perceived social support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley, 1988, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support - MSPSS); Scale of perceived social support (Social Support Scale, adapted from Simons, 1996); Questionnaire on sources of stress for foster parents; Questionnaire of self-assessment of specific competencies of foster carers; Well-Being Scale (WHO Well-Being Index, WHO, 1998); PHQ4 scale (Patient Health Questionnaire-4, Kroenke et al., 2009). Results: The results in the qualitative part of the research showed that the foster mothers of children in the two focus groups stated how they understood the items listed in the newly constructed instruments, the Questionnaire on sources of stress of foster parents for children and the Questionnaire of self-assessment of children's specific competencies. In addition, the foster mothers who participated in the focus groups state that they want to acquire additional knowledge and skills in the area of child care, child development, educational procedures, cooperation with experts in the system, knowledge of how to deal with stressful situations, and computer skills. Regarding the present sources of stress, they are most often associated with the characteristics of the foster child, then with the lack of support from the social worker and the social care system and the characteristics and difficulties of the foster parent. The analysis of the data also showed how the foster mothers in this research estimate their specific competencies for fostering as high, with the highest results on the items related to the competencies for effectively managing foster care focused on the child and managing the child's behaviour. Also, the results showed that foster mothers mostly do not have pronounced symptoms of anxiety and depression, and only 23,7% of foster mothers have mild symptoms, while 4,4% have moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression. The predictors of the set that include the variables the number of people who actively participate in the care of a foster child, the experience of fostering a child with externalized behaviour problems, self-assessment of specific competencies, social support of social workers in the work environment explain 24% of the variance of the professional source of stress criteria. The predictors of the experience of fostering a child with externalizing behaviour problems, family social support and the presence of a stress source explain 27% of the variance of the emotional exhaustion criterion, while the set of variables of the experience of fostering a child with externalizing behaviour problems, perceived social support from friends and the presence of a stress source explain 15% of the depersonalization criterion. A set of variables, the way of living, psychological resilience and self-assessment of specific competencies explain 18% of the variance of the criterion of perception of personal achievement. The predictors of mental health in this research are the level of education and psychological resilience in relation to the emotional state of foster mothers; the number of people other than foster children cared for by foster mothers, the experience of fostering a child with internalized behavioural problems, the experience of fostering babies and the perceived social support of the family in relation to anxiety, and the number of people other than foster children cared for by foster mothers and the social support of social workers in relation to depression. Conclusion: Among foster carers for children, there are sources of stress related to their role in providing accommodation services to children, some foster carers experience burnout, and have symptoms of anxiety and depression. The experience of fostering a child that shows externalized behaviour problems is a significant predictor of professional stress, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in foster mothers. A common predictor of anxiety and depression is a greater number of people that foster mothers take care of, in addition to the foster child. Lower support from social workers is a predictor of stress and depression in foster mothers, while the absence of social support from the family is a predictor of emotional exhaustion. The presence of a source of stress proved to be a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, which confirmed the theoretical origin of the draft research model. All of the above indicates that foster mothers have the right to mental health protection within the social care system because they experience stress related to their role as foster parents. There is therefore a need to provide foster mothers with continuous support and supervision to which they have a legal right. It would also be important for social workers to give them all the necessary information about the child being adopted, as well as to support the foster mothers in the process of working with the adopted child, especially when the child has internalized and externalized problems in behaviour

Cilj ovog diplomskog rada je pomažućim profesijama dodatno približiti probleme mentalnog zdravlja, njihove uzroke, simptome, posljedice, ali i načine na koje se mogu s njima nositi. Činjenica je da se pomagači na radnom mjestu susreću s jako puno stresnih situacija koje utječu na njih same, na njihovo radno okruženje, ali i na međuljudske odnose van posla. U ovom radu govori se o utjecaju stresa na mentalno zdravlje, uzrocima, posljedicama i simptomima stresa te načinu suočavanja sa istim. Također se govori i o profesionalnom stresu, njegovom utjecaju na mentalno zdravlje pomagača, ali i o jako čestoj posljedici, a to je sagorijevanje na radu. Ono što je ključno i od iznimne važnosti za pomagače je naučiti prepoznati simptome i poremećaje mentalnog zdravlja te na vrijeme poduzeti određene korake i potražiti adekvatnu pomoć kako bi prvenstveno mogli pomoći sebi, a onda i drugima., The goal of this thesis is to bring mental health problems closer to helping profession workers and to explain their causes, symptoms and outcomes as well as possible ways in which they can be dealt with. It is a fact that helping profession workers encounter a lot of stressful situations at work which affect workers themselves, their professional and work environment and other interpersonal relationships outside of work. This thesis discusses the impact of stress on mental health, its causes, symptoms, outcomes and possible ways how to deal with stress. Furthermore, the thesis referes to professional stress, the effect it has on helping profession workers' mental health and its most common outcome – burnout at work. The crucial and the most important thing for helping profession workers is to learn to recognize symptoms and disorders connected to mental health. By learning that, they can prevent problems or, at least, seek adequate help so that they can primarily help themselves, and finally others.

U zadnjih nekoliko godina mladi svakodnevno koriste društvene mreže. Njihova masovna upotreba značajno utječe na mlade i njihov psihološki razvoj te su zato u fokusu ovog rada mladi od 15 do 30 godina života. Cilj rada je vidjeti kakav je utjecaj korištenja društvenih mreža na mentalno zdravlje mladih osoba. Pregledom niza stranih i domaćih istraživanja pokazalo se da utjecaj društvenih mreža ima dobre i loše strane. Pozitivan utjecaj društvenih mreža očituje se u većoj razini socijalne interakcije, stvaranju socijalnog kapitala, većoj socijalnoj potpori kao i boljim obiteljskim odnosima. No, socijalna usporedba do koje dolazi na društvenim mrežama te visoka razina posvećenosti društvenim mrežama, štete samopoštovanju i vode depresiji, a učestalost korištenja može naštetiti ritmu spavanja, dovesti do slabijeg akademskog uspjeha te naštetiti sveukupnom zdravlju. Slučajevi težeg i češćeg korištenja društvenih mreža mogu dovesti do ovisnosti o istima, a na njima su mladi izloženi i nasilju, najčešće od strane vršnjaka što također negativno utječe na mentalno zdravlje. Nekonzistentnost rezultata različitih istraživanja pokazala je kako je bitno usredotočiti se na određene aktivnosti na društvenim mrežama, a ne na općenitu upotrebu društvenih mreža., In recent years young people use social networks every day. Their massive use significantly affects young people and their psychological development and therefore the focus of this work are young people from 15 to 30 years of age. The aim of the paper is to see the impact of the use of social networks on the mental health of young people. A review of a number of foreign and domestic research has shown that the impact of social networks has a good and bad side. The positive influence of social networks manifests as a higher level of social interaction, building social capital, greater social support and better family relationships. On the other side, the social comparison and the high level of social network engagement can damage self-esteem and lead to depression, as the frequency of use can harm the sleep rhythm, lead to less academic success and harm overall health. Cases of more frequent and more frequent use of social networks can lead to addiction to these, and young people are exposed to violence, most often by peers, which also negatively affects mental health. The inconsistency of the results of different researches has shown that it is essential to focus on certain activities on social networks rather than on the general use of social networks.

Svrha ovog rada je istraživanje sekundarnih podataka koji se odnose na počinitelje nasilja u partnerskim odnosima kojima je izrečena sigurnosna i zaštitna mjera obaveznog liječenja od ovisnosti. Uzorak su činile ukupno 64 osobe za 2015.godinu, od kojih je 95% muškaraca te 5% žena kojima je izrečena mjera obaveznog psihijatrijskog liječenja u Psihijatrijskoj bolnici Vrapče. Ključne spoznaje dobivene ovim istraživanjem su da je počinitelj partnerskog nasilja u većoj mjeri muškarac, osoba neovisno o spolu u dobi od 31-50, osoba završene srednje strukovne škole, nezaposlena osoba te osoba koja je u braku. Najčešći oblik partnerskog nasilja je psihičko nasilje. Osim sociodemografskih obilježja kao polaznih, istraživanjem su obuhvaćeni i prikazani mentalno zdravlje te uporaba alkohola kao dodatna obilježja koja možda pridonose pojavi partnerskog nasilja. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju kako su prilikom počinjenja partnerskog nasilja u većoj mjeri osobe kod kojih je zabilježena prisutnost alkohola. Rad završava zaključkom o potrebi daljnjeg istraživanja obilježja počinitelja nasilja u partnerskim odnosima koja će proširiti i poboljšati naše razumijevanje partnerskog nasilja., The purpose of this paper is to study secondary data relating to the perpetrators of violence between partners who were given safety and security measures of mandatory treatment of addiction. The sample consisted of 64 persons for 2015, of which 95% of men and 5% of women who were given compulsory psychiatric treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče. Key findings of this study are that the perpetrator of partner violence in the largely male person, regardless of sex aged 31-50, persons completing secondary vocational schools, the unemployed person and the person is married. The most common form of partner violence is psychological violence. In addition to sociodemographic characteristics as the starting, the survey covered and displayed mental health and alcohol use as well as additional features that may contribute to the occurrence of partner violence. The results show that in the commission of partner violence to a greater extent in people who recorded the presence of alcohol. Except sociodemographic characteristics as the starting, research includes and displayed mental health and alcohol use as well as additional features that may contribute to the occurrence of partner violence. The paper concludes on the need to further research the characteristics of perpetrators of violence in partner relationships that will expand and improve our understanding of partner violence.