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A cross-sectional study was conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March and April 2020) in the Republic of Serbia, with the aim to evaluate the relationship between coping strategies and readiness to get a vaccine against coronavirus. At that time vaccines against COVID-19 were not developed. Coping strategies were measured on the Cybernetic Coping scale. Results confirmed that coping strategies could predict someone's negative attitudes toward vaccination. Namely, more frequent usage of devaluation was negatively associated with someone's intention to get vaccinated. It seems that underestimating the danger, believing that pandemic is not real, that COVID-19 is "just another flu-like virus" reasonably decreases the chance that someone will take precautionary measures.

The environment in which a child develops determines, to a greater extent, the direction of his motor development. The main aim of our study was to examine the influence of parental permission regarding free physical play on the development of children's motor ability. Different aspects of motor development were measured in 24 children aged 3 to 5 years. Parental permission for free play was assessed via a questionnaire filled by parents. The results showed significant correlations between parental permission and child's motor development. Permissions were related mostly to manual precision and coordination. Then, to a lesser degree with fine motor skills and endurance, while there was no correlation with balance. Additionally, we found that this strong relationship emerges at 4 and 5 years of age, while at the age of three it is not documented. Our research results emphasize the strong impact of parental permission on determining the process of child's motor development.

This research examined the implicit attitudes of the preschool education professionals towards the gifted children. We used two types of assessment: how much an attitude is fair and how much it is good. The attitudes of preschool teachers who are working at the preschool institutions and the attitudes of students who are enrolled in vocational education for preschool teachers were compared. The control group were the students of sport training. The attitudes towards gifted children were researched as they are typically portrayed as intellectually superior, socially maladjusted and seen as a potential leaders of the society. The results showed a relatively positive attitude towards gifted children in all groups. The only exception is that they have a neutral to slightly negative attitude towards social adjustment of the gifted children. These results just partially confirmed the disharmony of the hypothesis that teachers frequently have. It is the assumption that the intellectual superiority of the gifted children is accompanied by social or emotional maladjustment. Based on the results, on the preschool level, there are not yet any kind of negative attitudes of the preschool teachers towards gifted children. In addition, it seems that the professionals increase the value of the cognitive aspect of giftedness with experience.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Serbia was followed by strict restrictions that negatively affected the economy, particularly small size companies. The complete lockdown and the prohibition of certain services have led to an unstable employment situation. Only several studies investigated the job insecurity and its consequences during COVID-19 pandemic, and some of them highlight the fear of COVID-19 as a significant moderator of mental health. Other studies emphasize the huge effect that intolerance of uncertainty could have in explaining distress, especially during pandemic. In addition, intolerance of uncertainty was considered as a possible moderator of the relationship between the objective and subjective job threat, as well their consequences for mental health. This study aimed to examine the presence of job insecurity and work related distress in Serbia during the first wave of COVID-19. We wanted to measure the effect of the job insecurity on experienced work distress, as well the moderation potential of the intolerance of uncertainty as an individual-level and the fear of coronavirus as a situation-dependent variable. Five hundred and twenty five employed participants took part in an online study during the first wave of coronavirus infection in Serbia. To measure job insecurity, we used Perception of job insecurity scale (PJIS), while distress was assessed with Distress scale from 4DSQ. Fear of COVID-19 was measured on three items. The intolerance of uncertainty was measured by the IUS-11 scale. The results showed that 30.4% of the participants consider their employment as moderately or highly insecure, and 15.1% thought they can lose their jobs. 63.4% of participants expressed increased levels of distress. The moderation analysis revealed that the effect of job insecurity on distress can be moderated by interaction of intolerance of uncertainty and COVID-related fear. In general, distress scores were increasing with increasing job insecurity, intolerance of uncertainty and fear of COVID-19. This pattern is not observed only when fear and intolerance of uncertainty were both low, when job instability could not influence distress. This study also showed that emotional appraisal of the job threat had higher impact on distress than the perceived threat, that shed the light on the importance of considering general resilience capabilities as a protective factor in the work environment in the time of crisis.

Since the coronavirus outbreak influenced the whole population in 2020, many individuals, both directly and indirectly affected, experienced increased levels of distress at that time. Such a global mental health crisis requires identification of key mechanisms which contribute to distress during pandemic. Specificity of COVID-19 outbreak was lack of sufficient information at the beginning and, consequently, a high level of perceived uncertainty. The main aim of this study was to examine the influence of the intolerance of uncertainty to the experienced level of distress during the pandemic. Additionally, influence of media exposure and fear were examined. Total of 740 participants took part in an online study during the coronavirus outbreak in Serbia. Moderately high level of distress was recorded in our sample. About ⅓ of participants were in each group: no distress, moderately high and highly elevated. Results of serial mediation analysis showed that the intolerance of uncertainty had a significant direct effect on distress, but also indirect via fear of COVID-19 and media exposure. Higher levels of intolerance of uncertainty lead to more time spent on media looking for information, and consequently to higher fear and distress levels. Furthermore, it was shown that media exposure also increased the level of fear. Such results emphasized the importance of unambiguous, clear informing during the time of crisis which can decrease uncertainty, and provided some practical implication for media and authorities.