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Background. The COVID-19 pandemic declared on March 11th, 2020, has had a substantial impact on the lives of all over the world. The student population, being one of the most vulnerable and substile ones, was forced to face specific unexpected circumstances for the first time in their lives. Objective. In this paper, the authors explored the reflections of the COVID-19 experience and basic segments of everyday life of university students after the first academic year under pandemic measures and a follow-up year with their subjective perception of to what extent their lives have changed and how they were able to adapt to COVID-19 emergency measures. Design. The field research was conducted among students in two European countries: Slovenia and Serbia. The qualitative semi-structured interviews with students (N=20, 50% male) were executed in June-July 2020 and June-July 2021. Results. The basic segments of students' daily lives underwent significant changes, yet they successfully coped and adapted to the COVID-19 emergency measures. Notably, improvements were observed in study strategies, reducing fear and loneliness. Above all, the primary longing was for social contact and gathering with friends. In their private lives, they were more concerned about opportunities but on the other hand, they gained more free time for various non-academic activities. Finally, sports science students have proven better-coping mechanisms with extraordinary circumstances. Conclusion. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the changes in the daily lives of students during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background. The concept of sports entrepreneurship is increasingly explored, both in the world and in Serbia. This paper aims to examine which factors influence the entrepreneurial intentions of sports science students at the Faculty in Novi Sad and describe their influence on entrepreneurial intentions in more detail. Methods. For research, a survey questionnaire was conducted, which consisted of 114 respondents, that is, 40 female students and 74 male final-year students of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Novi Sad. The questionnaire consists of 33 questions related to several factors: entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial culture, attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Results. During data analysis, descriptive indicators and factor analysis were used. Conclusion. It was observed that the mentioned factors significantly influenced students’ entrepreneurial intentions, and their mutual connection was proven. Keywords: entrepreneurial intentions, sports science, students, entrepreneurship.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed everyday life of social actors, which inferred mental health and well-being concerns. As students of health-related studies tend to adapt better to difficult circumstances, in this study, we explored the effect of the pandemic on sports science students’ well-being during the summer of 2022. The research was conducted in Slovenia and Serbia. The sample comprised n = 350 students. The PERMA-Profiler, a 15-item self-reported questionnaire, was adapted to assess well-being across five elements: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Data were collected with a questionnaire through the summer of 2022 (from May to July) and analyzed in SPSS, AMOS 26.0. The results revealed normal functioning (M = 7.72, SD ± 1.38) for the overall well-being of the students. Although all dimensions indicated high scores, relationships (M = 7.95, SD ± 1.63), meaning (M = 7.76, SD ± 1.69), and engagement (M = 7.73, SD ± 1.36) rated the highest. Furthermore, the instrument was acceptable, as the confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate reliability based on Cronbach’s alpha (15 items, α = 0.94) and strong internal correlations between the PERMA dimensions. This study contributes to the previously published research, emphasizing the positive responses and successful coping of sports science students in times of complex situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: The emergence of coronavirus in Serbia as well as in other European countries led to the declaration of a state of emergency, which, among other measures, included a switch to online education, the lockdown of public life and organized sports, and a curfew from 5 pm to 5 am. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which these measures affected children's daily routines. More specifically, it aimed to determine how children maintained their learning, physical activity, and screen time routines from the period before the state of emergency was declared.Methods: Response to an online parent-reported questionnaire was conducted (N = 450). The factorial validity of the scales was prepared using confirmatory factor analysis, with acceptable fit indices. Based on that, the authors tested the interrelations between dimensions using structural equation modeling in SPSS, AMOS 24.0.Results: The study results indicate a positive relationship between school achievement and study time (β = 0.25). They also indicate that children who were physically active before the pandemic continued their activities during the emergency state (β = 0.53). Physical activity impact during the COVID-19 emergency measures reduces children's behavior changes (β = 0.55). Finally, they highlight that children who spent more time with multimedia content had greater changes in anxiety, sensitivity, nervousness, and worry due to COVID-19 emergency measures (β = −0.38).Conclusions: Healthy lifestyle habits formed in childhood are suggested to be responsible for the greater “resistance to change” shown by the children from this study.

The Serbian Country Factsheets on Physical Exercise and Performance for Esports Players provide a foundational assessment of nine physical exercise and performance indicators tailored to esports athletes. This study utilizes Serbia’s Esports Physical Exercise/Performance Matrix 1.0 framework, integrating recent peer-reviewed studies and nationally representative secondary data to evaluate these indicators. However, insufficient data was identified, with all indicators scoring zero due to unreliable evidence. This fact highlights a critical need for targeted health initiatives within Serbia’s esports community. Considering the strong correlation between physical fitness and cognitive skills essential for esports success, the findings suggest that prolonged physical inactivity may impair Serbian players’ competitive potential. Serbia risks falling behind in this rapidly evolving field without a coordinated, cross-sectoral approach to health promotion tailored for esports. This factsheet is a pioneering resource for Serbian esports, aiming to stimulate further research, inform policy adjustments, and foster community engagement to build a healthier and more resilient esports population.

This protocol helps evaluators gather current data and prepare annual assessments based on specific indicators to provide insights into physical activity among esports players and identify the challenges they face. This manuscript aims to develop a methodology for creating a standardized monitoring system to assess physical exercise and performance in esports players at national, regional, and global levels. This study protocol proposes 20 online sociodemographic indicators to help characterize participating countries and outline each country’s demographic profile. Additionally, this protocol proposes nine content indicators specifically designed to assess physical exercise and performance in esports players. A separate analysis will be required to evaluate each content indicator using a 10-point grading scale. This study protocol will facilitate the annual meetings of national evaluators (researchers) to produce reports, thereby fostering effective and dynamic linkages between research and practice.

Using e-learning and social media has become a common part of students’ academic lives in many sciences, including sport sciences. The purpose of this research study was to identify attitudes and preferences of students in sports science concerning the use of e-learning and social media at the University of Novi Sad. The present study was included respondents (N=297) from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education at the University of Novi Sad from all levels of studies. The attitudes and preferences of the use of e-learning and social media were measured with three separate parts: (1) General information (8 items); (2) use of different genres of social media in teaching (28 items); (3) e-learning in the field of sports studies (13 items), and descriptive statistics (frequencies) were used to describe the basic features of the data. The results showed that participants mostly use Facebook (44.4% of students), Viber (66%), and WhatsApp (56.6%) to contact peer students for study in the context of learning purposes. In comparison, they do not use LinkedIn (1.3%), Twitter (0.3%) or Skype (4%). From another side, the students mostly share their messages via Viber and WhatsApp in the form of various questions (67% via Viber; 62.6% via WhatsApp), video messages (20.5%; 25.3%), screenshots of their screen (21.2%; 27.6%), various links (23.2%; 25.3%), comments on a current topic (22.2%; 22.2%). In the participants’ opinion (81.5%), the teaching process has been set back by the coronavirus pandemic. In contrast, the students experienced the pandemic’s positive effect as an improvement in e-learning (51.2% of students). They shared the opinion that virtual teaching is not as effective as traditional teaching (85.2%). The theoretical and practical applications of these results are discussed.

Organizational culture represents employees' integrated values and business orientation of employees in the work environment, and conduct unwritten and written rules. This research aimed to evaluate the characteristic of organizational learning culture in Serbian team sports. The sample of respondents in this study consisted of 118 available managers of different levels in the organizational structure of sports organizations from four selected team sports (football, basketball, handball, and volleyball), which institutionally belong to the highest rank of the competition. At the individual level, the authors revealed the differences in favor of managers in volleyball clubs that come from better support, openness, and feedback from each other in the organization, all for their career development (χ2=12,79, p

This narrative review of the literature assessed whether regular physical exercise and sleep patterns, fasting and autophagy, altogether can be an adequate strategy for achieving healthy longevity and well-being within different stage of life. There are a large number of studies dealing with well-being and healthy longevity; however, few of them have given us a specific formula for how to live long and healthy. Despite all the advances that have been made to create adequate physical exercise programs, sleep patterns or nutritional protocols, the relation between different types of fasting, nutritional supplementation as well as regular physical exercise and sleep patterns have not yet been satisfactorily resolved to cause the best effects of autophagy and, therefore, well-being and healthy longevity. In this way, future studies should clarify more efficiently the relationship between these variables to understand the association between regular physical exercise, sleep patterns, fasting and autophagy for healthy longevity and well-being.

The primary goal of the present paper is to analyse and compare the criteria on the conditions and requirements for academic promotion in three countries: Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The University of Novi Sad, the University of Ljubljana, and the University of Montenegro were selected to be subjects in this study. The sources used for the analyses in this study were the official criteria on the condition and requirements for academic promotion at the abovementioned universities. The authors used a descriptive method with the consulting of competent sources and personal experiences. First, it is interesting to note that the universities in Serbia and Slovenia follow official documents at two levels: one at the national level issued by the relevant higher education council/agency and the second at the university level issued by the senate of each university, whose criteria are more strict in terms of quantitative requirements. However, this is not the case in Montenegro, where universities follow only the national criteria in the research quality evaluation. In each country, evaluation exercises usually recognize three fields, one of which is social sciences and humanities, which is concerned with an entire range of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific areas. Comparing the minimum standards for the appointment of university teachers, it is essential to highlight that Slovenian regulations are the most demanding, especially with regards to quantitative criteria, while Serbian and Montenegrin criteria are similar to each other; however, it is necessary to highlight that Montenegrin regulations contain some unusual criteria, such as the requirement that scientific research work must be achieved through one single-author paper published in an international journal for promotion to academic titles at all three levels (assistant, associate and full professor) in social sciences and humanities; however, this is not the case in other academic fields.

Marketing activities, i.e. promotional presentations of various offers to a wide audience, represent inevitable means in strategic plans of organisations from various fields. Such approach also demands from sports organisations to form a promotional marketing mix. The objective of this paper was to examine the marketing mix in sports clubs of sports teams at the highest competition ranking in Serbia. A sample of 118 examinees - available managers from four collective sports management teams (football, basketball, handball and volleyball), was used for conducting an assessment of attitudes regarding the use of the marketing mix. Obtained results show a low current status of marketing in the assessed sports, and by implementing the Kruskal Wallis and Man Whitney tests, differences in certain elements of the marketing mix were also recognised. These differences indicate the advantage on the side of the managers working in football and basketball field as opposed to those working with handball and volleyball. Ultimately, theoretical and practical values of the obtained results were also discussed.