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The current acceptance of value orientations by adolescents, changes in acceptance over time, and the connection with changes in social relations are undoubtedly of special interest to researchers, as well as certain segments of society. In this article, the results of the acceptance of the same value orientations at seven points in time, published in the works of different authors starting from 1972 as the first year in which data were available, were compared with the results of their acceptance at the eighth point, i.e., in 2018. The 2018 results were obtained by the author of this article, on a random sample of 832 secondary school students in Belgrade, with the same value orientations as in the previous seven papers: utilitarianism, hedonism, altruism, and activism. The number and type of value orientations are limited by the need to have the same ones throughout the time interval so that comparison is possible. The aim of the paper was: a) to determine the degree of desirability of these value orientations at the time of the research, and b) to determine the desirability changes and possible connection with social changes in the period from 1972 to 2018 (period of 46 years) by comparing the desirability of these value orientations in the same period. The data in previous surveys, before 2018, allowed comparison only in the mean values and calculation of the significance of the differences in them. The results obtained in that way showed the relative stability over time of the hedonic value orientation, a significant increase in the utilitarian value orientation and a significant decrease in the activist and altruistic value orientations. A logical analysis of these changes established their correspondence to the nature and the direction of changes in social relations in that period.

Drug abuse is an important problem of the modern age. Impact that drug abuse has on society, the state and the health of individuals requires fundamental and urgent scientific research on all its aspects. Research into the etiology of drug abuse in the youth population in Serbia is one of such projects. This research was carried out on a representative sample of 1,287 secondary school students in Belgrade, divided into two groups: drug abusers and those who do not have contact with drugs. The aim of this paper was to identify risk factors within peer groups that could have a predictive value and serve as a basis for preventive interventions. Data analysis was done with canonical discriminant analysis, separately for boys and girls. The results of the study have shown that among adolescents there are three forms of drug abuse: 1) use only, 2) use and distribution, and 3) drug distribution only. The predicates of these behaviors belonging to peer groups are: the pressure by group on members to use drugs, the perception of an individual that members of the group use drugs, the use of alcohol in the group, the involvement of certain members of the group in crime, and the positive attitude of members of the group towards law violations. Predictive effects of these variables vary depending on the type of drug abuse and of the gender of respondents.