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Introduction: Despite being a widely used screening questionnaire, there is no consensus on the most appropriate measurement model for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Furthermore, there have been limited studies on its measurement invariance across cross-cultural subgroups, genders, and sexual orientations. Aims: The present study aimed to examine the fit of different measurement models for the AUDIT and its measurement invariance across a wide range of subgroups by country, language, gender, and sexual orientation. Methods: Responses concerning past-year alcohol use from the participants of the cross-sectional International Sex Survey were considered (N = 62,943; Mage: 32.73; SD = 12.59). Confirmatory factor analysis, as well as measurement invariance tests were performed for 21 countries, 14 languages, three genders, and four sexual-orientation subgroups that met the minimum sample size requirement for inclusion in these analyses. Results: A two-factor model with factors describing ‘alcohol use’ (items 1–3) and ‘alcohol problems’ (items 4–10) showed the best model fit across countries, languages, genders, and sexual orientations. For the former two, scalar and latent mean levels of invariance were reached considering different criteria. For gender and sexual orientation, a latent mean level of invariance was reached. Conclusions: In line with the two-factor model, the calculation of separate alcohol-use and alcohol-problem scores is recommended when using the AUDIT. The high levels of measurement invariance achieved for the AUDIT support its use in cross-cultural research, capable also of meaningful comparisons among genders and sexual orientations.

The paper investigates the role of the internal asset (IA), perceived external resources (PER) of resilience, and the school-based universal prevention program known as ‘Unplugged’ in explaining persistent healthy behavior among early adolescence. A sample of 425 adolescents was collected in a repeated measure design study with a baseline (T1) and a six-month follow-up (T2) after the Unplugged implementation. Persistent healthy behavior was assessed by a change in the cumulative index of substance use created by combining alcohol use and cigarette smoking in the past 30 days and their change between T1 and T2. Four categories were created: non-users, permanent users, new users and ex-users. A multinominal logistic regression revealed that non-users were more likely to show higher self-esteem when compared to permanent users. Females had a higher probability of being non-users than either being permanent users or new users. Moreover, Unplugged intervention increased the probability of being a non-user rather than a new user. Regarding PER of resilience, non-users were more likely to have higher home support, prosocial peers, and school connectedness compared to permanent users. Non-users were also more likely to have higher levels of prosocial peers compared to new users. In summary, higher self-esteem, home support, prosocial peers and school connectedness are associated with persistent healthy behavior. To maintain this persistent healthy behavior, the school-based universal prevention program Unplugged has been effective; thus internal assets and external resources of resilience, and prevention program Unplugged, play an important role in the absence of alcohol or cigarette use in early teenage years.

The aim of this study was to extend the psychometric evaluation of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) by assessing the factor structure across three countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The sample included 1809 students from Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary. Based on an initial confirmative factor analysis, a 2-factor structure by Neal and Carey (2005) was confirmed in the Lithuanian sample. Next, exploratory factor analyses were used on the Slovak and Hungarian subsamples separately. For both national subsamples, a very similar four factor solution was found, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analyses on the rest of the data. Despite the reduced number of items, the abridged scale did not suffer in terms of its internal reliability and thus provides an adequate approximation of self-regulation levels as the entire scale or as the scale with the proposed 4-factor solution.

This study investigates the psychometric characteristics of the General Decision-Making Scale (GDMS) on a sample of Slovak high-school and university students. Secondly, it addresses the relationship between decision-making styles and a) decision making competencies and b) mental health as validity criteria. Participants were 427 Slovak high school and university students (64.6% females). The GDMS showed a good internal consistency and its original factor structure was confirmed. Low but significant relationships between the decision-making styles were found. Two decision-making styles served as significant predictors of the general decision-making competency (avoidant and spontaneous) and another two were found to predict mental health. The intuitive decision-making style was a protective factor and the avoidant style was a risk factor.

The aim of the presented study was to establish the share of personality variables and social support from school headteachers in explaining variance of social well-being of teachers. We utilized the concept of social well-being as stated by Keyes (1998). The questionnaire IASR-B5 (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990) was used todetect personality traits and The Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008) to detect the level of resilience. Providing of social support was measured by the SAS–C scale (Trobst, 2000) based on circumplex model of interpersonal behaviour, describing eight types of supportive behaviour. The research sample consisted of 256 primary school teachers. The results were processed by multivariate linear regression analysis. Regression models confirmed a significant share of supportive behaviour of schoolheadteachers in explaining variance of social well-being variables.

The aim of the present study was to explore the gender-specific links between perceived parental behavioral and psychological control and adolescents' psychological adjustment directly and indirectly through the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. The participants in the study were 930 early adolescents (mean age 12.9; SD 0.71; 49.9% girls) who filled in questionnaires about the parenting of their parents (for mothers and fathers respectively) as well as their own psychological adjustment (self-esteem and life satisfaction). The results of the structural equation modeling showed that the perception of adolescents regarding their parents' behavioral and psychological control is significantly directly and/or indirectly associated with their psychological adjustment. Behavioral control was found to be positively and psychological control negatively associated with psychological adjustment. These associations have shown some gender-specific patterns. Among the boys, perceived control was associated with boys' psychological adjustment indirectly through the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship for both mothers and fathers. On the other hand, the link between parental control and psychological adjustment among the girls was found to be direct for the father's control and both direct and indirect for the mother's control. Maternal control was associated with adolescents' adjustment only indirectly through the quality of the mother-adolescent relationship while more direct associations were found among the fathers. This was particularly the case for the father-daughter dyad. However, the results were found to contradict previous findings in several points. This could have been attributed to the age of early adolescence as well as the cultural specifics of the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We analyzed adult ADHD symptoms in a cross-cultural context, including investigating the occurrence and potential correlates of adult ADHD and psychometric examination of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Screener. Method: Our analysis is based on a large-scale research project involving 42 countries (International Sex Survey, N =72,627, 57% women, Mage =32.84; SDage =12.57). Results: The ASRS Screener demonstrated good reliability and validity, along with partial invariance across different languages, countries, and genders. The occurrence of being at risk for adult ADHD was relatively high (21.4% for women, 18.1% for men). The highest scores were obtained in the US, Canada, and other English-speaking Western countries, with significantly lower scores among East Asian and non-English-speaking European countries. Moreover, ADHD symptom severity and occurrence were especially high among gender-diverse individuals. Significant associations between adult ADHD symptoms and age, mental and sexual health, and socioeconomic status were observed. Conclusions: Present results show significant cross-cultural variability in adult ADHD occurrence as well as highlight important factors related to adult ADHD. Moreover, the importance of further research on adult ADHD in previously understudied populations (non-Western countries) and minority groups (gender-diverse individuals) is stressed. Lastly, the present analysis is consistent with previous evidence showing low specificity of adult ADHD screening instruments and contributes to the current discussion on accurate adult ADHD screening and diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides summaries of various studies and research conducted on different topics related to social and emotional learning (SEL), body image and self-esteem in adolescents, molecular developmental psychology, adjustment to work, training programs for teachers, positive identity content and academic orientation, implicit theories of intelligence, and the influence of family on adolescent behavior. The summaries highlight the findings and implications of each study, emphasizing the importance of cultural differences, promoting positive development, and understanding individual perspectives. [Extracted from the article]

The paper investigates the role of the internal asset (IA), perceived external resources (PER) of resilience, and the school-based universal prevention program known as ‘Unplugged’ in explaining persistent healthy behavior among early adolescence. A sample of 425 adolescents was collected in a repeated measure design study with a baseline (T1) and a six-month follow-up (T2) after the Unplugged implementation. Persistent healthy behavior was assessed by a change in the cumulative index of substance use created by combining alcohol use and cigarette smoking in the past 30 days and their change between T1 and T2. Four categories were created: non-users, permanent users, new users and ex-users. A multinominal logistic regression revealed that non-users were more likely to show higher self-esteem when compared to permanent users. Females had a higher probability of being non-users than either being permanent users or new users. Moreover, Unplugged intervention increased the probability of being a non-user rather than a new user. Regarding PER of resilience, non-users were more likely to have higher home support, prosocial peers, and school connectedness compared to permanent users. Non-users were also more likely to have higher levels of prosocial peers compared to new users. In summary, higher self-esteem, home support, prosocial peers and school connectedness are associated with persistent healthy behavior. To maintain this persistent healthy behavior, the school-based universal prevention program Unplugged has been effective; thus internal assets and external resources of resilience, and prevention program Unplugged, play an important role in the absence of alcohol or cigarette use in early teenage years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ceská a Slovenská Psychiatrie is the property of Czech Medical Association of JE Purkyne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

BACKGROUND: Developing data-based interventions to address drug use prevention among schoolchildren is critically important because research has consistently demonstrated that adolescence is the main period for experimenting with alcohol and other drugs. AIMS: To explore the changes in 30-day prevalence rates of alcohol consumption (AC) in schoolchildren and to look into the (in-)direct effect of the Unplugged programme as one of the independent variables of an equation that contained the strongest psychosocial predictors of AC at four follow-ups, as well as to examine the moderating effect of gender. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS: The study was carried out as a cluster randomized controlled trial with five measurement points (before the implementation of the programme T1, immediately after the implementation T2 and then three months T3, 12 months T4, and 18 months T5 after the implementation). SAMPLE: The sample included 1283 schoolchildren (M = 11.52; 46.8% of them boys) from 63 schools. RESULTS: The impact of Unplugged on AC was moderated by a baseline measure of AC at T4 and T5 and a partial indirect effect of Unplugged on AC through descriptive normative belief change was found at T4 among the girls. CONCLUSIONS: The findings obtained generally emphasize the need to make provisions for a baseline AC and gender that can modify the effects of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of self-determination has been found to be substantial in the context of disordered eating among women. There is a need to explore this concept deeper with the key role of body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control, while addressing both genders. For the prevention and early detection of disordered eating it is important to also investigate the risk factors in a non-clinical research sample. The aim of this work is to explain disordered eating while considering the role of body dissatisfaction, unhealthy weight control, basic psychological needs (general level of self-determination) and the regulation of eating behaviour (contextual level of self-determination). Three hundred two university students (52.3% of women, Mage = 21, SD = 2.15) reported on the explored variables. SEM was performed. The model fitted the data well and was statistically equivalent for men and women. As hypothesized, body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control were positively associated with disordered eating. The results have sustained the protective role of self-determination concept, mainly by revealing a negative indirect association between psychological needs and disordered eating. Unexpectedly, the autonomous regulation of eating correlated positively with disordered eating. In comparison to previous findings, this indicates that the autonomous motivation of eating may have a different effect on various types of disordered eating. This work provides a significant contribution to the exploration of disordered eating while emphasizing self-determination in general and at a contextual level. It could be beneficial in the prevention of disordered eating among university students of both genders, regarding the protective role of psychological needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore normative beliefs (descriptive, injunctive, personal, subjective), rootedness (desire for change, home/family satisfaction) and their interactions in relation to emigration intentions among university students. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse the data obtained from 375 Slovak university students (75.5% females, mean age 22.9, SD=3.0). The analysis showed that personal normative beliefs and desire for change were significantly positively associated with emigration intentions. A subjective normative belief about friends, a descriptive normative belief about family, a descriptive normative belief about students, and home/family satisfaction contributed to the probability of having emigration intentions only among females. The interaction analysis showed that a lower level of a personal normative belief among females and males, a descriptive normative belief about family among females and a subjective normative belief about friends among females increased the probability of not having emigration intentions, especially among those with a lower level of desire for change. These findings could help to understand the possibilities for preventing ‘brain drain’, especially regarding its psychological aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Given that normative beliefs are associated with the use of addictive substances, their correction is necessary in prevention. AIMS: The main aim of our research was to examine the association between participating in the Unplugged programme and the correction of descriptive normative beliefs in the short and long term among schoolchildren in the Slovak Republic. It also looked into the moderating effect of gender in these relationships. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS: In the 2013/2014school year, the Unplugged programme was implemented in the Slovak Republic. The study was a cluster randomized controlled trial with data collection immediately before the implementation of the programme (T1), three months after its implementation (T2), and 12 (T3) and 18 months (T4) after. Participation in the programme was monitored through three categories: an experimental group with committed teachers, an experimental group with uncommitted teachers, and a control group. The experimental group was exposed to a drug prevention programme consisting of 12 lessons. SAMPLE: The research sample consisted of 497 schoolchildren (mean age 11.5, 40.4% boys). RESULTS: Participation in Unplugged in the group with committed teachers was associated with the probability of having a lower level of normative beliefs regarding the number of friends who get drunk at least once a week in the short and long term in comparison with the control group. However, no relationship was found between participating in Unplugged and a lower level of normative beliefs in the group with uncommitted teachers. The results also show gender-specific differences in descriptive normative beliefs. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to participation in a prevention programme, the correction of normative beliefs requires the role of a committed teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore direct and indirect relationships between resilience, authenticity (authentic living, self-alienation, accepting external influences), following and ignoring positive and negative emotions and vulnerability to alcohol dependence of university students. METHODS: AUDIT (The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) (Barbor et al. 2001), The Connor-Davidson resilience scale (Connor, Davidson, 2003), The Following Affective States Test, Gasper, Bramesfeld, 2006), The Authenticity scale (Wood et al., 2008). SAMPLE: 334 of university students from Slovakia participated (mean age = 22.15; SD = 1.41; 35.5% women, 64.5% men). RESULTS: Direct positive relationships of vulnerability to alcohol dependence and following of positive emotions and self-alienation were found. Negative relationships of vulnerability to alcohol dependence with authentic living were found. Indirect effect of resilience (mediated by authentic living, selfalienation, accepting external influences, ignoring of negative emotions) as well as an indirect effect of authentic living (mediated by following of positive and negative emotions) and indirect effect of ignoring of positive emotions (mediated by self-alienation) was detected. CONCLUSION: Highlighting the significant role of authenticity, resilience and emotional states in relation to vulnerability to alcohol dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Frequent surveys evaluating mental health risk factors for students and their resilience to stress during university studies seem to be very important for both monitoring and prevention purposes. The findings have shown that the association between stress and well-being, and stress and depressive feelings is not only direct but also mediated and moderated by other psychosocial variables. However, there still remains a lack of studies that would test comprehensive models exploring different sets of variables; such as gender, social support, self-regulation, perceived stress and resilience as well as analysis showing to what degree they contribute to the variance in health indicators. Furthermore, it might be even more important to address the underlying processes behind these associations and explain how (i.e. mediation) and under which conditions (i.e. moderation) these associations with mental health indicators operate. Objective: The first aim of this study was to explore how much variance in the health indicators, emotional wellbeing (EWB) and depressive symptoms (M-BDI), can be explained by a set of individual and psychosocial factors: gender, social support, self-regulation, perceived stress and resilience. Secondly, this study aimed to explore the indirect effect of perceived stress on mental health indicators through the resilience among university students. The final aim was to test whether this indirect effect is moderated by social support, or, in other words, whether it depends on the level of social support. Method: 237 students from four universities in Eastern Slovakia took part in this study (79.4% females, all aged 18-35, mean age 19.94, SD = 1.54). The collection of the data was part of the SLiCE (Student Life Cohort in Europe) research project. The SLiCE study has developed from previous collaborative research activities within the Cross-National Student Health Survey which was conducted in May 2008. The data came from the second round of this study. The selected universities provided e-mail addresses of all first year students who were asked to participate in the first round of the study. From 4,062 students, 814 provided data by completing an online questionnaire (response rate: 20.03%) and 237 also participated in the second round (response rate: 29.12% from the first round, 5.83% from all asked students). In total, 237 respondents provided data on all studied variables. Two measures were used as the indicators of mental health. The WHO-5 Well-being Index was used to measure emotional well-being. The second indicator of mental health was depressive symptoms measured by the modified version of the Beck Depression Inventory (M-BDI). Perceived stress was assessed by a short (4-item) version of the Perceived Stress Scale. Trait resilience was explored using the Connor-Davidson-Resilience Scale. Perceived social support was measured using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. In order to assess self-regulation skills, the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire was used. The data analyses were conducted by using hierarchical multiple regression models. Multiple linear regression modelling was used in order to understand how much variability in mental health indicators could be explained by the explored predictors. There was one regression analysis for emotional well-being, as the dependent variable, and one for depressive symptoms. Each of the two analyses consisted of three steps. In the first step only the control variables (gender, perceived social support and self-regulation) were used as model predictors. In the following steps, the variables of interest were included in the model: perceived stress in the second step and resilience in the third step. Bootstrapping method in Hayes' PROCESS tool was used to test the indirect effects of perceived stress on mental health indicators through resilience. In order to explore whether the indirect effect was moderated by social support. This variable was split into two categories and separate indirect effects were explored in each respective part of the data. This procedure examined whether there was evidence of indirect effect under both the lower and the higher social support condition. Results: In the final model for EWB only two variables were found to be statistically significant and the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 36%. These were perceived stress, which was negatively associated with EWB (β=-0,393, p‹0.001), and resilience, which was positively associated with EWB (β=0,288, p‹0.001). A partial indirect effect of perceived stress on EWB through resilience was found, b = -0.105, BCa CI (-0.216, - 0.037). The total variance explained by the final model for M-BDI was 49% and the results revealed that in this final model, perceived stress (β=0.421, p‹0.001) was positively associated with M-BDI, and resilience (β=- 0.240, p‹0.01) and social support (β=-0.155, p‹0.01) were negatively associated with M-BDI. A partial indirect effect of perceived stress on M-BDI through resilience was found, b = 0.232, BCa CI (0.039, 0.573). This indirect effect was moderated by social support which meant that the indirect effect depends on the level of social support. The indirect effect of perceived stress on the M-BDI through resilience was found but only amongst students with a lower level of social support (b = 0.545, BCa CI 0.113, 1.224). Conclusion: The results have shown that the strongest hypothesized contributions of perceived stress and resilience to the variance of both the explored health indicators were confirmed in this study. It was further found that gender, social support and self-regulation did not contribute significantly to the variance of the final regression model for EWB. In addition, self-regulation did not contribute significantly to the variance of the final regression model for the M-BDI. This study found a partial indirect effect of perceived stress on EWB through resilience which was found after checking for gender, social support and self-regulation. A partial indirect effect of perceived stress on the M-BDI through resilience was found; but only among students with a lower level of social support after checking for gender and self-regulation. This study extends previous research-based knowledge regarding the relationship between perceived stress, resilience and mental health indicators by using a comprehensive model to predict health indicators as well as through the exploration of the indirect effect that perceived stress has on mental health indicators. These findings suggest that students with a higher level of stress perception and lower level of resilience as well as lower social support, were exposed to the risk of depressive symptoms development. This supports the importance of resilience enhancing especially among students with lower levels of social support under stressful life conditions. This study contributes to the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of perceived stress and mental health by exploring the role of resilience and corroborates the importance of social support and resilience-based intervention. The main limitations of the present study were that all the data were obtained via self-report measures and through online data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ceská a Slovenská Psychiatrie is the property of Czech Medical Association of JE Purkyne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: According to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic the educational status of Slovak emigrants is most frequently at the level of secondary school, followed by those with university education. It is estimated that about a third of university graduates leave Slovakia every year. Many findings show that people with a high quality education have a tendency to leave their country to go to different European countries or countries outside Europe for reasons of work or a higher quality of life. This is the reason why countries which are experiencing problems with the brain drain phenomenon are very interested in its exploration. The relationship between economic motives and plans to leave the country of origin has been relatively well examined. However, the relationship between motives and plans to leave abroad and socio-psychosocial and health-related factors has not been sufficiently explored. The factors which affect this decision-making process and intention formation can be different and vary extensively. Relevant factors include social relationships and other social variables which influence migration intentions and behaviour. It has been shown that there are certain personal dispositions which seem to predispose a person to manifest a higher desire to leave or show more effort to leave. The findings showed that migrating persons differ from non-migrants in characteristics which include personality factors, personal attitudes as well as health-related behaviour and risk behaviour. Regarding risk behaviour among migrating people, there was a significantly higher level of regular smokers and a higher level of alcohol use than among non-migrating people. While respecting the findings that economic reasons are the strongest explanatory factors of migration in general, we were interested whether selected socio-psychological factors, as well as health-related factors, can help to understand why young people leave abroad. Objectives: The goal of this work is to explore the strength of a proposed model and explore the contribution of social support, health related behaviour, and personality factors in the planning of going abroad among university students. In other words, to examine whether perceived social support, depressive symptoms, health-related behaviour and personality factors are related to the plans among university students to leave their countries. Method: This study is based on the data obtained in the study SLiCE (Student Life Cohort in Europe) conducted online and it presents the analysis of data from the first wave of data collection in 2011 in cooperation with the universities in five European countries. The sample consisted of 2051 university students, of which 343 (16.6%) was from the Czech Republic, 862 (41.7%) from Lithuania, 114 (5.5%) from Hungary, 264 (12.8%) from Germany and 482 (23.3%) from Slovakia. Most of the students in the sample (85%) were students in the first year of university study and 70.2% of the sample were women. The mean age of the respondents was 20.67 with a standard deviation of 2.71. An online questionnaire was used to measure the variables. Plans to go abroad were identified by a single item measure assessing whether students had a plan to leave for abroad in the period of the following two years, social support was measured by MSPSS (The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), depression was measured by the M-BDI (Modified version of the Beck Depression Inventory), alcohol use was measured by a screening tool for alcohol use AUDIT (The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), smoking was measured by a question about the number of days during the previous month in which respondents smoked cigarettes and, finally, personality factors were measures by a shortened version of the Big Five questionnaire, the TIPI (Ten Item Personality measure). Due to the binary nature of the dependent variable, a binary logistic regression was used to explore the factors influencing plans to go abroad and allowed adjusting for country and gender. Results: Having a plan to leave abroad in the following two years was reported by 15.3% of respondents. The regression model in the first step included variables of social support, depression, risk behaviour (alcohol use and frequency of smoking) and explained 19.2% of variance in planning to leave abroad. In the next step, personality factors extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, emotional lability and agreeableness were added. The model significantly improved in prediction effectiveness and this final regression model explained 21.5% of the variance in planning to leave abroad. The final regression model classified correctly 85.4% of cases. Perceived social support was found to be significantly related to whether students have or do not have a plan for going abroad. Social support from the family supports the plan not to go abroad, while social support from friends has the opposite effect and works as a factor which supports the plan to go abroad. Experiencing depressive symptoms is related to a higher probability that students plan to go abroad. Certain forms of risk behaviour can be related to planning to go abroad and our study showed that a higher use of alcohol or hazardous drinking is related to a higher probability of planning to go abroad, while alcohol dependence was related to the opposite phenomenon i.e. the probability of not planning to leave. Personality traits contributed to the explained variance in planning to go abroad, while in our sample a positive relationship between openness to experience and probability of planning to leave was found. Conclusion: The model has proven to be significant and relevant for explaining the variance in planning among university students to go abroad.. The explored socio-psychological factors, as well as health-related factors, were found to contribute to the explained variance in this. The findings indicate that socio-psychological and health-related factors are related to the plans to go abroad. In summary, students who perceive to have less support from their family, more support from their friends, experience more depressive symptoms, are more open to new experiences and report higher consumption of alcohol, but not alcohol dependence are more likely to have a plan to leave for abroad within a short timeframe. This research has several limitations, which have been acknowledged and discussed. Our findings and the effort to eliminate the limitations open relevant topics for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between parental smoking and adolescent smoking behavior has been well documented in previous studies. Less is known, however, about possible moderators of such relationship. The present study focuses on the relationship between parental smoking and adolescent smoking experience in early adolescence. This period has been so far neglected in research. Further, we study parental education level as possible moderator of this relationship. Questionnaire data were collected among 1098 early adolescents (mean age 11.5 years; 54% girls). Logistic regression analyses revealed following results: (1) maternal and paternal smoking is associated with early adolescents smoking experience; (2) moderating effect of parental education was found in sense that having smoking mother with higher education increased the probability of smoking, while having smoking father with lower education increased the probability of smoking. Results are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Body dissatisfaction is important to examine as it is an essential evaluative part of the self-system and can have an impact on psychological and physical health. It is a complex phenomenon and seems to include more factors. The scale of body dissatisfaction for adolescents (EEICA) is a multidimensional verbal method measuring body dissatisfaction. However, its factor structure has only been identified in a Spanish adolescent sample. Aim: The main aim of this study is to identify factors of the EEICA for university students from Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. Methods: 2357 first year university students completed the EEICA online as part of the SLiCE study. Principal axis factoring with Varimax rotation was performed for each country separately. Intercorrelations between factors via the Pearson correlation coefficient were tested as well. Results: The study revealed a three-factor structure of the EEICA in each country (Self-acceptance and acceptance by others based on appearance, Weight control together with efforts to improve one's appearance and Low weight dissatisfaction) after excluding 9 items. In addition, the results revealed a significant association between body evaluation and behavior connected to body appearance. Conclusions: This factor structure helps to distinguish between (1) cognitive and emotional body evaluation and (2) behavioral aspects connected to body appearance. This structure differs from the previous factor structure in Spanish adolescents and it has revealed a new relevant factor named Low weight dissatisfaction, which has so far been rarely explored. Future research may focus on this factor as well as on the complex validation of the EEICA in different age categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research findings have shown positive relationships between: (a) descriptive normative beliefs (DNB) and different types of risk behaviour (RB) and (b) the overestimation of the prevalence of peers' RB and one's RB. The aim of intervention programmes which provide an individualized feedback regarding DNB is to reduce RB by correcting students' perception of the prevalence of peers' RB. Objective: to present the preliminary statistical analysis of the data from online software application, which provides individualized feedback with the aim of the correction of DNB of university students. Methods: online questionnaire based on SLiCE study, which measures the frequency of different types of RB and DNB of a typical student. Sample: 403 university students (69.5% of females). Data analysis: frequency analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way and two-way Anova, post-hoc tests. Results: Statistical analyses have shown significant positive relationships between individual types of RB and DNP, the tendency of overestimation of typical students' RB and accumulation of individual types of RB among university students. Conclusion: The findings are supportive of the significance of correcting students' descriptive normative beliefs as a part of intervention programmes aimed at reduction of RB among university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on various papers related to the development of health psychology to be held in 27th conference of the European Health Psychology Society in Bordeaux, France which include consumption of safe water, health promotion program and improvement in quality of life.