The issue of cybercrime and other anti-social activities is increasingly discussed today. The cause is an increasing number of individuals, companies or states exposed to these threats. This article deals with the issue of cyber aggression as one of the kinds of other anti-social activities. The article presents the results of researches in the Slovak Republic, but also the results of a survey at selected schools conducted by the Faculty of Safety Engineering of the University of Zilina. The main aim of the article is to point out the issue of cybercrime and other antisocial activities among adolescents and to point out the relationship between their education and vulnerability.

This study examined teachers’ attributions and emotions for their subjectively perceived interpersonal relationships with their students as positive or negative, and whether hope (pathways thinking, agency thinking) influences the perceived positive or negative interpersonal relationships, the subsequent attributions and emotions, and the impact of attributions on emotions. Fifty teachers, of both genders, completed the questionnaire for each of their five students who were randomly selected from their teaching classes. The results revealed that the positive interpersonal relationships were predominately attributed to stable, personally controllable and self-student controllable factors, whereas the negative interpersonal relationships were primarily attributed to external, external controllable, unstable, and self-student controllable factors. Also, teachers reported positive emotions of high intensity (sympathy, cheerfulness, exciting, love, not anger, calmness) for the positive relationships, and negative emotions of moderate intensity (no enthusiasm, shame, anxiety, no excitement) for the negative relationships. Yet, the high hope teachers made adaptive attributional and emotional appraisals for the positive and, mainly, negative interpersonal relationships. Agency thinking, as compared to pathway thinking, was a better and worse formulator of the appraisals in negative and positive interpersonal relationships, respectively. Hope, additionally, had direct effect on the emotions, beyond that afforded by attributions, particularly in negative interpersonal relationships.

This paper presents findings from an extensive study conducted in Brazil. The main subjects of the study were Bulgarian children living and studying in Brazilian schools. The main goal was to indicate what kind of problems and obstacles they experience during the school time in Brazil and how the Brazilian government and people support these Bulgarian children. The data was collected by a Bulgarian research team that travelled to the remote regions of Brazil where many Bulgarian citizens live and work. The researchers took interviews with the Bulgarian children and their parents as well as school staff at the schools in Brazil with a high population of Bulgarian children. The analysis revealed many different problems that Bulgarian children and their parents highlighted, such as problems with the language of instructions, misunderstandings of school rules and general problems related to living in the remote areas of Brazil, such as weather and heat-related issues. Although many Bulgarian families reported some problems, they were still determined to continue their life and career in Brazil, and they want to continue to pursue their dreams.

The aim of this study was to examine if perceived family violence of victimized children is related to their perceived aggressive behavior. It has been acknowledged that children learn and behave what they observe and practice including violence. A stratified random sample (N =1160) of Omani school students was drawn from grades 6 to 9. The study used perceived family violence and perceived aggressive behavior measures to collect data. CFA was performed to test the proposed factor structure as well as the structural model. The invariance test lent support to the hypothesis that the structure of constructs is invariant across gender. However, the relations between constructs were not invariant. Children (boys and girls) who expressed high verbal violence on them reported they were more verbally and physically aggressive. Boys, but not girls, who reported high physical violence on them reported they were more verbally and physically aggressive. The relation between perceived family violence and perceived aggressive behavior seem to be dependent on gender and types of family violence as well as the kind of children’s aggressive behavior.

The diagnostic utility of the Woodcock- Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Clinical Clusters was assessed in a sample of 52 children (26 Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disordered (ADHD) and 26 matched controls). Multivariate analysis of variance followed by post-hoc testing and d-ratios yielded some statistically significant and clinically meaningful differences between groups on the Cognitive Fluency Cluster and the Tests of Auditory Attention, and Rapid Picture Naming. Discriminant function analyses indicated that the WJ III COG Tests collectively classified 80.77% of the sample correctly (76.92% of controls and 84.62% of children with ADHD correctly identified). The Auditory Attention and Rapid Picture Naming tests were found to make the most significant contribution overall to the discriminant function. Using a cut-score of 85, the WJ-III COG Clinical clusters and subtests examined in this study offered fair to weak diagnostic utility based on indices of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive power, as well as results of Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analyses. Implications for research and practice are outlined.

Endeavors supporting college students’ positive psychosocial development are gaining attention and investment in various countries and social contexts. Higher education experiences provide new academic, social, and vocational advancement opportunities at a critical developmental stage. However, higher education can also cause distress due to the challenges and stressors present during this new stage of increased independence. The Social Emotional Health Survey-Higher Education (SEHS-HE) assesses the core psychosocial strengths of individuals transitioning from secondary schools into institutions of higher education (IHE) to aid campus student support services. The present study sought to extend the SEHS-HE research by examining its application with college student samples from Mexico (n = 4,207), United States (n = 1,638), and Spain (n = 1,734). Confirmatory factor analyses investigated the hypothesized SEHS-HE higher-order factor model. The Mexico sample returned an acceptable model fit, but the USA and Spain samples had a suboptimal fit; hence, we explored alternative models. A two-level structure had full invariance for all three samples. This study extends the current scholarship on the conceptual model and psychometric properties of SEHS-HE. The discussion focuses on implications for future research to enhance SEHS-HE in national and cross-national research and practice.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected people in multiple dimensions. In addition to the social, physical health, financial, and mental health impacts of the pandemic, many United States (U.S.) college students experienced an abrupt transition to online learning in Spring 2020, resulting in a significant disruption to their learning and life. In this study, we examined COVID-19 impacts as reported by college students enrolled in an online class in Spring 2020 via an extra-credit survey. Participants reported predominantly negative impacts, but positive impacts were also reported. A total of 61 aspects of impact were identified reflecting six major themes: academic, housing and travel related, physical health-related, financial and work-related, social life, and mental health related impacts. We found that females reported significantly more overall negative impacts and significantly more academic and housing/travel related impacts than males. Black students reported significantly fewer positive impacts compared to non-Black students in the sample. Asian students reported significantly more academic impacts than White students. In addition, participants in the fully online degree program had significantly fewer overall impacts and significantly fewer academic impacts than those in the residential degree program. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Challenges relating to misuse and abuse of the internet and other mobile devices have become sources of concern among the youth population the world-over. However, research on cyber related issues has been focused mainly on adolescents in Nigeria. This study investigates the influence of cyber bullying, cyber victimization and pathological internet use on psychological well-being among adults. Using a cross sectional research design and a multi-stage sampling technique, 280 university students were selected. A questionnaire on socio-demographic profile cyber intimidation and internet addiction was administered to the participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Three hypotheses were tested. The results revealed that participants who engage less in cyber bullying were not significantly different in their levels of psychological well-being when compared to their counterparts who engage more in cyber-bullying. Pathological Internet use did not significantly influence the levels of psychological well-being of cyber space addicts. The association between cyber related variables and psychological well-being is crucial for better understanding of their actual effects on human behaviour and for the purpose of designing intervention programmes.

The issues of poor academic outcomes, dismissal, high attrition, and dropout rates among college students have long concerned for many educators and college communities. Several scholars have posited that these problems can be addressed through the development of emotional intelligence and increased student engagement. Considering these problems, the present study aimed to assess the efficacy of emotional intelligence and student engagement in improving academic performance. The sample of the study consisted of 119 undergraduate students selected using the convenience sampling technique. Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test and Student Engagement Scale were adopted to measure emotional intelligence and student engagement respectively. Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) served as a measurement of academic achievement in the present study. Results from regression analyses revealed that certain components of emotional intelligence and academic engagement demonstrated a significant prediction effect on academic performance. From demographics, students’ programs of study showed a significant relationship with academic achievement. The present findings may provide directions for the college communities in fostering student engagement and emotional intelligence, thereby improving academic achievement of their students. The study also discusses limitations and future research directions.

Acquiring mastery in reading is considered one of the primary academic skills during the early years of elementary school. Additionally, attaining proficiency in reading during the early grades of elementary school serves as a strong predictor for future academic achievements and overall success in life. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the effect of several linguistic and cognitive variables on decoding abilities in the Bosnian language. The sample consisted of 153 children in the 2nd to 5th grades of elementary school. To assess decoding abilities, we employed tasks involving reading real words and non-words (pseudowords). The key predictors for both tasks included phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming of letters, working memory, and processing speed. Both models accounted for approximately 64% of the variance in the scores, signifying a substantial advancement compared to existing models of reading in the Bosnian language. The results of this study may contribute to the development of targeted and effective reading interventions in early elementary education.

This study used the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) Study to examine home learning and parent attitudes to education during Covid-19 in relation to demographic and household financial circumstances and parent educational aspirations. The findings showed that White, female, and degree-educated parents were more likely than their counterparts to report positive attitudes to home learning, support their 16-year-olds’ learning, and contact schools during the lockdowns. Parents who experienced food poverty and reported being financially worse off after the pandemic were less likely to support home learning or contact schools but reported largely positive attitudes to learning. Also, parents who reported lower educational aspirations were more likely to support their children’s learning, reflecting their educational needs. This study contributes to our understanding of home learning during the pandemic and has implications for public policy and action regarding supporting children’s learning during health crises and reducing education inequalities.

In recent years, children and adolescents have spent more time sitting and engaging in less physical activity than recommended by health authorities. Despite widespread efforts to promote physical activity through school-based programs, the impact of specific intervention programs often remains untested. Therefore, in this pilot study, the effects of a national school-based physical activity program were assessed. A sample of 80 first- and second-grade primary school students aged between 7 and 9 years (M = 7.95, SD = 0.44) of eight classes was cluster randomly assigned to either the experimental group (EG; classroom-based physical activity breaks) or the control group (CG; conventional school lessons). Primary outcomes included objective measurements of sedentary behaviour, step counts, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during the intervention. Secondary outcomes encompassed assessments of aerobic fitness performance, executive functions, academic achievement, and scholastic well-being before and after the 20-week intervention. The results indicate that students of the EG spent less time sedentary and took more steps during school mornings than their counterparts of the CG. The physical activity program resulted in a 630-step increase and a 10-minute reduction in sitting time daily. However, there were no effects on MVPA level, aerobic fitness performance, or cognitive functions (including executive functions and academic achievement). The implications of these findings are discussed in light of comprehensive school physical activity approaches.

This study aimed to validate the Learned Helplessness Questionnaire (LHQ), originally developed in Italy, for use in an American context. It examined the LHQ's factor structure, social desirability bias, the relationship between learned helplessness and mastery orientation, and demographic differences in these constructs. Data from 100 adults were collected via an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-factor structure of the LHQ (learned helplessness and mastery orientation), with acceptable fit indices after minor modification. Internal consistency was deemed to be acceptable for both factors. Social desirability bias analysis indicated significant correlations with both constructs, suggesting that participants may have overreported mastery orientation and underreported learned helplessness. A significant negative correlation was found between the two constructs, with participants generally reporting higher levels of mastery orientation. No significant differences were observed across gender or age groups. These findings contribute to the cross-cultural validation of the LHQ, highlighting the importance of social desirability bias in self-reported measures and suggesting potential areas for refinement.