This three-wave cross-cultural study tested a cross-cultural model that related adolescents' Regulatory Focus (RF) and Future Time Perspective on School and Professional Career (FTP) to their educational and career behaviors, and explored whether these relationships are equivalent across countries. Specifically, it addressed the challenging question whether adolescents' motivational orientations differ across countries with vastly different cultural values, socio-economic circumstances and history. A total of 1520 adolescents in the Netherlands, Serbia, and Croatia reported their parents' and their own RF (promotion and prevention), FTP on school and professional career, investment in learning and homework, and career planning, on three time points. Teachers assessed adolescents' investment in learning and provided adolescents' GPA. Based on the multi-group structural equation modeling results, we found good model fits for each country and confirmation of most hypotheses. Results supported that the hypothesized model was cross-culturally valid in the three countries, although FTP related differently to GPA and teacher ratings across the samples. Also, we revealed intriguing differences on adolescents' FTP and RF strategies across the three countries. The findings suggest that FTP and RF play an important role in the learning efforts and career planning of adolescents across different countries.
SummaryIn this study, the occurrence of Fusarium mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEA) and fumonisins (FUM) was investigated in a total of 257 samples of unprocessed cereals (maize, wheat and barley), sampled annually in Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout the 2013-2015 harvesting period. The levels of mycotoxins were determined using a validated ELISA method. The results showed maize to be the most contaminated cereal among the three, with DON detected in 85%, ZEA in 73% and FUM in 67% of samples, the mean concentrations of the toxins observed during the study period thereby being 984±957 μg/kg, 326±314 μg/kg, and 1,259±1,161 μg/kg, respectively. Twenty samples (7.8%) were proven inadmissible for consumption as foodstuffs (Commission Regulation 1881/2006), and 3 samples (1.2%) were proven inadmissible even as feedstuffs (Commission Recommendation 2006/576/EC). Significantly higher (p < 0.05) mycotoxin levels determined in samples harvested in 2014 as compared to those harvested in 2013 and 2015 could be associated with heavy rainfall periods witnessed in 2014 that could favour the formation of moulds, and consequently also the increased production of Fusarium mycotoxins.
Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) is the main assessment tool for measuring intercultural sensitivity as an affective component of intercultural communication competence. The ISS has been developed based on an American sample and therefore there is a need to check possibilities for its application in another cultural context. In this study, we tested whether the factor structure of the original scale is confirmed in a Serbian sample as well. The results show that the compatibility of factor structure is not satisfactory (c2/df = 3.38; CFI = .78; RMSEA = .07) and the application of the scale requires modification. A proposal for a modified version of the ISS is presented together with evidence for its usage. The main advantages of the modified version are: (a) a corresponding factor structure, (b) higher internal consistency and (c) better prediction of relevant criteria. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179018]
This study deals with determining reliability, factorial validity, and convergent-discriminant validity of the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and its subscales on a sample of university students in Serbia (N = 336). The convergent-discriminant validity of the scale and its four subscales are verified by testing the relationship with measures of social and emotional intelligence (Social Skills Inventory), personality (Big Five), and self-assessment of intercultural experience. The study results reveal high reliability of the scale and its subscales (.79 ≤ α ≤ .90), and confirm the four-factor structure of the CQS in accordance with the theoretical model that lies in its basis. In addition, the relationships of cultural intelligence measures and measures of other constructs are in line with the expectations. The correlations with measures of social and emotional intelligence are mostly statistically significant, ranging from low to moderate. Deviations from this pattern of correlations are explained by certain characteristics of the Social Skills Inventory, which imply the nature of the components of cultural intelligence at the same time. The CQS and its subscales reach the strongest correlation with Openness (.24 ≤ .r ≤ .41), compared to other basic dimensions of personality, but not to an extent that would suggest that they are indicators of the same construct. The correlations of the CQS and its subscales with the measures of intercultural experience are positive and mostly statistically significant. The results, in general, support the implementation of the CQS for assessment of individual differences in the intercultural interaction in the Serbian population.
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