Background. !e COVID-19 pandemic has subjected people around the world to severe stress, evoking a variety of coping responses. Coping responses can be broadly classi"ed into four strategies: 1) problem-focused coping; 2) emotionfocused coping; 3) socially supported coping; and 4) avoidance. While there is a wide variability of individual coping responses, to some extent they are also culturally speci"c. Objective. !is study aimed to compare the di#erences in the prevalence and factor structure of coping responses during COVID-19 pandemic in three countries: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru. Design. !e sample included 501 participants from Russia, 456 participants from Kyrgyzstan, and 354 participants from Peru. !e mean age of participants was 28 years in Russia (SD = 13.5); 24 years in Kyrgyzstan (SD = 10.0); and 30 years in Peru (SD = 12.3). In Russia and Kyrgyzstan, coping strategies were assessed with an abbreviated Russian adaptation of the COPE (Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced) questionnaire. In Peru, coping responses were assessed using the Spanish version of the Brief COPE questionnaire. !e average scores from "%een COPE scales were used as the input data for linear modelling and factor analysis. Results. !e coping scores varied substantially within each country. Di#erences between countries accounted for 17.7% of the total variability in religious coping; 15.8% in acceptance; 13.9% in mental disengagement; and less than 7% in the other coping strategies. No di#erence in the prevalence of coping responses was found between Russian and Kyrgyz participants a%er accounting for age and gender. In all three countries the coping responses were associated with the same four coping domains: problem-focused coping, socially supported coping, avoidance, and emotion-focused coping. Four factors explained up to 44% of the total variation in the COPE scores. Religious coping and mental disengagement were classi"ed into di#erent coping domains in the three countries. Conclusion. !e results suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people from di#erent countries apply the full range of coping responses within the four universal coping strategies. Religious coping and mental disengagement di#ered the most across the countries, suggesting that some coping behaviors can take on di#erent roles within the system of coping responses to stressful events. We attribute these di#erences to di#ering cultural and socioeconomic characteristics, and the di#erent measures taken by governments in response to COVID-19.

Abstract. The Youth Self Report (YSR) is a popular questionnaire for measuring behavioral and emotional problems in adolescents. In this study we investigate the validity of the Russian adaptation of this questionnaire on a sample of nonreferred Russian-speaking adolescents. Our results show that the theoretical factor structure fits the data well and the scale scores have adequate reliability. We also demonstrate the validity of select scale scores with a correlation analysis. We conclude that the Russian version of the YSR has good psychometric properties, although some issues need to be taken into consideration in its practical application.

Spatial ability (SA) is known to be closely related to mathematical ability (Tosto et al., 2014).Maths anxiety (MA) has been shown to affect both mathematical and spatial ability . The present study investigated the relationship between maths performance and spatial ability, as well as the effects of MA and gender on the association between them. General cognitive ability and trait anxiety were added as control variables. Data were collected from 146 twins (32% males) aged 17-33. Interestingly, the interaction term between trait anxiety and SA was significant as a predictor for PVT reaction time. Posthoc analysis showed that higher spatial ability was associated with lower reaction time in PVT for high trait anxiety individuals only. Neither main effects of gender and maths anxiety, nor the interaction term between them were significant while predicting spatial ability. Altogether, our results indicate that the interplay between anxiety and mathematical cognition is complex and requires further research.

Abstract. Structural equation modelling (SEM) has become an important tool in behaviour genetic research. The application of SEM for multivariate twin analysis allows revealing the structure of genetic and environmental factors underlying individual differences in human traits. We outline the framework of twin method and SEM, describe SEM implementation of a multivariate twin model and provide an example of a multivariate twin study. The study included 901 adolescent twin pairs from Russia. We measured general cognitive ability and characteristics of working memory and planning. The individual differences in working memory and planning were explained mostly by person-specific environment. The variability of intelligence is related to genes, family environment, and person specific environment. Moderate and weak associations between intelligence, working memory, and planning were entirely explained by shared environmental effects.

Adolescents face many barriers on the path towards a STEM profession, especially girls. We examine the gender stereotypes, cognitive abilities, self-perceived ability and intrinsic values of 546 Russian school children from 12 to 17 years old by sex and STEM preferences. In our sample, STEM students compared to no-STEM have higher cognitive abilities, intrinsic motivation towards math and science, are more confident in their math abilities and perceive math as being easier. Boys scored higher in science, math and overall academic self-efficacy, intrinsic learning motivation and math’s importance for future careers. Meanwhile, girls displayed higher levels of gender stereotypes related to STEM and lower self-efficacy in math. A network analysis was conducted to identify the structure of psychological traits and the position of the stem-related stereotypes among them. The analysis arrived at substantially different results when adolescents were grouped by sex or preference towards STEM. It also demonstrated that gender stereotypes are connected with cognitive abilities, with a stronger link in the no-STEM group. Such stereotypes play a more important role for girls than boys and, jointly with the general self-efficacy of cognitive and academic abilities, are associated with the factors that distinguish groups of adolescents in their future careers.