The aim of this study was to examine how social support measured as the subjective assessment of social support adequacy given by family, friends or significant others contributes to well-being (happiness, life satisfaction and domain satisfactions) across the life span. The study was conducted on a representative sample of the Croatian adult population (N = 1.000). For the purpose of analyses the sample was divided into three age groups: 18 to 40 years, 41 to 60 years, and 60+ years. The results were analyzed by means of multiple group structural equation modeling, which was performed separately for two measures of subjective well-being (SWB -a general measure of life satisfaction and happiness, PWI -domain satisfactions). The results showed that in all three age groups, among three sources of social support only the perceived social support from friends was significantly related to both subjective well-being measures. Participants who perceived adequate social support from friends expressed higher levels of subjective well-being.

No abstract

The Empathy Quotient (EQ, Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004) measures empathy as an ability to identify what someone else is thinking and feeling, and to respond to their thoughts and feelings with an appropriate emotion. Although the questionnaire was developed in order to be sensitive to empathy deficits as a part of psychopathology, it is often used in other areas of psychological research as well. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the short version of the translated Empathy Quotient (EQ-28) that has psychometric superiority over the original version (Lawrence et al., 2004). Data was collected on-line on a convenient sample (N = 115; 81 female and 34 male) with a mean age of 31.30 (SD = 7.49), within a larger study. The results of the principal component analysis showed a clear three-factor solution consistent with the structure proposed & Paulhus, 2014) showed the theoretically expected relationships between the given constructs. On the basis of the results of this preliminary study it can be concluded that the Croatian version of the EQ-28 has satisfactory metric characteristics and represents a good measure of cognitive and affective empathy, but these results should be replicated on a larger and more gender balanced sample.

Previous research has shown that children with greater self-regulation exhibit less aggressive behaviour in their everyday interactions with peers. Boys are usually more aggressive than girls, have lower self-regulation and understand primary emotions less. However, those who understand emotions better behave more prosocially. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the relationship of self-regulation and emotion understanding with regard to aggressive behaviour in preschool boys. The participants in this study included 241 boys aged 3 to 7, their parents (both mothers and fathers) and preschool teachers. Self-regulation was measured by parental estimations of inhibitory control and attentional focusing. Aggressive behaviour was measured by teachers' estimations, while emotion understanding was assessed in individual interviews with the boys. The results showed that the boys who recognized and described primary emotions better and had high self-regulation showed less aggressive behaviour, while those who understood emotions less and had low selfregulation behaved more aggressively. The results were discussed in the light of importance of strengthening self-regulation and emotion understanding in preschool boys as a way of developing their social and emotional competence.

The pervasive problem of academic cheating is an important issue for teachers and other educational stakeholders. Since teachers are one of the most important role models to students, their approach to academic (dis)honesty will likely have a strong influence on them. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify teachers’ perceptions of the frequency and acceptability of different kinds of cheating acts, as well as their perception of the reasons for cheating and their reactions to cheating. Additionally, this study attempted to investigate whether teachers from different levels of education differ in their perceptions of cheating and/or in strategies that they use to deal with this problem. Data was obtained from 400 teachers from Croatian universities, secondary schools and elementary schools using an on-line survey. The results show that teachers from all levels of education perceive cheating as very frequent, but unacceptable behaviour. They recognize the great importance of their role in the prevention of cheating, but their actual reactions are a cause of concern. Teachers’ reactions were usually reduced to warnings and did not lead to any serious consequences. Teachers from different levels of education reacted similarly to all acts of cheating. Key words: academic dishonesty; acceptability of cheating; cheating frequency; elementary, secondary and higher education; reasons for cheating.---SažetakSveprisutan problem varanja u školama i na fakultetima važna je tema za nastavnike i kreatore obrazovne politike. Budući da su nastavnici jedan od najvažnijih uzora svojim učenicima i studentima, njihov pristup akademskom (ne)poštenju zasigurno ima velik utjecaj na akademsko poštenje učenika/studenta. Zbog toga je cilj ovog istraživanja bio ispitati nastavničku percepciju učestalosti i prihvatljivosti različitih oblika varanja, njihovu percepciju razloga varanja i načine na koje reagiraju na pojavu varanja. Prema navedenom su uspoređeni nastavnici zaposleni na različitim razinama obrazovanja, a u svrhu utvrđivanja mogućih razlika među njima u odnosu na taj problem. Podaci su prikupljeni on-line anketom u kojoj je sudjelovalo 400 nastavnika zaposlenih u osnovnim i srednjim školama, i na fakultetima.  Rezultati su pokazali da nastavnici svih triju razina obrazovanja percipiraju varanje kao vrlo često, ali neprihvatljivo ponašanje. Prepoznaju važnost vlastite uloge u prevenciji varanja, ali njihove su stvarne reakcije na pojavu varanja razlog za zabrinutost; obično su svedene na upozorenja i nemaju ozbiljne posljedice za učenike i studente. Nastavnici na različitim razinama obrazovanja, neovisno o obliku varanja, uglavnom reagiraju na sličan način. Ključne riječi: akademsko nepoštenje; osnovno, srednje i visoko obrazovanje; prihvatljivost varanja; razlozi varanja; učestalost varanja