The present study examined the role of sensation seeking (SS) in different types of delinquent behavior across sex, controlling for the Big Five personality dimensions. The sample of Croatian adolescents comprised 117 boys and 137 girls. As predicted, SS was the central explanatory variable beyond the Big Five dimensions in both the boys’ and girls’ normative antisocial behavior, minor delinquency, and overall delinquency. In only the girls, SS was also a risk factor for serious and violent delinquency along with extraversion and emotional instability. In both sexes, the explanatory power of SS decreased as the severity of the offenses increased. The results underscore the significance of SS in normative and minor types of adolescent delinquency and indicate a different etiology of normative adolescent delinquency from severe and violent delinquency. The results also suggest a different constellation of personality risk factors for boys and girls for each different type of delinquency.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of harmonious and obsessive passion for playing video games with behavioral school engagement, and to determine whether these two types of passion are indirectly related to behavioral school engagement through time spent playing video games. Data for this correlational, on-line study were collected from a convenience quota sample of 568 high-school students (55.5% boys) between 14 and 19 years old (M = 15.89; SD = 1.16). Participants self-reported their passion for playing video games, the amount of time they spent playing video games, and their behavioral school engagement. Path analysis showed that both harmonious and obsessive passion exerted direct effects on behavioral school engagement, as well as indirect effects through time spent playing video games. Higher harmonious passion was directly related to higher school engagement, but it was also indirectly related to lower school engagement because of its association with more time spent playing video games. In contrast, higher obsessive passion was related to lower school engagement both directly as well as indirectly through its association with more time spent playing. The results are discussed in the context of the dualistic model of passion.

-Strong evidence exists that alcohol consumption and violent offending are linked, and the "common cause" model suggests that this link results from shared risk factors. To test this model and further explore the connection between alcohol consumption and violent offending, the present study used regression analysis to examine possible relationships among alcohol consumption, violent offending and personality characteristics (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism) in 1464 male prisoners aged 17 to 79 years who entered in Croatian prison system in 2013. and were evaluated in the Center for Diagnostics in Zagreb. The results suggest that alcohol consumption and violent offending share some personality risk factors, and that alcohol consumption mediates the relationship between personality and violent offending. These results are discussed within the framework of the common cause model, providing more detailed insights into the complex relationship among personality, alcohol consumption, and violent offending.

Background Conservation of resources theory (COR) establishes a link between resource loss and the stress response. The aim of this study was to assess the contribution of resource loss in the form of home damage and the choice of active or passive coping strategies to PTSD symptoms in survivors of the 2020 Petrinja (Croatia) earthquake. Methods A total of 374 adults (29.9% men) aged 18–64 years living in the counties surrounding the epicenter of the Petrinja (Croatia) earthquake participated in an online cross-sectional survey. The questionnaire included the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Coping Inventory, and the binary item assessing whether or not the participants' home was damaged. Results Hierarchical regression analysis showed that home damage was a significant predictor of PTSD symptoms. Participants whose homes were damaged by the earthquake were significantly more likely to use passive coping strategies, namely avoidance and emotional venting, and one active coping strategy, action, than those whose homes were spared. Finally, more frequent use of passive coping was associated with a higher risk of PTSD symptoms. Conclusions The study corroborates the COR theory link between resource loss and the stress response, as well as the general consensus that passive coping is a less adaptive strategy than active coping. In addition to passive coping, individuals who lacked resources may have been inclined to take some active steps because they either needed to repair or relocate their homes and because most buildings were only moderately to minimally damaged in the Petrinja earthquake.

The aim of this paper was to explore whether some individual characteristics (intelligence, impulsivity, adventurism, and empathy) predict membership in the group of criminal offenders with different intensities of prison sentence recidivism (non-recidivists, below-chronic recidivists, and chronic recidivists). The sample consisted of 1,689 prisoners (1,600 men) aged between 18 and 80 years, who came to the Diagnostic Centre in Zagreb in 2013 for a diagnostic treatment. For the purposes of this work, data on gender and educational level of prisoners was used, their age at the time of the diagnostic treatment, the data collected with the Eysenck impulsivity questionnaire (IVE), and data on intelligence collected with the Revised Beta test. In addition, data on earlier prison sentence was used to construct a measure of recidivism. Results of hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis showed that the impulsivity and empathy are significant predictors of the below-chronic recidivist group in an analysis with non-recidivists as a reference group, and that the impulsivity and adventurism are significant predictors of the chronic recidivist group in an analysis with non-recidivists as a reference group. Measured individual characteristics failed to distinguish between chronic recidivists and the below-chronic recidivist group. These results contribute to the understanding of repeated incarceration and provide important guidelines for its treatment and prevention.