BackgroundChildren’s exposure to violence is a major public health issue. The Balkan epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect project aimed to collect internationally comparable data on violence exposures in childhood.MethodsA three stage stratified random sample of 42,194 school-attending children (response rate: 66.7%) in three grades (aged 11, 13 and 16 years) was drawn from schools in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Children completed the ICAST-C questionnaire, which measures children’s exposure to violence by any perpetrator.ResultsExposure rates for psychological violence were between 64.6% (FYROM) and 83.2% (Greece) for lifetime and 59.62% (Serbia) and 70.0% (Greece) for past-year prevalence. Physical violence exposure varied between 50.6% (FYROM) and 76.3% (Greece) for lifetime and 42.5% (FYROM) and 51.0% (Bosnia) for past-year prevalence. Sexual violence figures were highest for lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (18.6%) and lowest in FYROM (7.6%). Lifetime contact sexual violence was highest in Bosnia (9.8%) and lowest in Romania (3.6%). Past-year sexual violence and contact sexual violence prevalence was lowest in Romania (5.0 and 2.1%) and highest in Bosnia (13.6 and 7.7% respectively). Self-reported neglect was highest for both past-year and lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (48.0 and 20.3%) and lowest in Romania (22.6 and 16.7%). Experiences of positive parental practices were reported by most participating children in all countries.ConclusionsWhere significant differences in violence exposure by sex were observed, males reported higher exposure to past-year and lifetime sexual violence and females higher exposure to neglect. Children in Balkan countries experience a high burden of violence victimization and national-level programming and child protection policy making is urgently needed to address this.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13034-017-0208-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

AimTo examine age and gender differences in the prevalence and incidence of child sexual abuse, the level of acquaintance of the child and the perpetrator, and correlations between experiencing family violence and sexual abuse on a nationally representative sample of 11, 13, and 16 years old children.MethodA probabilistic stratified cluster sample included 2.62% of the overall population of children aged 11 (n = 1223), 13 (n = 1188), and 16 (n = 1233) from 40 primary and 29 secondary schools. A modified version of ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Children's Version was used. Five items referred to child sexual abuse (CSA) for all age groups.ResultsIn Croatia, 10.8% of children experienced some form of sexual abuse (4.8% to 16.5%, depending on the age group) during childhood and 7.7% of children experienced it during the previous year (3.7% to 11.1%, depending on the age group). Gender comparison showed no difference in the prevalence of contact sexual abuse, whereas more girls than boys experienced non-contact sexual abuse. Correlations between sexual abuse and physical and psychological abuse in the family were small, but significant.ConclusionComparisons with international studies show that Croatia is a country with a low prevalence of CSA. The fact that the majority of perpetrators of sexual abuse are male and female peers indicates the urgent need to address risks of sexual victimization in the health education of children.

BackgroundEveryday internet usage is particularly significant in the population of adolescents and young people. Besides numerous benefits, internet usage brings certain risks of addictive behavior. Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is the most spread scale for measuring internet addiction. The aim of this study was to investigate internet addiction on a sample of Croatian adolescents.MethodsOverall, 352 students aged between 15 and 20 from randomly selected high schools participated in the study. We have collected the data on the Internet Addiction Test along with basic demographic information. The main analyses included the factorization of IAT test and the measurement of prevalence of internet addiction with the analysis of the gender differences.ResultsThe results showed that 3.4% of high school students reported high levels of internet addiction, while 35.4% of respondents reported some signs of addiction. Three-factor structure of IAT was obtained with dimensions: Emotional and cognitive internet preoccupation, then Neglecting work and lack of self-control and the last one is Social problems. Although the first factor has the most significant role in internet addiction risk, gender differences were found only in the last two factors, where boys have higher scores on Social Problems, while girls have higher scores on Neglecting work and lack of self-control.ConclusionsBased on our results, the prevention activities should be focused on the area of ​​emotional and social competence and the responsible use of internet. Since the result show that a third of the sample show moderate signs of addiction, programs of both indicated and selective prevention should be systematically planned for the general population of adolescents as well as for the groups in risk. The obtained gender differences indicate that the preventive and treatment programs should take into account gender specifics.

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