Objective: We investigated the differences in perceived family cohesion, flexibility and communication in female patients with eating disorders and their mothers. Method: Seventy-six patients with eating disorders, 29 mothers, 50 matched controls with their mothers and 79 medical students completed the FACES II and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Form. Results: The patients perceived that their families were less cohesive and less flexible and that communication with their mothers was impaired. The patients' family perception differed by subtype of anorexia nervosa. The perception of restrictive anorectic patients did not differ from that of the control groups. Patients' mothers reported less cohesion and flexibility with impaired mother-daughter communication in comparison with the mothers of healthy females. Daughters were more critical towards their families than mothers. Conclusion: The results confirmed significant differences between subtypes of anorexia nervosa and similarities between the bulimic form of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Conflict avoidance and denial in restrictive anorexia nervosa patients may have caused their favourable perception of family cohesion and communication.

The aim of this study was to assess how war psychotrauma, refugee status and other factors relate to self-image. Psychotherapeutic-psychiatric interview, the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ), questionnaires for measuring war stressors, posttraumatic stress reactions (PTS-reactions), depression and general data were administered. A total of 322 adolescents from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia were included in the study. In 60.32% of the examinees, more than four war stressors were encountered. In 13.68% of the examinees, high PTS-reactions occurred. The refugees had nearly four times higher odds (aOR=3.66; 95% CI=1.63-8.2; p<0.01) of having a higher Offer score for the sexual attitudes subscale. Lower war stress had 0.28 times lower odds (aOR=0.28; 95% CI=0.11-0.71; p<0.01) of having a higher Offer score for the sexual attitudes subscale. More severe PTS-reactions had six times higher odds (aOR=6.15; 95% CI=1.7-22.2; p<0.01) of reaching a higher Offer score for the emotional tone subscale. War psychotrauma and refugee status are related to poorer adjustment only in some of the OSIQ subscales. Practical measures of joined sexually preventive/therapeutic activities are proposed, as well as educational and preventive/therapeutic psychotrauma models.

Background and objective. Adolescence is considered a critical stage of life, and one during which body image and self-concept are of particular importance for peer acceptance and approval. Body weight may impact on satisfaction or dissatisfaction in adolescent girls’ self-concept. The aim of this research was to determine the association between obesity and self-concept among adolescent girls. Methods. The study sample consisted of 40 overweight (BMI 25 - 30) 18-year-old girls in their last year of high school. A further 40 girls of the same age with a BMI of 18 - 25 formed a control group. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ) was used to evaluate their self-concept. Descriptive statistical methods used in analysing the data included calculation of the median and standard deviation of variables, and t-tests were used to compare group differences, with p<0.05 taken as the level of significance. Results. Statistically significant differences between two groups were found in two components of the OSIQ, sexual attitudes (p=0.044) and psychopathology (p=0.020), but no differences were found in other components such as impulse control, emotional tone, body and self-image, social relations, morals, family relations, mastery of the external world, vocational educational goals and superior adjustment. Conclusion. Our results suggest that overweight adolescent girls are less adjusted with regard to their sexual attitudes and present with more psychopathology as measured by the OSIQ compared with their peers of average weight.

Results of study about sociodemographic and neurodevolepmental factors in primary monosyptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) differ in different cultural groups. The aim of this study was to research factors associated with (PMNE) in the clinical sample of Croatian children. Parents of children with diagnose of PMNE (50 children aged 7-11 years) which are treated at University Department of Psychiatry in Osijek and 50 children of same age without nocturnal enuresis (CG) randomly selected from primary school in Osijek completed the self-administred questionnaire. Data collection included information about most important sociodemographic and neurodevolpmental factors associated with PMNE. Differences between study group in investigated factors and relationship between the prevalence of PMNE enuresis and the sociodemographic and neurodevolpmental factors were tested by means of χ 2 and logistic regression analysis. Significant differences between groups were found in following sociodemographic and neurodevolopmental factors: family structure, parent's marital status, father´s and mother´s education, parents´ employment status, average monthly income per family member, living conditions, number of children in family, family history of enuresis, pregnancy complications and age of reaching diurnal continence. When logistic regression was applied altered the primary structure of marriage (illegitimate, divorced, widowed, parent's death), unemployment of parents, low average monthly income per family member (< 1000 kn per family member), positive family history of enuresis, families with more children (three or more) were found to be significant as predictors of PMNE. The results show that PMNE requires individualized approach to treatment where influence of sociodemographic and neurodevelopmental factors has a significant role.