Psychological Distress of High School Graduates During Social Distancing in Croatia

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole world, thus also affecting the high school graduates in Croatia. Aim(s): The purpose of the study was to examine the psychological distress high school graduates experienced during the COVID-19 social distancing measures, more precisely to investigate gender and school type differences and to examine the relationship between psychological distress and self-regulated learning. Method(s): In this cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire was administered to 13,037 high school graduates across Croatia. Result(s): The results show that girls exhibit higher levels of psychological distress compared to the boys, while the art school graduates show the highest distress, followed by gymnasium (i.e., secondary grammar school, prep school) graduates, and lastly vocational school graduates. Furthermore, a moderate negative correlation was found between self-efficacy and psychological distress, and significant, but small correlations were found between regulation of effort, management of work, time and environment, self-handicapping as well as elaboration and psychological distress. These results show that higher levels of self-regulation are connected to lower levels of psychological distress. Conclusion(s): These findings demonstrate that a need exists for greater accessibility of mental health care for adolescents.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Semmelweis University, Institute of Mental Health, Budapest.

Life Habits of Children and Young People during Social Isolation Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the study was to examine the habits of high school and primary school students related to diet and physical activity before and after the period of social isolation. Furthermore, the relationship between parents' attitudes about the importance of physical activity and their children's motivation to engage in it was examined. The online questionnaire was completed by 25,274 parents of primary school students and 5,169 high school graduates from the Republic of Croatia. The results show a trend of decreasing motivation to engage in physical activities, as well as an increase in the number of meals consumed per day among all students. Furthermore, there was a low positive correlation between parental attitudes and the motivation of their children to engage in physical activity both before and during social isolation. In conclusion, this large-scale study showed that due to social isolation there was a significant decrease in the motivation for physical activity and an increase in the number of daily meals.