Resilience, Positivity and Social Support as Perceived Stress Predictors among University Students.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been trying to identify which personal resources can contribute to minimizing the mental health costs in students incurred due to the restrictions that disrupted safety and predictability in their academic lives. The aim of the study was to verify if and how individual factors (resilience and positivity) and socio-environmental factors (social support and nationality) allow prediction of the level of perceived stress. University students (n = 559) from Poland, Serbia, and Italy were surveyed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Positivity Scale (PS), and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12). Personal resources-positivity, resilience, and support-were found to be positively interrelated and significantly associated with stress levels. Additionally, gender and nationality differentiated stress levels. A general linear model (GLM) showed that levels of perceived stress are best explained by resilience, positivity, tangible support, and gender. The results obtained can strengthen students' awareness of personal resources and their protective role in maintaining mental health, as well as contribute to the creation of prevention-oriented educational activities. Nationality was not a significant predictor of the level of perceived stress, which highlights the universality of examined predictors among university students from different countries and suggests that interventions aimed at enhancing these resources could benefit students across different cultural contexts.

The Role of COVID-19-Associated Fear, Stress and Level of Social Support in Development of Suicidality in Patients Diagnosed with Affective and Stress-Induced Psychiatric Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Comparative Analysis.

Only a few studies seem to address suicidality as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in persons previously affected by psychiatric disorders. The relationship between fear and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of social support and suicidality in patients diagnosed with affective and stress-induced psychiatric disorders prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated. This study was observational and involved 100 participants. The examined period was from April 2020 to April 2022. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Oslo Social Support Scale 3 (OSSS-3) and general psychiatric interviews were used to obtain data. A statistically significant relationship between the impact of COVID-19-related distress on the occurrence of suicidality and the year of the pandemic χ2(2, N = 100) = 8.347, p = 0.015 was observed. No statistically significant correlation was found between suicidal behavior, stress intensity, fear and the score on the social support scale (p > 0.05). Fear related to the COVID-19 pandemic can only be seen as a contributor to suicidality. Overall, social support does not always act protectively. Previously stressful experiences such as wars, poverty and natural disasters seem to play a significant role in the resilience to each new public health crisis.

The Development of Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego - Auto-questionnaire for Adolescents (A-TEMPS-A) in a Serbian Sample.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that temperament features of adolescents may be good predictors of the development of future psychopathology in this population. The aim of the study was to adapt the content and validate the psychometric properties of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego - Auto-questionnaire in a sample of Serbian adolescents. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The sample included 2113 adolescents, 56% girls and 44% boys, average age 16.73±0.47, attending 48 Serbian secondary schools. The base for the development of this scale included Serbian standardised versions as well as the TEMPS-I, Interview version. RESULTS: The final scale is comprised of 36 items, with six factors (depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable, and anxious-cognitive/somatic) explaining 39.9% of the total variance, the internal consistency coefficient α=0.77, and the average test-retest coefficient (rho=0.84). The correlations among the temperaments ranged from weak to moderate, with the highest positive correlations between the depressive, cyclothymic and anxious scales. The highest values were detected on hyperthymic and the lowest on depressive temperament. Significantly higher scores of depressive, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments were detected in girls, whereas boys had higher scores on the hyperthymic scale. CONCLUSIONS: The scale has shown good psychometric properties, which encourages its further use in adolescent population. The results show certain specific features of this population, such as higher scores on all temperament types than the ones in student and adult population and a tendency of socially desirable answers.

The Glasgow antipsychotic side-effects scale for clozapine in inpatients and outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

BACKGROUND: The inconsistency in clinician and patient ratings of clozapine-induced side effects underscore the need to supplement clinician-based estimates of side effects with patient-reported ones. AIMS: The main aims of the study are validation of the Glasgow antipsychotic side-effects scale for clozapine (GASS-C) in Serbian inpatients/outpatients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder and recommendations for its future use, based on common and rare clozapine-associated side-effects. METHODS: The GASS-C was administered to 95 outpatients/inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or chronic psychotic disorder. RESULTS: The scale showed good overall reliability, with an internal consistency coefficient of α = 0.84, an average retest coefficient of rho = 0.76, and a Spearman-Brown coefficient of validity of 0.81. Side effects were absent or mild in 64.2% of the patients, moderate in 31.6%, severe in 4.2%; 14% of the subjects considered their symptoms distressing. The most commonly reported side-effects were drowsiness, thirst, frequent urination, and dry mouth. Women reported more side effects than men, and patients not in a relationship reported significantly fewer side effects than patients in a relationship. Results indicate a weak positive correlation (rho = 0.231; p = .025) between severity of side effects and clozapine dose. CONCLUSIONS: The GASS-C showed good psychometric characteristics in clinical population of patients on clozapine. In future studies, clozapine serum concentrations should be measured when using the GASS-C to monitor side effects.

Towards validation of the short TEMPS-A in non-clinical adult population in Serbia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This study represents the standardisation of the Serbian version of the TEMPS-A scale on non-clinical adult population, as well as external validation with TCI-R scale of temperaments which has already been evaluated on Serbian population. METHODS: The TEMPS-A has been administered to 570 healthy adults without histories of mental disorders, 47% male, 53% female, aged between 20 and 76 (M=35.55; SD=14.14). In line with the state census data, the sampling was partially stratified according to gender, age categories, education and regional area of the participants. RESULTS: In contrast to many other studies, six factors were extracted herein, including 41 items with loadings above .50, explaining 44.40% of the total variance. The internal consistency of the scale was α=.83, and the average test-retest coefficient (rho=.82) indicates a stable reliability. The highest positive correlations were obtained between the depressive and cyclothymic scales, depressive and anxious scales, and cyclothymic with anxious scales. The highest values were detected on hyperthymic and the lowest on depressive temperament. The highest positive correlations were reported between harm avoidance (measured by the TCI-R) and depressive, anxious, cyclothymic temperament, and between novelty seeking and hyperthymic temperament. The highest negative correlation was detected between harm avoidance and hyperthymic. Finally, females scored higher on depressive, cyclothymic and anxious, while males scored higher on hyperthymic temperament. LIMITATIONS: The participants׳ educational background was slightly higher than that of the general population of Serbia. Since the scale is aimed at its administration in clinical population as well, it is necessary that its structure and validity be also tested on specific clinical subpopulations in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The current study is significant in having confirmed that the TEMPS-A can be reliably and validly used in identifying affective temperaments in the adult nonclinical population in Serbia, which provides the basis and norms for future comparisons with clinical subpopulations.

A ten-year study of depressive symptoms in Serbian medical students.

The main objective of this study was to examine the rate of three dimensions of depressive symptoms in medical student population in Serbia, and to find out whether this rate had changed over the period often years. This cross-sectional study included 615 medical students (F = 61% and M = 39%), mean age = 23.60 (SD = 1.541), who were tested in five non-consecutive surveys between 2002 and 2012. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The mean BDI score for the entire sample was 6.26 +/- 6.175. There was no significant difference in total BDI score among the values obtained during the ten years of testing. The greatest portion of the examined sample (77.24%) had no signs of depressive symptoms, and there was no difference in symptom intensity between medical students and other educational profiles. Similar to previous results, females had higher scores on all depressive dimensions except for one tested year, whereas a weak correlation was found between BDI scores and student age (r = 0.104; p = 0.010). Since there are still discrepancies among studies that do (not) report that medical students have typical depressive symptoms, potential explanations for the mentioned discrepancies may be found in individual characteristics of the members of the student population. Our suggestions for future studies are that they should include the stress factor, stress coping strategies, estimated life satisfaction, and the impact of these factors on the potential mental disorders.

Validation of the Temps-A in university student population in Serbia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The TEMPS-A scale is a self-evaluation measure which assesses five affective temperaments. This study is a comparative analysis of affective temperament types in different educational fields, and the first validation of the Serbian version of the TEMPS-A. METHODS: The TEMPS-A questionnaire has been adapted following the translation-back translation methodology from English to Serbian. It was then administered to 770 undergraduate students from eight different faculties. RESULTS: Five factors were extracted through Principal Component Analysis (Varimax rotation), each including ten items with loadings above 0.40. The internal consistency of this abbreviated 50-item scale was α=0.77 and the average test-retest coefficient (rho=0.82) indicates a stable reliability. The correlations among the temperaments ranged from weak to moderate, with the highest positive correlations obtained between the depressive and cyclothymic, and, depressive and anxious scales. The highest score was detected among the hyperthymic (0.64) and lowest among the depressive temperament (0.15). The male participants attained significantly higher scores for the hyperthymic temperament, while female scored significantly higher on the depressive and anxious temperaments. The students of physical education showed significantly lower results on the depressive and anxious subscales and higher on the hyperthymic, in comparison to other educational fields. LIMITATIONS: The student sample is not representative of the general population, therefore further investigation in older population would be necessary for the evaluation of norms in additional age categories. The external validation with other personality scales has not been the subject of this research, but will be a part of some future studies. CONCLUSIONS: The Serbian 50-item version of the TEMPS-A showed good overall internal consistency and reliability, and the results generally cohere with those from previously validated versions in other languages.

Problems with 'Internet addiction' diagnosis and classification.

Owing to the fact that the Internet is spreading rapidly and influencing all aspects of everyday life, a task is assigned to the academic and clinical circles to establish a diagnosis and provide treatment for disorders brought about by its dysfunctional use. This paper presents a review of the most frequent problems and difficulties in dealing with individuals complaining of the symptoms of Internet use disorder, as well as some suggestions for overcoming and alleviating these problems. For the diagnostic criteria problem, a solution can be provided in the form of behavioural addictions category in order to solve the problem of the classification of not only this disorder but also other forms, such as pathological gambling, compulsive shopping etc. However, since there are obvious similarities with the compulsive behaviour, we suggest the term Internet Use Disorder, which appears most acceptable in terms of avoiding beforehand the indecisiveness of this disorder nature. Certainly, in the practical work with each client, by means of a precise and complex clinical interview, it would be further determined which subtype is under question and whether the mechanism of its realisation is more that of a compulsive or addictive nature. We also suggest an approach of defining a set of minimal key symptoms and manifestations of this problem, rather than singling out the personality profiles of individuals who constitute the population at risk. By prevention, the attentiveness of the public would be in that way directed towards the critical aspects of behaviour, and not towards a vague picture which causes panic and doubt, rather than reasonable ways of the problem solution.

Excessive internet use and depressive disorders.

Recent studies of Internet influence on behavioural disorders of its users, have created quite a polarised ambience. On the one hand, there are those who believe that the Internet is a new better medium for enabling various patterns of communication and social relations. On the other hand, others maintain that Internet use can lead to social isolation and other forms of psychological disorders, for an example depression. The aim of this work is a review of research attempts to confirm a connection between increased Internet use and psychological disorders, in the first place, depression. The number of studies on this subject is not very great thus far. This is mainly because depression and similar disorders are serious distorsions in basic psychological processes; this suggests how difficult it may be to work with such examinees, and how complex it may appear to distinguish etiological factors. These facts do not lessen the importance of the aim itself, i.e. defining potential consequences of excessive Internet use when it comes to psychological wellbeing, since the Internet is expected to become a basic form of social interaction in the near future, and consequently one of the major factors of socialisation and constitution of one's psychological identity. Due to that fact, the aim of this work is to indicate methodological and conceptual flaws of the studies which have attempted to make a connection between mood disorders and the Internet, so as to establish the base for future studies of the psychological consequences of Internet development.