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Teacher empathy is an essential part of teacher professional role, related to various student outcomes. Research have shown that women are more empathetic than men. However, when personality traits or gender roles are included into regression models, gender no longer predicts empathy. Research have pointed to agreeableness and expressiveness as the strongest correlates of empathy among personality traits and gender roles respectively, but these determinants of empathy are still rarely studied in teachers. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the role of agreeableness and expressiveness in the relationship between gender and empathy on a sample of preservice subject teachers. Two serial mediation models with gender as a predictor, agreeableness and expressiveness as mediators, and empathic concern and perspective taking as criterion variables were tested. Results showed that agreeableness and expressiveness mediated the relationship between gender and empathy. Significant serial mediation effects showed that female preservice teachers reported greater agreeableness, which had a positive effect on expressiveness, which then had a positive effect on empathic concern and perspective taking. Our study indicates that a differentiated approach to empathy training should be used with different groups of preservice teachers, particularly with those who report lower agreeableness and expressiveness., Nastavnička empatija važan je dio profesionalne uloge nastavnika i povezana je s brojnim ishodima kod učenika. Istraživanja pokazuju da su žene empatičnije od muškaraca, ali rod prestaje biti prediktorom empatije nakon što se u regresijske modele uključe osobine ličnosti ili rodne uloge. Ugodnost i ekspresivnost pokazale su se najsnažnijim korelatima empatije među osobinama ličnosti odnosno rodnim ulogama, no te su determinante empatije još uvijek rijetko istražene kod nastavnika/ca. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja ispitati ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije na uzorku studenata/tica nastavničkog smjera različitih fakulteta. Testirana su dva serijalna medijacijska modela s rodom kao prediktorom, ugodnošću i ekspresivnošću kao medijatorima te aspektima empatije kao kriterijskim varijablama. Rezultati su potvrdili medijacijsku ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije. Značajni učinci serijalne medijacije pokazali su da su buduće nastavnice iskazale veću ugodnost što je imalo pozitivan učinak na ekspresivnost, a to je potom imalo pozitivan učinak na empatičnu brigu i zauzimanje tuđe perspektive. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na potrebu za diferenciranim pristupom treninzima empatije s različitim skupinama budućih nastavnika/ca, posebno s onima koji imaju manje izraženu ugodnost i ekspresivnost.

Although national differences have been noted, research data show the persistence of the housework and care work division between women and men in Europe (The life of women and men in Europe, 2020 ; Cunha & Atalaia, 2019 ; Geist, 2005 ; Crompton et al 2005). This implies that a more nuanced picture of the intersection of complex representation of changes in housework and care work is needed (Bianchi et al. 2012). In Croatia, the social, economic and cultural dimensions of housework and care work have been researched sporadically (Tomić-Koludrović & Kunac, 2000 ; Topolčić, 2001, Čulig, Kufrin & Landripet, 2007). More recent results show modest changes in gender-stereotyped division of housework and care (Klasnić, 2017 ; Tomić-Koludrović et al 2018). With this paper we aim to contribute to furthering this discussion by firstly, exploring the effects of gender, class and their interaction on division of housework and care work on a sample of people living with their partners in Croatia. Secondly, by exploring the role of class, relative income, and employment status, as well as gender roles (Spence, Helmreich & Stapp, 1973) and gender-role beliefs (Kamenov, Jelić, & Jugović, 2009) in explaining division of housework and family care work, separately for men and women. Data presented in this paper was gathered through ‘Social stratification in Croatia: structural and subjective aspects’ project on a nationally representative sample (N=1000). The analysis included participants who lived with their (heterosexual) partner in the same household (total of 503: 248 (49.3%) women, 255 (50.7%) men). Results of two-way analyses of variance with gender and class as independent variables, showed that only effect of gender was significant in all three analyses: for division of household chores, childcare and care for the sick. Women were the ones to perform all these tasks more than men. Effect of class was not significant, nor was the interaction of gender and class. Regression analysis for explanation of division of household chores, childcare and care for the sick was conducted separately for men and women, with class, employment status, gender roles and attitudes toward gender roles as predictors. Results of the regression analyses for women showed that employment status was significant predictor of division of household chores and care for the sick, whereas expressiveness was an important predictor of division of household chores and childcare. Women’s unemployment/retired status and higher expressiveness predicted more household chores or care work. Results of the regression analyses on men’s sample revealed attitudes toward gender roles as the key predictor of all three criterion variables. Men who held more egalitarian attitudes were more likely to do household chores, childcare and care for sick. It can be concluded that women, just because they are women, will do more house and care work. Men, on the other hand, are not so defined by their gender, and will have more diversified pathways in participation in this kind of work. The results of this research point to the prevalent importance of gender stratification for division of house and care work in Croatia.

In recent years, Croatia, like other EU countries, has been facing increasing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers. At the same time current research indicates predominantly negative attitudes towards immigrants in Croatia (Franc, Šakić, & Kaliterna-Lipovčan, 2010 ; Čačić Kumpes, Kumpes, & Gregurović, 2012 ; Gregurović, Kuti, & Župarić-Iljić, 2016 ; Matić, Löw & Bratko, 2018). In such social context, it is particularly important to explore young peoples' attitudes towards immigrants, i.e. towards a group that may differ from the domicile population with regard to ethno-cultural and other characteristics. As for the young peoples' behaviour and attitudes towards others, research suggests the relevance of social and emotional competencies (Durlak et al., 2011 ; Taylor et al., 2017). These can be described as core competencies to recognize and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, respect the perspectives of others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations constructively (Elias et al., 1997). According to the CASEL model, social and emotional competencies include the following dimensions: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making (Bridgeland, Bruce, & Hariharan, 2013). The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between attitudes towards immigrants and selected dimensions of students' social and emotional competencies. It is assumed that more developed social and emotional competencies are associated with more positive attitudes towards immigrants. The analysis draws on data collected during the school year 2018/2019 on a sample of 267 8th-grade students from 12 elementary schools in the city of Zagreb, Croatia. The questionnaire assessed attitudes towards immigrants, as well as mindfulness, self-control, empathy, caring and aggressiveness as indicators of social and emotional competencies. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed higher caring and lower aggressiveness as the key predictors of positive attitudes towards immigrants. Empathic concern was also a significant predictor, but it lost its predictive power after caring and aggressiveness were added in the last step of the regression analysis. Mindfulness and self-control did not contribute to the explanation of the attitudes towards immigrants at all. The results of this research point to the importance of social competencies in the reduction of negative attitudes towards immigrants.

The goal of our study was to explore how academic motivation, gender stereotypes and gender roles as well as cultural resources shape students’ choices of courses in the technical sciences and social sciences and humanities. Data collection and interpretation have been informed by Eccles, Adler, Futterman, Goff, Kaczala, Meece, and Midgley’s (1983) expectancy-value theory, which we have expanded with Bourdieu’s (1986, 1973) concept of cultural capital. We have also found Bourdieu’s (1984) concept of habitus, or more specifically Reay’s (1998) elaboration of its gender dimension to be a theoretically productive way to capture how students naturalize the gender ‘appropriateness’ of school subjects, study areas and occupations. We administered a questionnaire to 1301 final year secondary school students from grammar schools (46.7%) and four-year vocational schools (53.3%) from across Croatia. There were 679 girls (52.2%) and 622 boys (47.8%) in the sample. The questionnaire measured the following concepts from Eccles et al.’s (1983) expectancy-value theory: school grades, expectation of success and subjective task values, gender roles, and gender stereotypes. The questionnaire also included measures of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986). In addition to our questionnaire we conducted interviews with students in their final year of secondary schooling in order to explore how they rationalize their university course choices. Our discussion is based on 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with 8 male and 8 female students. Both female and male students in our sample endorse gender stereotypes relating to course choices and occupations. Endorsing such stereotypes about a lesser talent of one's own gender for a particular study area was found to predict weaker intentions to choose a course in that study area. Conversely, convictions about one’s own gender being more talented for a particular study area predicted stronger intentions to want to study a course in that field. Our interview data showed that this does not result from a rational decision making process. Indeed, students disassociate their own gender stereotyping of courses from their gender stereotypical course choices. We also found that parental cultural practices contributed to boys’ choices of courses in the social sciences and humanities.

LGBT students are more likely to experience bullying at school than heterosexual students, including physical and verbal harassment, peer rejection and lack of school support (D’Augelli, 2006 ; Nichols, 1999). Having supportive teachers and attending schools that have LGBT students’ support clubs increased LGBT students’ sense of school belonging and feelings of safety, and reduced the homophobic harassment (Kosciw et al., 2012). Moreover, the Council of Europe (2011) stated that schools should be a safe environment for LGBT students, and that teachers should be provided with tools to respond effectively to bullying of LGBT students. This paper presents research which explores if high-school students, who have felt same-sex attraction and those who have not, differ in their experiences of relational and physical violence in schools and also in perceived support from their teachers. Research about same-sex sexual attraction, perceived teachers’ support and experiences of relational and physical violence was conducted using a questionnaire. The sample comprised 1819 high-school students (49.5% female) from western Croatia. The results showed that same-sex attracted students were more likely to experience relational violence than students who never experienced same-sex attraction. Boys who felt same-sex attraction very often were the most vulnerable to physical violence, compared to boys who had never had same-sex feelings, and girls from both groups. Both boys and girls who experienced same-sex attractions very often reported to receive less teachers’ support than the students who never, rarely or often felt same-sex attractions. These findings point out that same-sex attracted students, who are in need of teachers’ support due to violence experienced in schools, are the ones who receive it less. Implementation of comprehensive school bullying prevention policies addressing LGBT issues are recommended in order to ensure that schools in Croatia and throughout Europe provide a safe and supportive environment for all their students.

The goal of this study was to explore whether gender and religiosity/spirituality affected beliefs about gender roles and same-sex relations in Slovenia and Croatia. Data were gathered on the national representative samples from Croatia (N=1201) and Slovenia (N=1065) from the International Social Survey Programme (module Religion 2008). As expected, women in Croatia and Slovenia had less traditional beliefs about gender roles and were less homonegative than men. Non-religious non-spiritual individuals (“secularists”) were the most egalitarian in their gender role beliefs and the least homonegative compared to other groups regarding religiosity and spirituality. Hypothesis that spiritual non- religious individual (“spiritual seekers”) would be more egalitarian and less homonegative than religious individuals (either non-spiritual or spiritual i.e. “dwellers” and “dogmatists”) was confirmed only on the Slovenian sample, whereas results obtained on the Croatian sample were more complex.

The study presents results on the relations between personality traits and motivation for teaching profession in Croatia defined by FIT-Choice theoretical framework (Watt & Richardson, 2006). Empirical evidence in the last two decades supports the notion that personality is significantly predictive of career choice variables such as vocational interests (Tokar, Fischer, & Subich, 1998). A number of studies in the field have explored relations between personality and vocational interests using two broad theoretical frameworks. One of them is the five-factor personality model, while the other is Holland’s model of vocational interests, with social interest type being typical for the teaching profession (Holland, 1997). The interpersonal orientation of the social interest type is congruent with two interpersonal dimensions of the five-factor model: extraversion and agreeableness. This theoretically meaningful congruence between personality and vocational interests has been supported by meta-analyses revealing moderate relations of social interests to extraversion, and modest relations to agreeableness (Barrick, Mount, & Gupta, 2003). However, research in the area of teacher professional development lacks studies that would relate basic personality dimensions to the aspects of motivation for the teaching profession. The aims of this study were to assess the relations between motivation for teaching and basic personality dimensions defined by the five-factor model. The sample in our study consisted of 374 first-year students of teacher education programs for classroom teachers in Croatia. We sampled the largest university in Zagreb, a middle-range university in Rijeka, and a small university in Zadar, in order to ensure the representativeness of the sample of Croatian student teachers. We administered Croatian version of the FIT - Choice scale to assess motivations for the choice of teaching professions, while personality was assessed with BFI personality inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). To gain a more detailed understanding of the role personality traits play in motivation for a teaching profession, separate multiple regression analyses were conducted with the five personality traits as predictors and eight FIT-Choice factors as dependent variables. Personality dimensions provided a set of theoretically meaningful relations with the specific motivational factors determining the choice of teaching profession. In line with previous studies, personality traits better predicted intrinsic compared to extrinsic motivation. Two interpersonal dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness, were significant predictors of intrinsic career value, but also of satisfaction with the choice of teaching. Extraversion also predicted ability, whereas agreeableness had positive relations with social utility value motivations for teaching. In addition, conscientiousness was an important predictor for social utility value, intrinsic career value and perceived ability. The results of the present study have some practical implications. A finding that more extroverted, agreeable and conscientious individuals are likely to be more intrinsically motivated for teaching could be useful in vocational counselling. In addition, preservice teachers who have different personality traits have somewhat different motivations for becoming teachers and thus could differentially benefit from their preservice teacher education.

The aim of this study was to explore if different types of pre-service teachers regarding their motivation for teaching and perception of teaching career differ in approaches to teaching and perceived efficacy in the future teaching career. The sample consisted of 217 first-year students of teacher education programs for classroom teachers at three Croatian universities. The average age of participants was 19.45 years and 93.4% of the sample was female. We assessed motivations for the teaching profession using FIT Choice as a theoretical framework. We also assessed approaches to teaching and sense of efficacy in future teaching. Our study provided insight into the clustering of various motivations for the teaching profession in first-year student teachers. Three clusters of preservice teachers were statistically and theoretically supported based on the participants’ motivation for teaching and their perception of the teaching career. The first type of students was labeled “Pragmatically motivated student teachers” (16.5%), the second “Averagely motivated student teachers” (23.8%), and the third “Highly motivated first-choice student teachers” (59.8%). The differential motivation for teaching profession was meaningfully related to the differences in students’ perceived efficacy in future teaching and in their approaches to teaching. Lower motivations for the teaching profession at the beginning of teacher studies seem to be associated with lower perceived efficacy in future teaching as well as with lower scores in student-centered approaches to teaching.

According to sociostructural theories, men and women are predisposed to express love differently because they are socialized into different gender roles. The goal of this study is to examine to what extent gender differences in showing love could be explained with gender per se, and to what extent with gender related attributes (expressiveness and instrumentality) and attitudes toward gender roles in marriage. We gathered data from 302 married couples from Croatia and 456 married couples from Serbia of different ages (20-82 years) and various urban/rural backgrounds. Instruments that were used in this study were the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ ; Spence, Helmreich & Stapp, 1975), the Attitudes toward Gender Roles Scale (Kamenov, Jugović & Jelić, 2009), and the Ways of Showing Love Scale that was constructed for the purpose of this study. As expected, women were more expressive, less instrumental, and held more egalitarian attitudes than men, but gender accounted for only a small amount of variance for these gender-related attributes and attitudes. We performed regression analyses to examine the extent to which individuals’ trait expressiveness, trait instrumentality, and attitudes toward gender roles (versus gender) predicted their tendency to report showing love to one's partner in various ways. Results have shown slightly different patterns for the Croatian and Serbian sample. While expressivity proved to be a significant predictor for all the different ways of showing love in both cultures, instrumentality was a more important predictor in the Serbian sample and gender attitudes in the Croatian sample. Overall results have shown that although men and women differ in two expressive and two instrumental ways of showing love, gender itself accounted for more variance in domestic and public instrumentality, whereas emotional openness and support and physical affection were better explained by gender related attributes and attitudes.

Sociostructural theorists suggest that, due to differences in socialization, men and women are predisposed to express love differently. The current study builds on the assumptions of sociostructural theory and examines whether trait expressiveness, trait instrumentality, and gender-related attributes and attitudes—in addition to gender—predict the ways men and women report showing love (e.g., emotional openness, physical affection, domestic instrumentality, chivalry). We surveyed 302 married couples from Croatia and 456 married couples from Serbia who ranged in age from 20 to 82, and who came from both urban and rural backgrounds. Consistent with prior research, results indicated that women were more expressive, less instrumental, and held more egalitarian attitudes than men. Importantly, gender accounted for only a small amount of variance for these variables. We also examined the extent to which individuals’ trait expressiveness, trait instrumentality, and attitudes toward gender roles (versus gender) predicted their tendency to report showing love to one's partner in various ways. Slightly different patterns emerged among Croatian and Serbian spouses. Although trait expressiveness was tied to the different ways individuals report showing love across both cultures, trait instrumentality and gender attitudes surfaced as important predictors in the Serbian and Croatian samples, respectively. Additionally, results indicated that gender itself explained more variance in domestic instrumentality and chivalrous displays of love, whereas emotional openness and physical affection were better explained by gender-related attributes and attitudes.

The study presents results founded upon the FIT-Choice scale validation and the relations between personality traits and motivation for teaching in Croatia. A sample of 374 first-year pre-service teachers from three universities participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the items comprising Croatian version of the FIT-Choice Scale provided support for the construct validity of this scale following the omission of six items with low factor loadings. Personality dimensions of the five-factor model provided a set of theoretically meaningful relations with the specific motivational factors determining the choice of teaching profession. In line with previous studies, our results showed that personality traits better predicted intrinsic motivation compared to extrinsic motivation. Two interpersonal dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness were significant predictors of intrinsic career value, but also of satisfaction with the choice of this profession. Extraversion also predicted ability, whereas agreeableness demonstrated positive relations with social utility value of teaching career.

Teacher recruitment and retention has been recognized as one of the central problems of teacher policy worldwide (OECD, 2005). The issue of attracting and retaining teachers in the profession has focused the research interest on various issues related to the career choice. The area of teacher motivation has been increasingly attracting attention of the researchers and practitioners in teacher education from various European countries. The focus of this research has been particularly directed to the motivation of students preparing for teaching profession using a well established and internationally validated theoretical framework of expectancy-value theory of motivation (Eccles, 2005). The research was conducted as a part of the larger study on professional role development of student teachers during their pre-service education in Croatia. The focus of the project is the interplay of various motivational determinants of professional role development during in-service teacher training, such as personality factors, academic self-concept, motivation for learning, motivation for teaching, personal needs and efficacy beliefs. The aim of the present study has been to validate FIT Choice scale assessing various motivational factors influencing choice of teaching profession in student teachers (Watt & Richardson, 2007). Model that served as a basis for the development of this scale includes following aspects of motivation for teaching profession: socialization influences, self-perceptions of ability, perceptions of teaching profession, values of the teaching profession and motivation for the choice of teaching as fallback career. Socialization influences refer to prior experiences with teaching and learning and the role of friends, family and colleagues in individual’s choice of teaching profession. Self- perceptions refer to the perceived ability one has for teaching, while perceptions of teaching profession refer to the individual’s perceptions of teaching as an expert and demanding career and perceptions of the social status of the profession. Values refer to the intrinsic value of teaching as a career, value of the teaching career for personal goals such as having a secure job and time for family, as well as values of making social contribution as a teacher. The last construct refers to the choice of teaching as a fallback career when an individual was not sure about career choice or was not able to choose other career. The sample consisted of 188 students from teaching faculties at the two universities in Croatia. Several questionnaires were administered during their regular classes at the end of the first year of studies, including Croatian translation of the FIT-Choice scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007). The instrument was translated into Croatian using the back-translation procedure and several items were replaced with the more appropriate ones in agreement with the authors. The scale is comprised of three main sections. First section refers to the influences from important others and satisfaction with the choice of teaching as a career, next section contains items referring to the beliefs about teaching, while the third section refers to the main reasons for the choice of teaching profession. Participants gave their assessments on a 7-point Likert scale. Factor structure of the Croatian version of FIT-Choice scale provided a very good replication of the original factor structure of the subscales, given a relatively large number of factors underlying original scales and substantial differences in Croatian and Australian educational context, pre-service teacher education and status of teaching profession. Cronbach alpha reliabilities were high for the 15 subscales (Alpha >.739) while 5 subscales had somewhat lower but satisfactory reliabilities (Alphas between .617 and .670). The principal motives for career choice of our student teachers were the opportunity to work with children, social contribution, teaching as an expert career, perceived teaching ability while personal values as job security and time for family were perceived as less important. Intrinsic and altruistic motivational orientations of our student teachers are in line with the previous findings on student teachers in Europe (OECD, 2005 ; Hobson et al., 2009). Results provided a strong support for the construct validity of the scale and for the replicability of the model of influences on choice of teaching proposed by Richardson and Watt (2006) in the European context. The use of FIT-Choice scale in future research could provide valid and comparable results in international studies.

What role do unmittigated communion (excessive focus on others and their needs) and psychological entitlement (a sense of being more deserving than others) play in relationship behavior? We hypothesized that individuals with higher unmittigated communion will show love in more specific ways, and be more affectionate and less negative in their marriage, while the reverse was expected for psychological entitlement. We gahered data from 302 Croatian married couples of varied ages. Spouses filled out standard scales measuring unmittigated communion, psychological entitlement, and reported on the ways their partner shows love, as well as how affectionte and negatively their partner behaves toward them. Men and women with higher unmittigated communion show more love (both instrumentally and expressively) and are more affectionate (women only). Unmitigated commuion was not associated with negative behavior. Entitled individuals behave more negatively, but we found no differences for other types of behavior.

Our aim was to examine the effects of love, gender roles and attitudes toward gender roles on performing household tasks and showing love in marriage. We expected that individuals who love their spouses more would show love more and divide household tasks more equally than individuals who love their spouses less. Regarding gender roles, we expected that men and women who are expressive (i.e. have feminine or androgynous gender roles) would show love more than men and women low in expressivity (i.e. the ones with masculine role). It was also expected that individuals from couples with traditional attitudes toward gender roles would perform more gender stereotypical household tasks (women more routine and men more occasional household chores) than individuals from couples with egalitarian attitudes who would divide household tasks more equally. We tested 302 married couples from Croatia and 351 married couples from Serbia of different ages (20-82 years) and various urban/rural backgrounds. Length of marriage varied between one month and 57 years. We administered the Love Scale (Braiker and Kelly, 1979), Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ ; Spence, Helmreich & Stapp, 1975) and Attitudes toward Gender Roles Scale (Kamenov, Jugović & Jelić, 2009). Scales for measuring dependent variables were Doing Housework Scale which has two subscales (Routine chores and Occasional chores) and the Ways of Showing Love Scale which measures 6 factors (Communal Orientation/Sacrifice, Emotional Openness and Support, Physical Affection, Verbal Affection/Gifting, Domestic Instrumentality, and Public Instrumentality).As hypothesized, results showed that love has positive effects on showing love for both men and women. When it comes to household chores, love has effects only on the routine household chores and not on the occasional chores: men who love their spouses more are more engaged in doing routine chores. Gender roles do not have a statistically significant effect on doing housework, but do on showing love. As expected, men with higher expressivity show love more than men with stereotypically masculine role. Attitudes toward gender roles have a statistically significant effect on performing routine household tasks by men, but not by women. In line with our hypothesis, men from couples in which both partners hold egalitarian attitudes perform routine household chores more than men from couples in which both partners hold traditional attitudes toward gender roles. Although love had the most pervasive effect, results suggest that gender roles and attitudes toward gender roles should also be considered when explaining showing love in married couples and the division of routine household chores between spouses. It also seems that gender roles and attitudes toward gender roles effected men's performance of routine household chores and showing love more than women's. Along with these overall results, specific results obtained in Croatian and Serbian samples will be discussed.

Cancian (1986) argued that men and women have been socialized to show love in different ways, with women showing love by expresing positive emotions directly and men by doing activities together, helping out with domestic chores, and showing sexual interest. Furthermore, she argued that integrating both feminine expressivity and masculine instrumentality is what makes a relationship more loving for both men and women. Our aim was to test her ideas by directly asking husbands and wives how they show love. We tested 302 Croatian married couples of different ages (20-82 years) and various urban/rural backgrounds. Length of marriage varied between one month and 57 years. We administered the Love Scale (Braiker and Kelly, 1979) and The Ways of Showing Love Scale (constructed for this study) which measures 3 expressive and 3 instrumental factors. Results suggest that specific types of expressive and instrumental ways of showing love need to be considered. Expectedly , it is more characteristic for women than for men to show love by doing housework and being supportive. Showing love with sex and runing errands is more characteristic for men. Contrary to Cancian, there are no gender differences when it comes to directly showing affection or putting one's needs before partner's. A significant main effect of love seems to confirm Cancian's androgynous perspective of love - both men and women who love more use more of both expressive and instrumental ways of showing love than do men and women who love less.

Young people’s interest for key science studies and mathematics is declining and, "when looked at from a gender perspective the problem is even worse as, in general, girls are less interested in science education than boys" (European Commission, 2007). The most common goal of gender equality policies in education in most European countries is to challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes (Eurydice, 2010). In line with this, the aim of this research is to explore the rationale behind gender differences in choosing physics and technical studies in higher education. More specifically, the focus of this research is to explore if these educational choices are made not only because of students' motivation for the field of study, but also because they are under the influence of their actualized gender roles and stereotypes about the appropriateness of these studies for men and women. Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value model was used as a theoretical framework for this research (Eccles, 1987). Research shows that physics can be considered as a stereotypically male educational domain: boys have higher motivation for physics than girls (Marušić, 2006) and children still endorse stereotypes that physics is a male domain (Jugović, 2010 ; Whitehead, 1996). Women are also underrepresented in most of the technical courses in higher education for which knowledge in physics is important (Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2009 ; National Science Fundation, 2007). According to the expectancy-value model, the most important factors that explain gender differences in academic achievement and choices are expectations for success and subjective task values (interest, utility value and attainment value) (Eccles, 1987). This model is based in socialization theories and emphasizes the role that family and school contexts have in child’s development, e.g. how gender roles, stereotypes and different gendered expectations about child’s behavior and abilities that parents and teachers have affect child’s educational achievement and career choices. Although the theory proposes that gender roles and stereotypes are factors that influence academic achievement and choices, their role, compared to the role of the motivational factors, has rarely been empirically examined. The aim of this research was to explore the role of stereotypes, gender roles and motivational factors in the explanation of intentions of vocational choices in a stereotypically male educational domain – physics. The main research problems were to test the hypothesis of the expectancy-value model (1) that motivational factors are the most important predictors of the intentions of choosing physics at the state matura and applying for technical studies, and (2) that traditional female gender roles and endorsement of stereotypes about males’ greater talent in physics and technical careers have negative effect on girls' intentions to chose physics and apply for technical studies. The sample of the research consisted of 744 grammar school students from Zagreb, the Capital of Croatia. Several questionnaires were administered during students’ regular classes in the middle of the third year of their high school education. Concepts of motivation for physics (expectations for success in physics related activities in the future, perceived competence in physics, interest, attainment value, and utility value of physics) were measured with scales that were translated into Croatian language and adapted to the Croatian educational context from the original scales in English language that have been used in the research that examined expectancy-value theory in the USA (Eccles, O'Neil & Wigfield, 2005). Gender roles in adolescence (femininity and masculinity) were measured with the Gender Roles in Adolescence Scale that was constructed for the purpose of this research and that has shown to be a reliable and valid measure of gender roles for adolescents in the Croatian social context. Apart from these concepts, stereotypes about men's greater talent in physics and technical careers, and educational outcomes such as the intention to choose physics at the state matura (high school leaving exam) and the intention to choose to apply for technical studies, were also examined. The results have shown that girls had lower motivation for physics, and less intention of choosing physics at the state matura and applying for technical studies than boys, in spite of the girls' higher grades in physics compared to boys' grades. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses for both girls and boys have shown that out of all predictors, motivation for physics contributed the most to the explanation of the intentions to choose physics and technical studies. More specifically, these intentions were stronger if the students perceived physics to be useful for their future, and for girls specifically, if they expected to succeed in physics related activities in the future. The endorsement of the female gender role and stereotypes about men's greater talent in technical careers had a negative effect on these intentions for girls. These results provided a strong support for the replicability of the expectancy-value model (Eccles, 1987) in the European context and could also contribute to the development of programs for promoting and enhancing gender sensitive education and guidance in European countries, given that it is available in only half of the European countries (Eurydice, 2010).

The aim of this study was to ascertain the role of egalitarian and traditional attitudes toward gender roles in the way people perceive the problem of gender inequality in Croatia. Theoretically, we would expect that people with more egalitarian attitudes perceive more inequality than people with traditional attitudes. However, since people have different life experiences, we would expect that situational differences (e. g. living in a rural vs. urban area) also play a significant role in this perception. A comprehensive questionnaire was administered to a national, representative sample of 1363 Croatian citizens aged 15 to 89, stratified according to town size and region, and controlling for gender, age and education level. We administered the Attitudes toward gender roles scale, and assessed the perception of gender (in)equality and awareness of gender discrimination. Not only were we interested in the overall level of gender discrimination, but we also wanted to know about gender discrimination in different areas – family life, education, work life and politics. We discuss the role of attitudes and situational variables in explaining the differences in perception and sensitivity to gender inequality. Results are discussed separately for men and women, since women see gender discrimination as a much bigger problem than men do. Some interesting patterns of results in particular areas of life (family, education, work and politics) are also elaborated.

Need for affect is defined as a general motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations. This study examined whether the need for affect plays a significant role in relationships. Using a sample of 500 married couples, our aim was to investigate (1) the overall effect of need for affect ; (2) whether particular combinations of need for affect (e.g., both spouses high ; one spouse high, the other low) produce distinct behavioral dynamics ; and (3) how need for affect and behavioral dynamics, when considered together, are associated with spouses’satisfaction with marriage. We expect couples with higher levels of need for affect to have more intense relationships. Also, relationships where both partners have similar need for affect levels should be more satisfactory than relationships where one partner has a high, and the other a low approach/avoid motivation. We also hypothesized that, depending on these similarities, couples will differ in actual affectionate, antagonistic, and sexual behaviors they exhibit, and the way they show love to their spouse. We administered The Need for Affect Scale, The Love Scale, and asked participants about the ways they show love, their specific behaviors in this relationship, and their marital satisfaction. Our findings show how the spouses’ need for affect, considered in tandem, is associated both with how well they feel and get along with each other, as well as how they feel about their relationship.

Higgins’ s theory of self-discrepancy hypothesize that the discrepancy between actual self and ideal self results in dissatisfaction or disappointment. We wanted to examine whether this theory could be applied to gender roles domain. The goal of this study was to examine whether discrepancies between attitudes about gender roles and actual gender roles explain the variance of men and women’ s satisfaction with their gender roles. Participants were 703 women and men from Zagreb (Croatia), age ranging from 20 to 84 years, with parental experiences. Ideal and actual gender roles were measured by the shortened and adapted versions of The Sex Role Egalitarianism Scale that contained 47 items concerning interpersonal relations, education, work, partner relations and parental roles. Multiple regression analyses were computed separately for male and female participants, with the satisfaction with gender roles as a criterion, and socio-economic factors and discrepancies between ideal and actual gender roles as predictors. Results have supported Higgins' theory of self-discrepancy in the domain of gender roles. For women, higher level of education and smaller discrepancy between ideal and actual roles regarding work and parental roles predicted higher satisfaction with gender roles. For men, higher satisfaction was predicted with higher level of education and smaller discrepancy between ideal and actual roles regarding interpersonal relations. The explained variance was significantly bigger for women than for men, probably because the discrepancy between ideal and actual gender roles is larger, and therefore more salient, for women then for men.

This is the first research conducted within the LGB community in Croatia which investigated the extent and structure of violence against the LGB persons due to their sexual orientation. The goals of the research are as follows: 1. informing Croatian LGB community about their member’s life experiences with homophobic violence, 2. drawing attention of the public and the relevant state institutions to the prevalence of the homophobic violence and to the need of its better legal regulations and 3. raising awareness of the police, psychotherapists, social and medical workers, e.g. everyone responsible for offering help to the victims of violence on the issue of violence against the LGB persons. The research was conducted in late 2005 at the sample of 202 persons from the LGB population in Zagreb, Rijeka and Osijek. It became apparent that every second lesbian, gay and bisexual person in Croatia had suffered violence due to her/his sexual orientation in the last 4 years. Almost 40% of participants experienced insults or swearing in that period, 20% of them suffered threats with physical violence, while 14% of participants suffered physical violence. The violence had mostly been committed by the persons who were unknown to the victims, either in open or enclosed public areas. As the numerous studies before this, our study showed as well that the experience of violence was related to several symptoms of the psychological problems. The persons who experienced assaults and limitation of freedom due to their sexual orientation from 2002 up to the end of 2005 show more anxiety, depression and lower self-esteem that the persons who had not experienced violence and those who experienced verbal violence, and feel that belonging to the LGB community is important for defining their own identity. It also appeared that the social environment of the victims of violence knew better about their sexual orientation than of those LGB persons who did not experience violence. Even 84% of participants are aware of more than one case of a physical violence against an unknown to them LGBT person due to his/her sexual orientation. 56% of participants in the research have one or more close LGBT persons who were victims of physical violence. People whose several friends or partners were attacked show more depression and anxiety than the others. When it comes to belonging to the LGB population, we noticed that a lesbian, gay or bisexual person who is more open about his/her views on homo/bisexuality has a higher level of a personal self-esteem. The results have also shown that less anxious persons are those who do not conceal his/her sexual orientation in order to avoid unease, discrimination or violence. At the end of the report we gave basic recommendations to the institutions in charge of helping the victims of violence as well as LGBT organisations on prevention and reduction of primary and secondary victimization due to sexual orientation.

Following on Bartlett’s (2014) adaptation of Booth and Ainscow’s (2000) conceptualization of the Index for Inclusion, the presentation examines one of the crucial indicators of school inclusiveness – the question of whether children feel welcome at school. Its aim is to illustrate main conclusions deriving from the research on inclusive education in 7 Croatian schools included in the project “Regional Support for Inclusive Education in South East Europe”. The data was collected via survey that assessed pupils’ perception of inclusion within schools (N=690). The presentation focuses on single indicator revealing whether pupils feel welcome at school, using other indicators of inclusion policies and practices as predictors of the latter. The findings disclose that the average feeling of being welcome at school ranges between somewhat and much (M=3.58, SD=1.02). Pupils that attend VET schools have significantly (F=7.87, p