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This study investigates the psychological stress factors faced by return migrants before, during, and after their return to Latvia. Employing a Grounded Theory methodology, we conducted in-depth interviews with 21 return migrants and identified five key themes: pre-return context, identity, perceived social support, psychological wellbeing, and factors that help or hinder re-adjustment. Notably, psychological stress prior to return often exceeds post-return stress, highlighting the critical yet understudied pre-return phase. Key contributors to return migration stress include unmet expectations, feelings of alienation, identity struggles, and inadequate institutional support. By highlighting these stress factors, this research not only enhances the understanding of return migration from a psychological standpoint but also lays the foundational groundwork for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework that encompasses a broader spectrum of factors influencing return migration stress. The study advocates for a holistic approach to supporting return migrants, emphasizing the integration of psychological resources with practical assistance to foster successful reintegration into their home country., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Ozola-Cīrule and Martinsone.)

Objective: This research aims to explore parents' cognitive beliefs, specifically illness cognitions, in response to their children being diagnosed with cancer. This study is an initial step toward providing regular psychosocial assessment as a standard for psychosocial care for children with cancer and their families in Latvia., Methods: Data were collected from 120 parents (mostly mothers, n = 109) as an initial evaluation of the psychosocial risks faced by families participating in the support program "Holistic and Multidisciplinary Support for Children with Functional Disabilities and Their Family Members," which was managed by the Children's Hospital Foundation at the Children's Clinical University Hospital in Riga (Latvia) from 2020 to 2023. The patients comprised 66 boys and 54 girls (M age = 7.1, SD = 4.7, range: 0-17 years) with diverse cancer diagnoses. The parents completed the Latvian version of the Psychosocial Assessment Tool [adapted from PAT 3.1], with five subscales included in the data analysis (Social Support, Child Problems, Family Problems, Stress Reactions, and Family Beliefs). The Family Belief subscale was adjusted specifically to address the unique objectives and research questions of the current study., Results: Significant correlations were found between children's psychological problems (e.g., getting upset about medical procedures, hyperactivity, excessive use of electronic devices, etc.) and parental stress reactions after diagnosis and with self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. The associations were statistically significant, even after controlling for sociodemographic and medical factors such as diagnosis. The relationship between children's problems and parental stress reactions was partly mediated by Family Beliefs about illness. The most informative beliefs associated with parental stress symptoms and the family's psychosocial risk level were identified, and significant results were found according to the main component of beliefs ( catastrophic vs. optimistic ) that explained 42% of the variance in the Family Beliefs subscale., Implication: Understanding the habitual responses to stress and identifying the thinking patterns of parents that lead to distorted views and maladaptive coping are essential for customizing personalized interventions to enhance treatment compliance. The Latvian version of PAT is a useful psychosocial screening measure in pediatric oncology settings., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Lietaviete and Martinsone.)

Introduction: Turnover of teachers is an mportant factor that impedes building and maintaining sustainable positive pedagogical practices to facilitate students' adjustment. The aim of this study was to elicit a portrait of teachers wanting to leave their profession., Methods: The research sample comprised 784 teachers from two European countries, namely 357 teachers from Latvia and 427 from Lithuania. Teachers were surveyed on their perceived stress, burnout, and intentions to leave their work alongside socio-demographic variables (age and work experience)., Results: It was found that although teachers in both countries reported moderate stress and burnout levels, Lithuanian teachers indicated higher levels of two burnout dimensions, namely exhaustion and inadequacy. However, Latvian teachers indicated significantly higher turnover intentions. The portrait of teachers who intended to leave their profession was different in both countries. An unexpected finding was that Latvian teachers with a higher desire to leave their profession indicated lower stress and burnout rates. They were mostly 45-64 years old and had more than 25 years of work experience. In Lithuania, teachers' intention to leave their work was reported by older and more experienced teachers experiencing higher stress and burnout., Discussion: The findings highlight the need to consistently support the professional well-being of educators, both for committed teachers who want to stay in their profession and for those who might experience some detachment from their work at school., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Martinsone, Rutkienė and Žydžiūnaite.)

In this study, the motivations of 80 sex workers who provide camming services (76 females and 4 non-binary/trans/gender fluid individuals; aged from 20 to 49 years, M = 30.68, SD = 6.43; 56.2% married or in a committed relationship, 18.8% in a non-committed relationship and 25% - single) were compared in terms of engaging in sexual activity with their real-life partners versus their virtual partners (predominantly kink-oriented clients). Presented with 16 reasons to engage in sexual activity, the respondents rated the frequency to engage in sex for each of these reasons with their real-life and virtual partners. Results showed that there were five reasons in which there were differences in motivation to engage in sex with real-life versus virtual partners and 11 reasons showed no differences. Specifically, respondents reported engaging in sex more often with their virtual partners to get resources and to experience a specific type of sex (kink), while they reported engaging in sex more often with their real-life partners to experience physical pleasure, motivated by physical desirability of a partner and to express love and commitment. However, for all other reasons that motivate people to engage in sex, including stress reduction, experience seeking, self-esteem boost, social status, revenge, utilitarian reasons, emotional expression, duty or pressure, thrill of the forbidden, mate guarding, and desire to have sex with a person of other gender, respondents engaged in sex equally frequently with their real-life and virtual partners (clients) and there were no statistical differences. This study adds to the existing research on sex work by providing insights into the motivations of sex workers to engage in sex with different partners and demonstrates that apart from common sense differences the reasons to engage in sex with clients and real-life partners are vastly similar., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Kelberga (Kelberg) and Martinsone.)

This research aimed to reveal the factors that, based on their experiences, teachers consider important in their contribution to a positive school climate and in their relationship with students when it comes to using empathy. Teachers from two European countries-Latvia ( n  = 83) and Lithuania ( n  = 69)-participated in the research. Data were collected through focus group-based interviews and analyzed using latent qualitative content analysis. The results revealed the teachers' shared understanding of the importance of communication and professional development. However, only Lithuanian teachers emphasized strengthening institutional values and other more collectivistic aspects; the answers of Latvian teachers were specific and suggested more of an individualistic attitude, like allocating personal responsibility to use appropriate instructional strategies. This study draws attention to contextual and cultural factors of teachers' work and actualizes their educational needs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Martinsone and Žydžiūnaite.)

Effective school-based mental health programs are a research field with growing interest and great social value. At the stage of development and initial testing of the program, as well as during dissemination, and adaptation in other cultures, it is important that the implementation is carried out in the way that was originally intended. Fidelity or adherence is the most often used concept relating to the extent to which the implemented intervention corresponds to the originally intended program. Therefore, monitoring of the implementation is an essential element necessary to integrate into contemporary evidence-based program. The current paper describes the monitoring system developed for the Promoting Mental Health at Schools (PROMEHS) project. The monitoring was done on both the structural and procedural aspects of the program's implementation, involving the evaluation of five core aspects: fidelity, dosage, quality, responsiveness, and adaptation. This methods article aims to describe the development of the monitoring system and to analyze the strengths of the qualitative-quantitative multi-informant approach in the monitoring of the intervention's implementation. In the future, this would support further research on effectiveness of the PROMEHS program., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Martinsone, Stokenberga and Grazzani.)

This study compared motivations of individuals in non-monogamous relationships to engage in sex with their different partners ( n  = 596, out of which 103 non-consensual non-monogamous, 135 polyamorous, 204 swinging, 154 in open relationships; women-38.8%, men-59.7%, other gender-1.5%; age range: from 18 to 65+ years; 86% of respondents between 25 and 54 years old; majority of the respondents are in a long-term relationship). The research aim was to identify whether there are differences in reasons to engage in sex with respondents' primary versus secondary partners. Presented with 17 reasons to engage in sexual activity, the respondents rated the frequency with which they engage in sex for each reason with their different partners. Questions for 14 reasons to engage in sex were created based on the YSEX? questionnaire and three questions were created specifically for non-monogamous population. The three new questions addressed the desire for a specific type of sex (such as kink, fetish, etc.), desire to have sex with a partner of another gender than one's primary partner, and desire to experience the thrill of the forbidden. The results indicated that there are significant differences in motivation to engage in sex with one's primary versus secondary partner for most of the reasons. Additionally, this study investigated whether there are differences in motivation to engage in sex with different partners depending on the relationship arrangement. The data analysis shows that there are differences in reasons to engage in sex with one's different partners between non-consensually and consensually non-monogamous groups. This research compliments existing body of research with new reasons to engage in sex, it demonstrates that non-monogamous people engage in sex with their different partners for different reasons and reveals that these may vary depending on the type of the relationship arrangement., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Kelberga (Kelberg) and Martinsone.)

As children and young people today face ever increasing social, emotional and mental health challenges, schools, as one of the primary systems in children's lives, are called to broaden their agenda and help to address these challenges. This paper discusses the evaluation of a school-based, universal mental health promotion programme developed recently for the European context. The programme provides a universal curriculum from early years to high school, aiming to promote social and emotional learning and resilience and prevent social, emotional, and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. A total of 7,789 students (and their teachers and parents) from kindergarten to high school across 6 countries in Europe were recruited from 434 classrooms in 124 schools, making use of cluster sampling. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme on students' outcomes by comparing the groups' outcomes within times (pre-test vs. post-test) and between groups (experimental vs. control group). A total of 779 classroom teachers completed pre-and-post scales measuring students' social and emotional learning, mental health and academic achievement. Results indicate that the experimental group had significantly larger increase in social and emotional competence and prosocial behaviour, and a decrease in mental health issues (externalising and internalising problems). No significant impact was found for academic outcomes. The findings are discussed in view of the limitations of the study and areas for further research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Cefai, Camilleri, Bartolo, Grazzani, Cavioni, Conte, Ornaghi, Agliati, Gandellini, Tatalovic Vorkapic, Poulou, Martinsone, Stokenberga, Simões, Santos and Colomeischi.)

The SSIS SEL Brief Scales (SSIS SEL b ) are multi-informant (teacher, parent, and student) measures that were developed to efficiently assess the SEL competencies of school-age youth in the United States. Recently, the SSIS SEL b was translated into multiple languages for use in a multi-site study across six European countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Romania). The purpose of the current study was to examine concurrent and predictive evidence for the SEL Composite scores from the translated versions of the SSIS SEL b Scales. Results indicated that SSIS SEL b Composite scores demonstrated expected positive concurrent and predictive relationships with scores from the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and negative relationships with scores from the problem behavior scales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Although there were a few exceptions, these patterns generally were consistent across informants (parents, teachers, and students) and samples providing initial validity evidence for the Composite score from the translated versions of the SSIS SEL b Scales. Limitations and future research directions are discussed., Competing Interests: The SSIS SEL Brief Scales were published by SAIL CoLab, and CA, SE, P-WL, and JD received royalties from their distribution. Royalties were waived with regard to the assessment for this study. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Anthony, Elliott, Yost, Lei, DiPerna, Cefai, Camilleri, Bartolo, Grazzani, Ornaghi, Cavioni, Conte, Vorkapić, Poulou, Martinsone, Simões and Colomeischi.)

Objectives: The consequences of long-lasting restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have become a topical question in the latest research. The present study aims to analyze longitudinal changes in adolescents' social emotional skills, resilience, and behavioral problems. Moreover, the study addresses the impact of adolescents' social emotional learning on changes in their resilience and behavioral problems over the course of seven months of the pandemic., Methods: The Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) measuring points were in October 2020 and May 2021, characterized by high mortality rates and strict restrictions in Europe. For all three countries combined, 512 questionnaires were answered by both adolescents (aged 11-13 and 14-16 years) and their parents. The SSIS-SEL and SDQ student self-report and parent forms were used to evaluate adolescents' social emotional skills and behavioral problems. The CD-RISC-10 scale was administered to adolescents to measure their self-reported resilience. Several multilevel models were fitted to investigate the changes in adolescents' social emotional skills, resilience, and behavioral problems, controlling for age and gender. Correlation analysis was carried out to investigate how changes in the adolescents' social emotional skills were associated with changes in their resilience and mental health adjustment., Results: Comparing T1 and T2 evaluations, adolescents claim they have more behavioral problems, have less social emotional skills, and are less prosocial than perceived by their parents, and this result applies across all countries and age groups. Both informants agree that COVID-19 had a negative impact, reporting an increment in the mean internalizing and externalizing difficulties scores and reductions in social emotional skills, prosocial behavior, and resilience scores. However, these changes are not very conspicuous, and most of them are not significant. Correlation analysis shows that changes in adolescents' social emotional skills are negatively and significantly related to changes in internalized and externalized problems and positively and significantly related to changes in prosocial behavior and resilience. This implies that adolescents who experienced larger development in social emotional learning also experienced more increase in resilience and prosocial behavior and a decrease in difficulties., Conclusion: Due to its longitudinal design, sample size, and multi-informant approach, this study adds to a deeper understanding of the pandemic's consequences on adolescents' mental health., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Martinsone, Stokenberga, Damberga, Supe, Simões, Lebre, Canha, Santos, Santos, Fonseca, Santos, Gaspar de Matos, Conte, Agliati, Cavioni, Gandellini, Grazzani, Ornaghi and Camilleri.)

This paper addresses the role of social emotional competence in the emotional and behavioral problems and learning outcomes of preschool children based on their parents' and teachers' evaluations. In this study, we compared the perceptions of teachers and parents when evaluating the same child using the multi-informant assessment. First, the associations and differences between both the informant evaluations were investigated. Second, the correlation of the social emotional competence and emotional, and behavioral difficulties among preschool children was analyzed, separately addressing their parents' and teachers' evaluations. Third, the role of the preschool children's social emotional competence in their emotional and behavioral problems, and learning outcomes was investigated building the regression and mediation models. The sample consisted of 507 preschool children (3-6 years, mean age 4.85 years, SD 0.82) and their parents and teachers. Both informants completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Social Skills Improvement System Social-Emotional Learning Brief Scales, and teachers reported on each child's learning outcomes (by completing a three-item Learning outcomes measure). When comparing both informants' evaluations, positive associations were found between teacher and parental evaluations of prosocial behavior and emotional, and behavioral difficulties of preschool children, as well as self-management. Parents evaluated their children higher than teachers in conduct problems, hyperactivity, prosocial behavior, and total difficulty, while teachers evaluated children higher than parents in social emotional competence. According to teachers, the social emotional competence of preschool children was negatively correlated to all difficulty scales, and positively related to the prosocial behavior scale. The demographic variables, as well as parental socioeconomic status and children's belonging to a vulnerable group were not found to be significantly associated with the preschool children's learning outcomes. However, social emotional competence remains a significant variable in teacher-rated learning outcomes of preschool children even if sociodemographic variables are controlled. Our findings indicate that a higher level of social emotional competence and lower levels of social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties are related to a higher preschoolers' academic learning in their teachers' evaluation. This suggests the importance of early facilitation of social emotional competence as a key factor for academic success and more positive behavioral outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Martinsone, Supe, Stokenberga, Damberga, Cefai, Camilleri, Bartolo, O’Riordan and Grazzani.)

This study compared motivations to engage in sex between monogamous and non-monogamous respondents ( n = 1,238, out of which 641 monogamous and 596 non-monogamous respondents; women-47.4%, men-50.9%, other gender-1.7%; age: M = 27.78 years, SD = 7.53, range = 18-62). The research aim was to identify whether there are differences in self-reported reasons to engage in sexual activity between these two groups. Presented with 17 reasons to engage in sexual activity, the respondents rated the frequency with which they engage in sex for each reason. While both monogamous and non-monogamous respondents reported to engage in sex with the same frequency for the reasons of sexual release and physical desirability of a partner, the research uncovered that non-monogamous respondents engage in sex significantly more often to seek new experiences, to boost self-esteem, to guard their mate, to have a specific kind of sex (such as anal, kink, or fetish) or to experience the thrill of the forbidden. Non-monogamous respondents reported higher frequency to engage in sex for most reasons overall. The study also revealed that there are differences in reasons to engage in sex among men and women, some of the differences are related to the relationship status (monogamous or non-monogamous), while others are universal for men or women irrespective of their monogamy status., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Kelberga and Martinsone.)

In recent years, the school curricula in many European countries have introduced social and emotional learning (SEL). This calls for the teachers to have SEL competencies. The present study evaluates teachers' and their students' readiness for SEL during an intervention in five European countries. The participants were teachers ( n = 402) in five European countries; Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain. The pre- and post-measuring points for both the intervention and the comparison group were at approximately the same time before and after the intervention. Comparison data consisted of 159 teachers in the same countries. The training for the intervention group lasted 16 h for the teachers and a maximum of 16 h for the principles and headmasters. An additional 9 h of further monitoring took place. There were two student groups participating in the study: the age group of 8-11 years (pre puberty) and the age group of 12-15-years (adolescents). Students, whose teachers had participated in the intervention, formed the intervention group ( n = 2,552). Those students, whose teachers did not participate in the intervention, formed the comparison group ( n = 1,730). The questionnaire data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the school year for both age groups. The results indicated that there was a favorable development in the intervention group in some of the measured skills among students, but the effects were different for the two age groups. This study adds to both theoretical and practical development of continuing teacher training about SEL and its possible role in reducing problem behavior among the students., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Berg, Talvio, Hietajärvi, Benítez, Cavioni, Conte, Cuadrado, Ferreira, Košir, Martinsone, Ornaghi, Raudiene, Šukyte, Talić and Lonka.)