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Background and Purpose: Measures taken to prevent COVID-19 infections, aside from causing disruptions in many facets of our daily life, have impeded education, including the higher education process, as never seen before on a global scale. Recent studies have indicated the potential negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health trajectory of university students. Anxiety and depression can seriously hamper students’ quality of life and educational achievement. This study explored anxiety and depression among university students in Kosovo during the lockdown as a result of COVID-19 pandemics. The study was implemented during the initial phase of the pandemic. This study also explored the impact of selected determinants on the reported mental health of students. Methods: In total, 904 university students from the largest public university in Kosovo were enrolled in a web-based cross-sectional study during the early phase of the national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The first and second hierarchical regression models indicated that the anxiety and depression scores of students were predicted by gender, knowing someone who was infected with COVID-19, concerns about the potential financial impact of measures taken by governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and excessive information seeking about COVID-19. The third model improved significantly when the variables concerns about family members’ health, concerns about being lonely, problems with online lectures and requests for help from the university related to online lectures were added to the model. Overall, the findings indicated that situational variables associated with measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to predict anxiety and depression among students. Conclusion: These findings indicate that universities and public health institutions need to support students, especially the more vulnerable students, in enhancing their skills to cope with mental health problems and distress related to the pandemic and the shift to online learning.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most common forms of the violence against women. IPV involves but is not limited to physical, sexual and emotional abuse and controlling behaviour by an intimate partner (WHO, 2012). This paper aimed to explore the gender differences and socio-demographic factors associated with attitudes on IPV against women using a representative sample in Kosovo. This article relies on secondary data analysis of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted in Kosovo. The Kosovo MICS sample was designed to provide estimates for a large number of indicators at national, urban, and rural levels. In total, 5251 women and 2165 men age 15–49 years participated in interviews. The findings indicate that tolerant attitudes toward IPV against women in specific hypothetical situations are more acceptable among women: who live in rural areas, who have lower secondary education, and those who have lower wealth index income and report less access to media (TV and newspapers/magazine). Findings from this study provide valuable information of how factors situated at different levels of social ecology, individual, institutional, and material level interplay within themselves while contributing to the maintenance of traditional gender norms among both men and women.

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings., National Science Centre, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1 MCIN/AEI PID2019-111549GB-I00, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

The current chapter extends Positive Youth Development (PYD) scholarship by applying the developmental assets model in relation to academic achievement and risky behaviors among 779 Albanian youth in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. The findings revealed that Albanian youth in Kosovo registered higher academic achievement and those in Albania showed more risky behaviors than their peers in other countries. For all youth, developmental assets were positively associated with academic achievement. A set of path models showed that external assets (environmental resources) were positively related to risky behaviors, whereas internal assets (interpersonal strengths) were positively associated to academic achievement but negatively to risky behaviors. The current chapter lays the groundwork for PYD scholarship among youth with Albanian background in four South-Eastern European countries.

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by a Grant from the National Science Centre in Poland (Grant Number: 2017/26/M/HS6/00360) awarded to Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka. Data collection by the following researchers was supported by Grants as follows: Emma C. O'Connor (Grant RL5GM118963 from National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health; Angel Gomez (Grant RTI2018-093550-B-I00 from the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain); Sylvie Graf and Martina Hrebickova (Grant 20-01214S from the Czech Science Foundation, and Grant RVO: 68081740 from the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences); Teri A. Kirby (Grant ES/S00274X/1 from the Economic and Social Research Council); Soledad de Lemus (Grant PSI2016-79971-P from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the excellence); Michelle K. Ryan and Renata Bongiorno (Grant ERC-2016-COG 725128 from the European Research Council awarded to Michelle K. Ryan); Marie Gustafsson Senden, Anna Lindqvist and Emma Renstrom (Grant 2017-00414 from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare); Claudio V. Torres (Grant DPI/DIRPE n. 04/2019 from the University of Brasilia)., This study was preregistered in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/u9xfg/., Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Whereas qualitative and ethnographic data suggest that many cultures conceptualize manhood as precarious, quantitative research has yet to demonstrate the cross-cultural consistency of precarious manhood beliefs. Here, we examined the psychometric isomorphism, or measurement invariance, of a brief precarious manhood beliefs scale (the PMB). Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N=33,417), we examined: (1) the isomorphism of the PMB across individual and country levels; (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies (e.g., ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; Glick & Fiske, 1996, 1999); and (3) associations of the PMB with country-level indices of gender equality (the GGGI; World Economic Forum, 2019) and human development (the HDI; United Nations Development Programme, 2019). Findings indicate that the PMB is a psychometrically valid and isomorphic index of beliefs about the male gender role that accounts for unique variance in country-level gender equality and human development., National Science Center, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness PSI2016-79971-P, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

Objectives: The measurement and assessment of the emergent symptoms in various psychotic disorders is essential to the delivery of efficacious, patient centred mental health care. Despite the existence of several instruments that can measure these factors, their applicability within a global context remains undetermined. This paper aims to provide evidence for a factor structure in Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS), tailored for use in the Albanian language. Methods: We recruited 106 patients with psychosis (68% male), who were aged 16 to 40 years old (M = 22, SD = 1.75), and treated in community services in Kosovo. We adapted, translated, and back-translated CAINS and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) before these measures were administered in interviews with the participants. According to Kaiser-Guttman’s criterion (i.e., eigen-value >1), four components were extracted from the original measure of CAINS. Results: Using Principal Component Analysis, CAINS was found to be a valid means of measurement of motivation and pleasure in various life domains (social, recreational, and work/school). Intercorrelation existed not only between the BSI scale and the CAINS scales, but within the CAINS scales themselves. Conclusions: In contrast to the previous studies that found Expression and Motivation and Pleasure as two major factors, our results revealed four components. Thus, it may be that the culture plays a substantial role in the factor structure of CAINS, and it might be related to different appraisal of emotional situations, which are influenced by different socio-cultural practices. These results have global implications for clinical practice and future research.

Contains fulltext : 219925.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross-culturally, to test if both individual- and country-level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero-sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile sexism. Because country-level gender equality may threaten men's higher gender status, we also examined whether the path from zero-sum beliefs to collective action intentions was stronger in countries higher in gender equality. Multilevel modeling on 6,781 men from 42 countries supported the individual-level mediation model, but found no evidence of moderation by country-level gender equality. Both country-level gender equality and individual-level zero-sum thinking independently predicted reductions in men's willingness to act collectively for gender equality. 16 p.

Corruption is a worldwide issue, and our understanding of it has been shaped by public policy at the expense of personal motivation. Therefore, a psychological standpoint is required to identify youth at risk of future exploitation. A total of 890 students (psychology, economics, law and education) participated in this study, and their motivation for being at university (AMS-C 28) and their perceptions of the effects of corruption on motivation (PoCM) were measured. Interestingly, students reported that their perception of corruption in the workplace affects their intrinsic motivation and subsequently, the amotivated group reported the highest willingness to use corruption in the future. The study proposes that the self-determination theory in conjunction with PoCM can potentially identify students at risk. We argue that intrinsic motivation, the form closest to the self-determined end of the SDT continuum, can protect students from the adverse effects of corruption.

This paper focuses on gender differences in depression symptoms. It takes into consideration relevant contextual factors of a country in transition. This paper’s analyzed data was extracted from European Social Survey, Sixth Round (ESS-6). ESS uses strict probability samples of the resident national population, aged 15 or older, and living in private households. Females reported a significantly higher mean depression on average (M = 8.14; SD = 3.88) compared to males (M = 7.56; SD = 3.86) at t(1247) = 2.604, p ˂ .009. The average for depressive symptoms found in the Kosovar population was higher than the averages reported in other European countries, but corresponded with those in Eastern European countries.

Background The need for mental health care services is particularly high in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where socio-economic factors have a deep impact on treatment and management of psychosis. Lack of funds and qualified professional represent the main challenge to treatment gap leaving between 36% and 45% of people with psychosis without care for their condition thus having a huge impact at individual and societal level. Although data from epidemiological research show that prevalence of psychosis is equal between sexes, some differences in terms of needs for care might be relevant, particularly in a context that has been affected by dramatic socio-economic and cultural changes. In this study we explore in a representative sample of people with psychosis from Kosovo*, as part of a large multi-country study (EU-funded IMPULSE project), whether demographic, socio-economic and clinical differences exist between male and female patients. Methods Data on demographic, socio-economic characteristics, use of psychosocial treatment and medication was collected; general level of psychopathology and negative symptoms were assessed through the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory and Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms. Male and female patients were compared in terms of demographic, socio-economic and clinical characteristics using Chi-square and independent sample t- test as appropriate. Results The sample (n=103) was composed by 33 female and 70 male patients with psychosis. The two groups did not show any statistically significant difference in age, employment, level of education; however, marital status seems to differ with higher proportion of women being separated (p=0.009). No differences emerged in monthly income, while a trend of significance (p=0.079) suggested that female patients had slightly higher financial benefits than their male counterpart. While there was no difference in terms of psychiatric diagnosis, higher depressive (p=0.017) and paranoid symptoms (at trend level, p=0.054) were reported by females patients. There were no differences on antipsychotic medication. Attendance of a psychosocial treatment was higher in male than in female patients (80% vs 57.6%; p=0.017) without any difference though in the type of approach. Overall, patients who attended a psychosocial treatment had lower negative symptoms (p Discussion Female patients with psychosis were found to have a worse clinical presentation compared to male patients, and to have a lower attendance to psychosocial treatment. Regardless of sex, psychosocial treatment seems to be associated to less negative symptomatology. More research is needed to better characterise clinical presentation of people with psychosis in LMICs and to understand whether access to mental health service, particularly psychosocial intervention, is accountable to clinical characteristics or to contextual factors, social and/or economic in nature. Offering psychosocial intervention to this clinical population could alleviate burden of the illness in this clinical population.

Career choice is the one of the most important decisions undertaken in adolescence. According to numerous studies, various factors influence the development of career choices. The overall goal of this study was to analyze career certainty in relation to the congruence between personality traits and career choice. The main research question was: are there differences in the level of career certainty among adolescents with congruence between personality traits and career choice and those without congruence? A total of (N=587) twelfth grade high school students from seven regions of Kosovo took part in the survey. The sample was selected randomly. The participants completed the Career Decision Scale and Self Directed Search. The research results show a positive relationship between personality traits and chosen career. The results also support four of the six study assumptions regarding level of career certainty among adolescents, with and without congruence between personality traits and chosen career. Adolescents with congruence of personality traits and professions for realistic, investigative, artistic, and social categories showed higher career certainty compared to adolescents who had not reported congruence between these factors. For the entrepreneur and conventional categories, there were no differences in level of career certainty among adolescents with and without congruence of personality traits and chosen career.

Kosovo aims for development of a state over the Kosovo state identity, which includes all communities living in Kosovo. Integration of all communities in public institutions and life remains one of the challenges of Kosovo society. The social distance refers to the extent of understanding of another group, which characterizes parasocial and social relations. Another definition is the lack of availability and relations in being open to others. Bogardus states that social distance is an outcome of affective distance between members of two groups. Earlier studies have shown that the social distance or gap is related to the ethnic background, education level and earlier interaction with other ethnic groups. Also, studies have shown a link with social/political activism. Further, it has been proven that social distance is manifested at three different spatial dimensions, their own self in a reciprocal co-product: physical, symbolical and geometric. The study aims to explicate social distance in a relation with demographic records of respondents to a research undertaken in Kosovo in 2010, in which 1296 citizens (64.4% Albanians, 13.9% Serbs, 6.9% Turkish, 5% Roma/Ashkali/Egyptian (RAE), 6.9% Bosnian and 2.7% others). Social distance has been measured by asking the respondents about the groups or persons they would object in terms of neighborhood: they, who speak another language, have another religion, have homosexual orientation, etc. Comparisons of average social distance in relation with ethnic sub-groups, gender, level of education, experience in earlier trips to the countries of the European Union (EU), size of settlement and the region of origin of the respondent, show significant differences, at p < 0.05. Also, the research also reviewed the link between social activism and activism in civil society and social distance. In these terms, outcomes are less clearer, thereby suggesting that social activism or activism in civil society not necessarily influences the narrowing of the social gap. Outcomes are discussed in due account of permanent efforts to involve minorities in governance and public life in Kosovo.