Aims: The present study aimed to examine the relationship between different forms of maltreatment in childhood with the perpetration of violent behaviour and exposure to violence in partner relationships. Methodology: The sample comprised 147 participants (100 women and 47 men) involved in intimate partner violence and 200 control subjects (100 women and 100 men). A child abuse questionnaire was used for the assessment of multiple types of abuse occurring during childhood. Partner violence was assessed using Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2). Results: The findings indicated that exposure to maltreatment in childhood had a significant effect on intimate partner violence. Significant differences were observed between the participants exposed to physical and psychological abuse, neglect and those witnessing family violence through partner violence compared to the control group. Forms of violence committed by fathers and mothers had a more important effect on partner violence compared to the violence committed by other persons. Conclusion: The results obtained from this study can potentially help in the development of

Early studies supposed that personality traits and students’ life, which include brings many social and academic changes, may be relevant factors in initiation and maintenance of smoking. The aims of this study were to investigate differences in personality dimensions, as well as exposure to stressful life events among students’ smokers and nonsmokers and finally to examine the predictive contribution of these variables to smoking status. The study was conducted on the sample of 200 students from the University of Mostar, with a median age of 21 (interquartile range, 3) who completed Goldberg’s Personality Questionnaire and Scale of stressful life events. The group of students who never smoke (N = 101) and the group of smokers (N = 99) took part in the study. The results have shown that personality dimension of neuroticism and stressful life events related to social alienation, academic failure and everyday social conflict differed the smokers and non-smokers group. The smokers had higher scores in comparison to non-smokers group of students. Neuroticism and stressful life events academic failure and academic maladjustment were also significant predictors to smoking status.

Objective – The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD) and to identify comorbid disorders according to subtype of ADHD. Method – The study sample included 404 children aged from 6-12 years old. Parents completed The Child Behaviour Checklist/4-18 to detect internalizing and externalizing psychological difficulties in children. Assessment of ADHD was performed using the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Test. Results – ADHD symptoms were found in 15% of girls and 12.1% of boys. The differences in the frequency of different subtype of ADHD in terms of the gender were obtained for the subtype of hyperactivity (Z=-2.075, p=0.038). Boys had more pronounced symptoms of hyperactivity compared to girls. There was no statistically significant gender difference for the subtype of impulsivity (Z=-1.422, p=0.155) and inattention subtype (Z=-0.234, p=0.815). The results obtained showed a higher prevalence of internalized and externalized difficulties with the combined subtypes of ADHD compared to other subtypes. Conclusion – ADHD is a complex condition, affecting a significant number of children and therefore it needs to be better identified. Children who seek medical or psychological help have at least one or more comorbid disorder and these problems also need to be appropriately identified and treated.

The aim of this review was to provide an overview of researchinto the relationship between empathy and bullying. Thereforethe review indicated a number of researches that show differenteffects of empathy on bullying, regarding the type of bullying,roles in bullying behavior, as well as gender. From a review ofresearch it may be concluded that empathy significantly contributesto a reduction in various forms of violence. Most researchindicates the importance of the affective component of empathycompared to the cognitive component. The results of researchinto the relationship of empathy and its role in bullying behaviorwere less consistent. For this reason, the review highlightedmethodological difficulties in the study of bullying and empathy.  Conclusion  – In conclusion it could be said that most studiesshow a negative correlation between empathy and various typesof violence. Furthermore, it is evident that different componentsof empathy have differing degrees of influence in direct and indirectforms of violent behavior.

Objective – To examine the relationship between bullying and difficulties in psychological adjustment among elementary school students due to their role in bullying behavior, arousal leveland strategies of coping with bullying behavior. Methods – The study was conducted on a convenience sample of 478 primary school children (232 girls and 246 boys), 11 to 15 years of age. A School Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) was used to assess direct, verbal and relational forms of bullying. To determine the coping strategies we used the Self – Report Coping Measure(SRCM). The arousal level was assessed by The Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS), while Youth Self-Report (YSR) was used for assessing current psychological adjustment. Results – The present study identified 29% of children involved in bullying; 14% of children were categorized as victims, 7% as bullies and 8% as bully/victims. There was statistically significant combined effect of the role of victims and bully/victims, levels of arousaland coping strategies with bullying (internalizing, externalizing, and distancing) on difficulties in psychological adjustment. Conclusion – Based on the results of this study, we can conclude that bullying as psychosocial stress is an important risk factor for psychological problems in childhood. At the same time, coping strategies are important determinants of successful adaptation.