Silvija Rucevic

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Osijek

The aim of the study is to explore the role of child’s executive functions in the relation between child’s externalizing and internalizing problems and caregiver strain in early school age children. The caregiver strain refers to providing nurture and care for a dependent family member. A sample includes 175 caregiver-child dyads and 36 school teac...

The aim of this study was to compare the vocabulary of boys with behavioral disorders (N = 34; age range: 10-13 years) and boys from the general population (N = 34; age range: 10-13 years), as well as examine the relationship between vocabulary and aggressive behavior and problems in their relationships with peers. Parents and caregivers assessed t...

Using cross-lagged model design, the present study is the first one to longitudinally examine whether bidirectional associations between child psychopathy features and negative parenting behaviors remain when controlling for parental psychopathic traits. The relationship between parental and child psychopathology, child conduct problems and parenta...

The current study investigated parental psychopathic personality and its interaction with children's psychopathy features as predictors of parenting practices five years later. Data were used from the prospective longitudinal ECLAT study including 175 children (MFirst assessment = 5.28 years; 80 males and 95 females). At Time 1 parents rated their...

The language achievement of pre-primary and primary EFL learners (N = 147) was investigated regarding the participants’ age at the beginning of EFL learning and their length of exposure to organised instruction. A significant relationship was found between the age at the start of students’ learning and early achievement; however, it was not confirm...

COMPARISON OF STIGMA TOWARDS DEPRESSIVE PERSONS AND SELF-STIGMA IN STUDENTS OF HELPING AND NONHELPING PROFESSIONS The aim of the research was to examine the differences in the attitudes towards depressive persons and the levels of self-stigma in the students of medical (nursing and medicine; N=101) and non-medical (social work and psychology; N=98)...

Purpose To examine prognostic and incremental values of grandiose-deceitful interpersonal style, callous-unemotional traits and impulsivity-need for stimulation, and their ability to predict conduct problems and different types of aggressive behavior above and beyond well-established risk factors, including early childhood hyperactivity, aggression...

The current study investigated the association of psychopathy features with decision-making biases (i.e., overconfidence/goal discrepancy and unusual shifts), and if these associations varied by gender in a community sample of 175 preschoolers (80 males, Mage = 6.39; SDage = 0.57). Parents rated psychopathy features of their children using the Chil...

The aim of this study is to examine the role of executive functions (EF) in explaining the association between parenting and externalizing behaviour problems (EBP) in early school-age children. A representative sample consisted of 175 parents and 36 teachers. Parents completed Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, Parenting Style Questionnai...

We examined the role of parental personality traits and parenting styles in explaining psychopathic tendencies in children at the beginning of elementary school. One hundred seventy-three parents fulfilled the Big Five Inventory and Parenting Styles Questionnaire for themselves and Child Problematic Traits Inventory for their children (80 boys; M =...

Difficulties in assessing the needs of a child with developmental risk factors within the social care system produce challenges in creating an individual care plan for each child. Studies have shown that children growing up in unfavourable life situations have severe executive dysfunctions. Executive functions is an umbrella term for interrelated p...

Background/aims: Hypertensive patients present with increased oxidative stress and frequently receive angiotensin II (ANGII) receptor type I blockers (ARB) for blood pressure (BP) reduction. Recent studies revealed an important role of ANGII in maintaining vascular oxidative homeostasis, including sustaining normal sodium dismutase activity. This...

The present study investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits, risk-taking tendencies and gambling problem severity and if these associations varied by gender in a community sample of Croatian adolescents (N = 282; 148 males). Results of the regression analyses showed that the Impulsive-Irresponsible behavioural style (YPI-II) and the...

There are six purpose-built Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) personality questionnaires currently in use to measure the fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS), the behavioural inhibition system (BIS), and the behavioural approach system (BAS). They differ in their conceptualizations and operational constructs, and this poses a problem for their di...

The last decade was extremely dynamic in the field of personality disorder. The extensive research has resulted with significant changes in conceptualization and assessment of personality psychopathology. DSM 5 has introduced a hybrid diagnostic model of personality disorders, which leads toward implementing dimensional instead of categorical appro...

The aim of this research is to examine the differences in attitudes towards the elderly, and the differences in sets of stereotypes and expectations related to ageing in groups of persons of early and late adulthood, as well as to assess the effects of quality and quantity of contact with the elderly on attitudes towards them. The research was cond...

his study compares differences between community-based psychopathic-like adolescents (n = 78, 72% males) and referred psychopathic-like adolescents (n = 67, 70% males) in means, variances, and covariation between problem behaviors, adverse childhood experiences, parental conflict, physical and sexual victimization, and perceived parent–adolescent a...

Numerous studies have shown that depression is one of the most common problems related to mental health of elderly persons. Female gender, physical illness, functional (in)ability the loss of close persons and social support, loneliness and social isolation are mentioned as most frequent risk factors. It has also been shown that depression is more...

The current study examined the association of attachment quality to parents to attachment styles and attachment style dimensions in a sample of high-school boys (N=103) and girls (N=181). Parental attachment quality was measured by the self-report Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), whereas attachment styles and dimensions were measured...

The current study examined the relative contribution of risk factors from different domains (i.e. family, peers and school) in the explanation of externalizing behaviors (i.e. proactive aggressive behavior and risky sexual behavior) and disordered eating in a community sample of boys (n=429) and girls (n=307), aged 15–20. In order to examine the pr...

The current study investigated the association of psychopathic traits with violent and non-violent delinquency, delinquency versatility, and risky sexual behavior in Croatian sample of non-referred boys (n = 226) and girls (n = 480). Psychopathic traits were measured by the self-report Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI). Consistent with the...

The current study examined the association of attachment to parents and peers, self-esteem and severity of proactive and reactive aggression in a nonreferred sample of boys (n = 92) and girls (n = 100), aged 15-17. Aggressive behaviors, self-esteem, and parental and peer attachments were assessed through self-report ratings. In order to examine the...

The current study examined the association of attachment to parents and peers, self-esteem and severity of proactive and reactive aggression in a nonreferred sample of boys (n = 92) and girls (n = 100), aged 15-17. Aggressive behaviors, self-esteem, and parental and peer attachments were assessed through self-report ratings. In order to examine the...

This paper describes construction and psychometric characteristics of the Youth self-reported delinquency and risk behaviors questionnaire (SRDP-2007). Participants were 1422 adolescents from Osijek and Zagreb (866 females and 556 males). The respondents had a mean age of 16.07 years (SD = 1.49 years, range 13 to 19 years). The final form of the qu...

Over the past decades teen dating has emerged as a significant social and public health problem. Dating violence ranges from emotional and verbal abuse to different forms of psychical and sexual violence. The focus of this article is two fold. The first one is to provide an overview of the relevant international and Croatian research on dating viol...

The article presents a short overview of basic notions and research techniques used in studies on delinquent behaviour, with an emphasis on methodological issues of the application of self-report measures and longitudinal research design. The majority of studies related to the development of delinquent behaviour are transversal. Although their purp...

Transsexuality is a permanent feeling of uneasiness and non-affiliation to the gender in which a person was born, accompanied with a permanent striving to live and be accepted as a person of the opposite gender. The dysfunction appears in childhood and adult age. There is at least one transsexual male in 30,000 adult men and one transsexual female...

Placental selenium, lead and cadmium concentrations were determined in a group of pregnancies with birth weight appropriate for gestational age and in a group of intrauterine growth restriction cases. Following adjustment for a number of confounding variables, selenium was found to be a significant predictor of newborn weight only in the group of p...

Ovim radom pruža se kratak pregled osnovnih pojmova i istraživačkih tehnika koje se koriste u izučavanju delikventnog ponašanja pri čemu je naglasak na metodološkim pitanjima primjene samoiskaza i longitudinalnih istraživanja. Većina istraživanja razvoja delikventnog ponašanja su transverzalnog tipa. Iako se njima dobivaju podaci o korelatima delik...

This paper describes construction and psychometric characteristics of the Youth self-reported delinquency and risk behaviors questionnaire (SRDP-2007). Participants were 1422 adolescents from Osijek and Zagreb (866 females and 556 males). The respondents had a mean age of 16.07 years (SD = 1.49 years, range 13 to 19 years). The final form of the qu...

The current study examined the association of attachment to parents and peers, self-esteem and severity of proactive and reactive aggression in a non-referred sample of boys (n = 92) and girls (n = 100), aged 15–17. Aggressive behaviors, self-esteem, and parental and peer attachments were assessed through self-report ratings. In order to examine th...

The current study examined the association of attachment analyzed along several dimensions (i.e. communication, trust and alienation) and severity of delinquent and risk-taking behaviors in a non-referred sample of boys (n=226) and girls (n=480), aged 13-19. Specifically, it examined (a) the role of gender as a moderator in the effect of separate p...