This article presents a study of stress and stress-related issues—more specifically, those of burnout, work compassion, and job satisfaction in the population of professionals working in vocational rehabilitation in Republic of Slovenia. Our findings revealed that, on average, the professional workers experience stress as medium high. Further analyses between various subgroups of the population of professional workers revealed that fixed-term workers are under significantly more stress than permanent ones. Stress factors included high work demands, time pressure, and too many administrative tasks. Participants reported making decisions, especially making risky decisions, and the feeling of being undervalued as being the main causes of frustration at work. Main sources of stress stem from the organization of work (legislation, rules, and other institutions). The population of professional workers was also highly exposed to compassion fatigue, which was a risk factor for burnout. These findings raise questions about assertiveness and call for a systemic approach. Based on these results, those proposed activities target developing skills for effective coping with stress, both on the individual and system levels.

Motivation variables in 11 motivational instruments of 357 Slovenian male athletes (168 elite and 189 young athletes from age 12–14) in nine different sport disciplines (basketball, football, handball, water polo, ice hockey, ski jumping, alpine skiing, sport climbing, and judo) were obtained. Different concepts of motivation were researched, such as achievement motivation, incentive motivation, participation motivation, goal orientation, satisfaction and enjoyment in sport, self-efficacy, effort, and ability attributions. The most popular framework for motivation in sport lately has been social cognitive perspective. The aim of this study was to form a dynamic interactive model of sport motivation. We tried to upgrade different models of motivation to one unique meta model of sport motivation, which would explain possible behaviours and motivation in sport situations. Different statistic methods were used to define differences among young and elite athletes and between athletes in group and individual sports. The results show important differences among those groups and suggest that specific sport discipline also has a specific footprint inside motivation. Factor analysis and discriminant analysis were used to explore sport motivation space. The results also suggest that it is possible to define some main determinants of sport motivation that can be connected to previous models of sport motivation.

Objective. The majority of the literature regarding sports injuries is concentrated on specific characteristics related to sports injuries and injuries at sport activities at all. We strove to establish whether the success of the rehabilitation process can be predicted based on numerous psychosocial variables. Methods. Our sample comprised of 68 competing athletes who underwent an operative knee surgery. The rehabilitation process for athletes lasted one or 6 months; all athletes obtained serious injuries by the standards of National Athletic Injury Reporting System (1). The following variables were measured: coping with pain (SIP 15), rehabilitation behaviours (SIRBS), motivation for rehabilitation, anxiety (STAI X1) and social support. A questionnaire that measures the functioning of the knee (2000 IKDC) was taken as an indicator of the rehabilitation success. Participants were tested both prior to and following the process of rehabilitation. Results. Our results showed that the success of psychological rehabilitation could be predicted from changes in certain psychosocial variables (a decrease in anxiety and an increase in susceptibility, self-efficacy and catastrophizing). After the rehabilitation, only 10 % of athletes were able to reach the criteria of a successful physical and psychological rehabilitation. Conclusions. We can conclude that since selected psychological variables were found to have a high loading on psychological rehabilitation there it makes sense to control these variables.

Background and Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) preventive measures affected various aspects of people’s lives, while also representing an important risk factor for people’s mental health. In the present study, we examined the negative psychological consequences of the preventive measures on people’s mental health and the protective factors that strengthened their mental health and well-being during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: A study, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods based on a Delphi protocol, was conducted with a sample of Slovenian professionals who worked with people from different demographic groups (i.e., children and adolescents, emerging adults, the adult working population, the elderly) during the pandemic. We conducted (i) a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 11 professionals and (ii) a quantitative study where 73 professionals completed a structured online questionnaire. Results: Experts recognized the disruption of informal face-to-face social contacts as the measure with the greatest impact on people’s lives across all groups studied, the effect being particularly evident in relation to individuals’ development period and socio-demographic characteristics. An individual’s ability to adapt to change and emotional support provided by family or other close persons contributed significantly to maintaining mental health and well-being during the pandemic. Conclusions: Considering the interplay of various COVID-19-related risk and protective factors for mental health, enabling and promoting the maintenance and development of social relationships (including through alternative pathways) should be a priority aspect of (mental health) intervention for all demographic groups.