Traditionally, anxiety has been interpreted as a negative emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry, fret, uncertainty and vague fear which could have an adverse effect on sports achievement. On the other hand, sport type and its specific nature and demands, may also be connected with the level of state and trait anxiety. This study aimed to investigate potential differences in the competitive trait anxiety level and general self-esteem according to gender in sports of different contact level. The sample consisted of 1024 (590 males and 434 females) young athletes. Independent variables were sport contact level (non-contact, contact and collision sports) and gender. Dependent variables were measured by the adjusted versions of Sport Competition Anxiety Test and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Basic descriptive statistics was calculated for all the groups, and the differences between them were established using χ² test and MANOVA. The results suggest significant differences in trait competitive anxiety per sport type, gender and their interaction, and no differences in the general self-esteem level. The current study reveals that not only the intensity but also the intergroup relationship of a sport contact level (non-contact, contact and collision sports) is gender determined. These findings are important in psycho-diagnostic procedure and choosing appropriate coping strategies for athletes.

Religion is a complex construct that defines not only the historical and social identity of a nation, but also the personal identity of an individual. The attitude towards religion can be conditioned by tradition, political ideology, true faith, education, etc. In our research, we have tried to establish the level of religiousness of the female students of teacher education faculties in Serbia, belonging to the Orthodox Christianity as the dominant confession in Serbia. We examined their attitudes towards some of the moral challenges encountered by believers, including abortion, prostitution, same-sex marriages, the use of cannabis, and euthanasia. Using a snowball non-discriminative online sample of 336 female Orthodox students, we found that the students assessed themselves as above-average religious and that out of three dimensions of religiousness measured in the questionnaire, the lowest scores were recorded for the dimension of the effect of faith on their behavior. The study showed that the level of religiousness is a good predictor of attitudes towards abortion, prostitution, and same-sex marriages, but not towards the use of cannabis. Moreover, religiousness and attitudes towards prostitution are positively correlated, which is directly opposite to religious teachings. This is why a question arises as to whether we can speak about a return to faith or merely a return to the traditional model of manifesting the religious as an antipode to the secular organization in force until 1989. The results of our research point to the latter conclusion.

In Serbia’s elementary schools, physical education is an obligatory course from the very beginning of education. This is why schools and academic staff can use their authority and behaviour to promote a healthy lifestyle among children. Parents, who are the models of good behaviour, opinions, and attitudes, likewise participate in the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among children. Thus, so as to ensure that the process of building healthy habits and an active lifestyles is as successful as possible, it is important to bear in mind the interests and preferences of both groups, as well as their gender differences. The research sample included 8002 schoolchildren in their fifth year of education, and 5768 parents. The independent variables were gender and participation in sport, and the dependent variables were 27 sport activities. The data was processed using non-parametric statistics, χ² and crosstabs. The results show that soccer, basketball, swimming and volleyball are the sports which schoolchildren most like to participate in, and which parents prefer for their children. In terms of the choice of sport, significant differences were determined between the boys and the girls, as well as between the mothers and the fathers.

The state of emergency was declared in Serbia in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic of the new disease, COVID-19. As a result, distance learning was introduced for the first time at Serbian universities - online learning in utterly specific crisis circumstances caused by the outbreak of the pandemic of a completely unknown infectious disease. This model of learning was adjusted to that fact in the form of emergency remote teaching. The paper presents the results of examining the attitudes of female students of teacher education faculties in Serbia regarding the efficiency and sustainability of the distance learning model in which they gained experience. The sample included 399 female students, who completed an online survey designed for the purposes of this research. The results of the survey showed the strengths and weaknesses of distance learning as a formerly untapped potential in higher education in Serbia, which specifically refers to the teaching model applied during the state of emergency introduced due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the differences in the knowledge of digital technologies by the professors came to the fore in terms of the methods that the professors used in their work. The results suggest that distance learning can be a useful tool in the process of knowledge transfer in higher education, but that final year students are most affected by the inability to acquire knowledge in practice that cannot be virtually compensated, which is a very important step in their work training, as well as the pronounced general problem of lack of social interaction and meeting social needs, arising as a result of the pandemic. In contrast, increased leisure time and health reasons stand out as the main advantages of the new teaching model, which is significantly characterized by the crisis environment.

In the course of more than two decades since the introduction of Religious Education into the Serbian school system, there has been a scientific and social need to check the attitudes of current students regarding its status, the applied model and the impact of attending Religious Education on the formation of attitudes on certain social issues, about which churches and religious communities have their own doctrinal positions. The research, carried out by the online survey technique, on a snowball sample, was carried out during May and June 2022, among students of all faculties of education in Serbia. The choice of faculty of education students as a statistical group is related to the fact that teachers are the ones who first meet students as part of school socialization and significantly influence the formation of their social attitudes in the early period of institutional socialization. Therefore, it was important to check their views on this matter. The most important findings show that the absolute majority of students believe that Religious Education should become a compulsory subject through primary schooling, but that the applied model should be modified in terms of content. The students are of the opinion that at the age when the key socialization of the personality is carried out (the first four grades of primary school, pupils aged 7-11), religious teaching should be organized according to the confessional model, in the students' faith, as is the case now, while in the other four grades (from the fifth to the eighth, pupils aged 11-15) primary school, it should be organized on non-confessional principles, which would enable the knowledge of scientific views on religion, as well as knowledge of the views of the world of other religions, as well as consideration of religion in the key of an important social phenomenon (historical, philosophical, moral, sociological, etc.). An important finding is confirmation of the position that the choice between these two subjects (Religious Education and Civic Education) influences the formation of students' social attitudes regarding certain social issues, on which churches and religious communities have their own clear viewpoints, which can also explain their unity, independent of religion and confession, regarding the existence of religious teaching in the educational system of Serbia. It should be noted that, through the introduction of Religious Education into the school system, especially through the confessional model, the functions of the church (that is, religious communities) and the school as "state ideological apparatuses" (Althusser) actually came into symbiosis. The school "assists" the church in the performance of one of the functions that should be exclusively church - religious instruction according to a certain catechism, and this need can be understood through the ritual dimension of religiosity widespread among the most numerous Orthodox believers in Serbia, while the other dimensions of religiosity are more or less neglected or certainly less present. The research confirmed the impact of attending religious classes on the formation of certain social attitudes among respondents, so from that aspect, the perseverance of churches and religious communities to maintain it in the school system should be observed, according to the confessional model.

This paper presents an empirically study on the attitudes of female university students at all Teacher Education Faculties in Serbia (TEFS). For the purposes of this study, a survey was prepared to be completed by students online, and virtual exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was applied. The independent variables were religion, major subjects, year of study, age, the completion of secondary schooling, whether an optional subject was studied during previous schooling, and whether female students were employed. The dependent variables were the respondents’ attitudes to religious instruction and civic education. The sample included 372 students from all TEFS, and the research was conducted in the period from 15 May to 8 June 2022. The data were processed with the aid of nonparametric statistics. The results showed that religion did not contribute to differences in students’ attitudes and opinions regarding the method of performing religious instruction and civic education, but that some other factors contributed to it, such as previous experience with these subjects and whether the respondent had completed secondary schooling. These results may be interpreted in the light of the weaknesses of the confessional model, that is, the lack of knowledge regarding the basic paradigms of other confessions, which is of great importance for countries such as Serbia which have numerous national minorities and religious communities.