Within the last decade, childhood obesity has become a serious problem, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research paper aimed to examine whether body mass index (BMI) was higher during the pandemic (2020–2022) than in the pre-pandemic period (2012/2013–2019) using trends related to sex, urban–rural area, and physical activity (PA). This study included data from physical examinations of an entire population of primary school children from Split-Dalmatia County (Croatia) over a period of 10 years. There were 103,804 students from the first, fifth, and eighth grades who participated in the analysis. During the pandemic, the BMI of all the students increased, except for eighth-grade girls. Generations of eighth graders have had significantly different BMIs throughout the past decade. We found that first graders were overweight and obese in urban areas, while in rural areas, this problem was experienced by upper grades. Girls were more overweight and obese in the first and eighth grades, but boys experienced this more in the fifth grade. Reduced PA influenced an increase in BMI in both sexes, especially in girls. During the pandemic, this situation became worse. This study could be useful to experts for the creation of new policies for Split-Dalmatia County and surrounding regions that are similar economically and culturally.

The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting students’ satisfaction with their class community by measuring the contributions of “positive” resources: either the socio-demographic and individual characteristics of students, or common characteristics of the class community. The research was conducted anonymously using multiple questionnaires on a sample of 267 students attending the higher grades (5th–8th grades) of primary schools from an urban area of the city of Split. It was determined that social cohesion and prosocial behaviour within the class community were the strongest determinants and were also the most important positive resources of satisfaction with the class community. Individual psychological characteristics (especially self-esteem and hope) and the socio-demographic characteristics of students also played a significant role in explaining satisfaction with the class community, but their relative contribution was much weaker than social relations within the class community. The three types of psychological characteristics of the students were positively related to the degree of satisfaction with the class community, but this association was at a low level. More than half of the students were not completely satisfied with their class community. Furthermore, based on the five fundamental dimensions of intrinsic (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) within PE motivation, four types of students with different motivational characteristics were determined: the very low type; moderate type; very high IM and low EM type; and extremely high type. It is recommended that experts continue researching the relationship between psychological and social variables in class communities, as well as investigating the effectiveness of possible interventions aimed at the development and improvement of social relationships in the educational and sports talent development environment.

Background: The integration of technology into physical education has introduced new methods for teaching motor skills, including swimming techniques. Understanding the effectiveness of multimedia content compared to traditional instruction methods is essential for improving pedagogical practices in higher education. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of two instructional approaches – practical demonstration and video presentation—in the acquisition of swimming motor skills. Methods: A total of 98 students were randomly assigned to either a demonstration group (N=43) or a video group (N=55). Using a newly developed evaluation scale, participants were assessed on three components of swimming technique: start, technique execution, and turn. A two-way 2×3 factorial ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of instructional method (between- subject factor: Group) and technical component (within-subject factor: Element) for both crawl and backstroke. Results: For both swimming styles, the main effect of instructional group was not statistically significant (crawl: F=0.596, p=0.442, η=0.006; backstroke: F=0.002, p=0.962, η=0.000), indicating no difference between demonstration and video instruction. However, the effect of technical component was significant for both crawl (F=16.121, p<0.001, η=0.144) and backstroke (F=26.364, p<0.001, η=0.215). Post hoc analysis revealed significant differences between elements within each swimming style (p<0.01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that both instructional approaches are equally effective in teaching swimming techniques, supporting the inclusion of multimedia tools in physical education. These results support the development of modern, technologysupported teaching strategies for motor skill acquisition.