The success of science education in classroom and out-of-school settings can be influenced by parents’ behaviours and STEM-related values. The present study investigated pathways in parent-to-child transmission of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) values by examining at same time parents’ values and behaviours, along with their children’s perceptions of these parental influences. The study included 1071 students (M_age = 12.15) and the same number of their parents. Path analysis revealed that children’s importance value of the STEM school fields was best explained by their perceptions of parental values and behaviours in STEM. On the other hand, parents’ self-reported values and behaviours had a weak effect in predicting children’s values, which can be explained by inaccurate children’s perceptions of their parents. The results suggest that parents more easily convey beliefs about the utility than the attainment value of STEM. Namely, parents’ utility value had a larger effect in predicting children’s value, partly mediated through children’s perception of parents’ encouragement of STEM interests. The study highlights the role of children’s perceptions of their parents’ beliefs and behaviours and the importance of communicating STEM-related values within the family. Practical implications for parents and science educators are discussed.

The family environment is considered to be a micro-ecological system with numerous risk and protective factors for mental health. The goal of this research was to determine how different functional and/or structural family characteristics affect some indicators of mental health in adolescents. A number of 1,239 adolescents (ages 15–19) participated in the research. General Data Questionnaire, Family Life Satisfaction Scale, Family Communication Scale, Positive Mental Health Scale, Anxiety, Depression and Stress Scale, and Stressful Events in the Family Checklist, were applied. The results indicated no connection between sociodemographic characteristics and self-assessed satisfaction. Adolescents with older parents were less satisfied with their family and familial communication. Gender differences in mental health were confirmed, mostly to the detriment of girls. The mother’s age and the father’s level of education significantly correlate with individual mental health. Adolescents with older mothers reported lower mental health. Adolescents with fathers of lower educational status reported higher stress and depression level. Stress within the family proved to be significant in explaining adolescents’ mental health, especially due to financial issues, and conflicts among family members. Finally, the results indicated that family communication and satisfaction, with the control of sociodemographic characteristics and stress in a family, additionally explain the significant part of the variance in adolescents’ mental health.

In the context of self-determination theory it is possible to distinguish several qualitatively different aspects of motivation that have an impact on academic achievement, self-efficacy assessment and satisfaction. Starting with the assumption that intrinsic motivation is crucial for the quality of formal education of prospective teachers, the aim of this study was to examine various aspects of academic motivation of future preschool teachers, primary school teachers, and secondary school teachers. The study included 566 students who filled out the Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al., 1992) which measures seven different aspects of motivation according to the self-determination continuum (Gagne & Deci, 2005). By means of exploratory factor analysis five factors that correspond to intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation were extracted. Participants, in general, achieved the highest score on the scale of extrinsic identified regulation, while the lowest score was obtained, as expected, on the amotivation scale. Analysis of the intrinsic motivation results showed significantly higher values at the graduate level compared to the undergraduate level, while the opposite pattern was observed for external motivation. For other types of motivation there were no significant differences with regard to the study level. Key words: academic motivation; initial teacher education; self-determination---SažetakU kontekstu teorije samoodređenja moguće je razlikovati nekoliko kvalitativno različitih aspekata motivacije i regulacije ponašanja koji imaju učinka na akademsko postignuće, procjenu samoefikasnosti i zadovoljstva pojedinca. Polazeći od pretpostavke da je za kvalitetu inicijalnog obrazovanja odgojitelja i nastavnika ključna intrinzična motivacija, odnosno autonomna regulacija ponašanja, cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati različite aspekte akademske motivacije kod studenata odgojiteljskog, učiteljskog i nastavničkog usmjerenja, kao i studenata pedagogije. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 566 studenata, a primijenjena je Skala akademske motivacije (Vallerand i sur., 1992) kojom se mjeri sedam različitih aspekata motivacije u skladu s kontinuumom samoodređenja (Gagne i Deci, 2005). Eksploratornom faktorskom analizom metodom glavnih komponenata uz varimax rotaciju dobiveno je rješenje od pet faktora koji odgovaraju intrinzičnoj motivaciji, introjiciranoj, identificiranoj i eksternalnoj ekstrinzičnoj motivaciji i amotivaciji. Na cijelom uzorku sudionika najviši rezultat postignut je na skali ekstrinzične identificirane regulacije, a najniži je rezultat očekivano utvrđen na skali amotivacije. Analiza rezultata intrinzične motivacije pokazala je značajno veće vrijednosti na diplomskoj razini u odnosu na preddiplomsku, a kod eksternalne regulacije utvrđeno je suprotno. Kod ostalih oblika motivacije nisu utvrđene značajne razlike s obzirom na razinu studija. Ključne riječi: akademska motivacija; nastavnički studij; samoodređenje; učiteljski studij; studij pedagogije; studij predškolskog odgoja

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between music preference and music education, informal influences (attending classical music concerts and musical theatre productions) and familiarity of music. The research included students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split (N=341)¹. The results showed that participants usually listen to popular music in their leisure time and that popular music is their most preferred music style. A positive relationship between familiarity and preferences was found but this effect was not unambiguous. A relationship between music preferences and secondary school music education was not found, but those participants who attended music school preferred some music styles more than did those participants who did not attend music school. There was a significant correlation found between the frequency of attending classical music concerts and preferences for classical music, jazz and world music. Finally, the results indicated that people who frequently attend musical theatre productions have significantly higher preferences for jazz and world music. The authors pointed to the problem of unattractiveness of music lessons in secondary schools and suggest possible solutions to the problem.

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between musical and visual art preferences, and the role of personality traits in predicting preferences for different musical styles and visual art motives. Participants were asked to fill out the following instruments: Questionnaire of music preferences, Questionnaire of visual art preferences, Questionnaire for personality traits International Personality Item Pool [IPIP]; the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Results showed that most participants preferred popular and classical music, and landscape motives, while they showed the lowest preferences for heavy metal music and paintings that represented motives of violence and cultures of the world. With regard to the relationship between music and visual art preferences, classical music preferences were positively related to preferences for all visual art motives, while preferences for jazz and world music were positively related to visual art preferences of all motives except religious. Heavy metal music preferences were related to preferences for all motives except landscapes, and popular music preferences were positively associated with religious motives and landscapes. The results of this study suggest a relatively modest contribution of personality traits in explaining music and visual art preferences, although traits for intellect, sensation seeking, and agreeableness were shown to be significant predictors in many instances.