The period of studying is a time of actualization of the capacities of the individual in almost every aspect of life. The students face changes related to the stage of development they are going through, and to which new requests of adaptation are added during professional qualification. The increased rate of psychological problems shows a necessity for existence of student services that provide psychological help. The research results point out the positive effect of counseling and the importance of university coun­seling services for the students, the effect on their academic success, subjective welfare and their remaining at the faculty. The pilot-project 'Psychological Counseling Center for Students' at the University of Nis is one of the largest and most permanent projects of this kind among univer­sities of the region. The services of the counseling are completely free, and they are realized through three sectors: Counseling, Education and the Research Sector. Work reports of The Counseling service show that there is a need for this kind of psychological services and that the students are interested in attending seminars and debates where different aspects of mental health would be considered. The institutionalization of the above mentioned project, with the possible expansion of the network of psychological counseling services of this type in the region would give greater effects and contribute to the more comprehensive work concerning protection and improvement of the mental health of the students not only in Serbia, but also in surrounding countries.

The aim of this study was to determine differences in intensity of anxiety and depressiveness, as well as the frequency of the clinically relevant form of these emotions, in students exposed to warfare during childhood. The study included 324 students from Serbia and Kosovo, 18–25 years of age. At the time of the clashes (in 1999), their ages ranged from 6 to 13 years. We used a general questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory I (BDI-I), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Approximately two thirds of the examinees had clinically significant anxiety, while one third had clinically significant depressiveness. Females had a higher intensity of anxiety (16.22 vs. 11.6; p < .001) and depressiveness (9.57 vs. 7.05; p = .004) than males. Examinees who reported war-related experiences (WREs) from two or three types of events had more intense anxiety (p = .013) and depressiveness (p = .013) than a group with one or no WREs. There was an association between WREs during childhood and anxiety as well as depression in adolescence that was more prominent in females.

Introduction/Aim: Procrastination includes intentional postponing of either starting or finalizing a task and is one of the most important aspects of an academic achievement. The aim of this paper was to examine the possibility of procrastination prediction based on the values of certain personality traits and negative affective states (anxiety, depression, stress) in students. Methods: The research was conducted over a sample of 900 high-school students from 9 high schools in Nis. The sample included the high school students attending the 3rd and 4th grade. The research included the following instruments: The Big Five Inventory (BIF), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), as well as the Procrastination Scale. Results: The model consisting of personality traits is a statistically meaningful predictor of procrastination. Prediction variables found to be statistically significant are Neuroticism, as a positive correlate of procrastination, as well as Conscientiousness, as a negative correlate. None of the negative affectivity dimensions (anxiety, depressiveness and stress) has partially shown to be a significant predictor. Conclusion: The lack of conscientiousness can be considered to be the core of procrastination, whereas neuroticism, i.e. some of is facets, such as anxiety, may be encouragement to avoid a task. Obtained research results may be used as suggestions to psychological institutions in schools as to which factors are significant for perceiving procrastination problems with students.

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between academic performance and certain dimensions (components) of classroom climate (teacher-student interaction, social climate, fear of failure, and emotional climate), as well as the relationship between classroom climate components and sociodemographic variables. The sample included 180 sixth and eighth grade students from elementary schools in Leskovac. For the purposes of this study we used the Presence scale of classroom climate components and the General questionnaire created for this research. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant correlation between the classroom climate components and academic performance. Boys had higher scores when it came to the “social climate” component, while “fear of failure” was more expressed among girls. Younger students had higher scores with regard to the “teacher-student interaction” component and “emotional climate” component than the older ones .These results are partly in line with some previous studies and emphasize that it is very important to take into account the classroom climate that students are learning in, which may indirectly affect students’ academic performance.

The main aim of this research is to examine the predictive power of personality traits, as defined by the Big five model of personality in expressing depression, anxiety, and stress with secondary school students of final years. The research was conducted on a sample of 977 secondary school students in the third and fourth grade from ten secondary schools in Niš. The gender structure of the sample was as follows: 397 boys and 607 girls. The following instruments were used in the research: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), Big Five Inventory - BFI (John, Donahue and Kentle, 1991). The results showed that the regression model constructed by personal traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to experience) explain 26% of the criterion variable of Anxiety. The largest individual contribution to the prediction of this variable is achieved by the personal trait Neuroticism (β=.34, p<0.01 ). Other personal traits that contribute to the prediction of this variable at a statistically significant level are Extraversion (β =-.17, p<0.01), Agreeableness (β =-.14, p<0.01) and Conscientiousness (β =-.17, p<0.01). The same model explains 37% of the criterion variable Stress. The largest individual contribution to Stress prediction is achieved by the personal trait Neuroticism (β =.57, p<0.01). The same model explains 27% of the criterion variable Anxiety as well. The largest individual contribution to the prediction of this variable is achieved by the personal trait Neuroticism (β =.45, p<0.01), whereas a statistically significant correlation between personal traits Agreeableness (β =-.06, p<0.05) and Conscientious (β =-.12, p<0.01) exists. Results show that the difference between boys and girls in expressing Anxiety (t=-2.96, p<0.01) and Stress (t=-5.01, p<0.01) exists. These emotional states are more expressive with girls. However, there are no differences in expressing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress with secondary school students of the third and fourth grade on the examined sample.

This paper was aimed at examining the structure and expression of national identity among secondary school students (N=568) in different towns in Serbia, its relation to self-esteem and achievement motive, as well as the differences regarding socio-demographic characteristics (sex and place of residence). The instruments used are the Scale of National Identity NAIT, the Global Self-Esteem Scale, and the Scale to Measure Achievement Motive MOP2002. The results have shown that the values of national identity are above the theoretical average and significantly higher than the values recorded among the adolescents in an earlier study. Among general characteristics of their own nation, secondary school students value culture more than history, character traits and state institutions (lowest-ranked in comparison to all other characteristics), finding that courage is the most pronounced individual characteristic, while the least pronounced one is hypocrisy. A positive correlation of national identity with self-esteem and achievement motive was obtained, whereas achievement motive is also a significant national identity predictor. Significant differences were found in the expression of national identity among secondary school students in relation to their place of residence (secondary school students from Belgrade have a higher level of national identity in comparison to their peers from Niš and Kosovska Mitrovica).