Background: Master’s students have been affected by COVID-19 and the changing study conditions due to the lockdown. The aim was to uncover changes in emotions, coping strategies, and psychological well-being during a pandemic. Methods: Ryff scale, multidimensional emotion questionnaire, and Brief COPE scale. Participants: sample of 118 master’s students after the first wave and 128 master’s students after the second wave. Results: After the second wave of COVID-19, the happy, enthusiastic, and inspired scores of the emotion construct components increased statistically significantly (p < 0.05), but the scores of the components sad, afraid, angry, ashamed, and anxious decreased significantly (p < 0.05). After the first wave, students commonly used planning, positive reframing, self-blame, humor, and acceptance coping strategies, which are classified as problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. The psychological well-being of master’s students after the second wave was statistically (p < 0.05) better than that after the first wave in many indicators. Environment mastery skills did not change significantly. Significant associations were revealed between the same components of psychological well-being, emotion, and coping strategies. Conclusions: This study showed that the master’s students improved their adaptive abilities probably in the environment of long-term exposure to coronavirus disease, as most psychological well-being indicators improved significantly after the second wave.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the peculiarities of undergraduate studies university student-athletes’ emotional intelligence and self-control indicators, and the role of gender as a predictor in the association between emotional intelligence and self-control. The study included students regularly involved in training at least three times a week. The sample consisted of 1395 student athletes from Lithuanian universities, among them 59.2% female and 40.8% male. For measurement, the SSRI inventory and a self-control scale were used. All values of emotional intelligence indicators were significantly higher for males than females. Estimates of the components of the self-control construct varied. The score for the healthy habits component was significantly higher for women than for men, the self-discipline component did not differ significantly, and the other three components were higher for males. Estimates of the components of the self-control construct varied. Models for predicting the values of self-control components were proposed. Only one component of the emotional intelligence construct, optimism, was repeated in all forecasting models, as well as gender. Other components of emotional intelligence vary in models.

The aim of this study was to develop a transducer for non-invasive temperature measurement in deeper tissue layers during tissue cooling. Simulation of the temperature field distribution in human tissues and the transducer were done, and the influence of transducer structure and material properties were studied. Using simulation results, the experimental transducer was designed for temperature measurement in deeper tissue layers during cooling. The temperature measurements with the needle thermometer and the transducer were well correlated at both before tissue cooling r = 0.723 and after cooling r = 0.945, and the temperature difference was no more than ±0.2 °C.

Background. Socio-cultural pressure exerted by the environment and the media makes the majority of women take care of their bodies. That is especially true in Western culture which promotes slimmer women in recent decades. Methods. Two questionnaires were used in this research: Body Shape Questionnaire and Sense of Coherence scale. Research participants were 79 women aged 34.6 ± 3.76 years. Results. After six months of regular fitness classes women’s satisfaction of their body and their sense coherence level improved significantly. Relations between body shape dissatisfaction and sense of coherence, body shape dissatisfaction and manageability, comprehensibility and manageability were found. Conclusions. Systematic fitness training positively affects women’s satisfaction with their body. Understanding of the capability of controlling their body shape was improved. There was a significant relationship between dissatisfaction with their body shape and sense of coherence. The effect of physical activity improved the values of all three components of the sense of coherence construct. The values of comprehensibility, meaningfulness and manageability indicators show that respondents may already have a better control of their sense of coherence.

Background. E-learning is a new paradigm of modern teaching methods. The aim of the paper was to reveal the university students’ attitudes towards e-learning.Methods. Research sample involved undergraduate (first cycle) and postgraduate (second cycle) students of three different universities, 156 men and 278 women. Questionnaire was comprised of 60 questions and statements.Results. Research reveals that 40% of undergraduates and 42% of postgraduates positively treat e-learning as the method of study content presentation; 23% of undergraduate and 38% postgraduate students believe that study content presented in e-learning environment helps them focus attention; 61% of the undergraduates and 59% of postgraduate students claim that materials accessible in e-learning environment are relevant to their studies. Even 37% of undergraduates and 34% of postgraduates are completely satisfied with their study results achieved by studying materials presented in e-learning environment. Attitudes of male and female students and students from different universities differ significantly (p < .05). About 40% of undergraduate and 36% of postgraduate students believe that studying via e-learning is easier than studying based on traditional methods, 48% and 44% respectively think that it is harder. The majority, i.e. 59% of undergraduates and 52% of postgraduates, prefer blended learning methods. About 42% of first cycle students and 43% of second cycle students disagree or partly disagree with the claim that studies via e-learning and studies based on traditional methods do not differ in respect of their quality; 38% of undergraduate and 42% of postgraduate students believe that e-learning and traditional methods lead to the acquisition of the same competences. Students who have part-time jobs and students who have full-time jobs have significantly different (p < .05) attitudes towards competences acquired via e-learning and via traditional methods. The opinion that the same competences are acquired via e-learning and via traditional methods is more common among full-time workers. Students (45% of undergraduates and 37% of postgraduates) tend to believe that in the e-learning environment studies were organized as professionally, qualitatively and effectively as studies based on traditional methods. This view is opposed by 22% of undergraduate and 30% of postgraduate students.Conclusions. Students treat traditional (“live”) lectures more favourably than autonomous studies in the e-learning environment. They tend to believe that the blended learning method is the most acceptable. Male students’ and female students’ attitudes towards study results in the e-learning environment differ significantly. The majority believe that competences acquired via e-learning and the ones acquired via traditional methods do not differ.Keywords: undergraduate students, postgraduate students, e-learning, traditional study methods

Background. Teachers who are in favour of education of students with special needs (SEN) together with their peers (inclusive education) appreciate the role of parents in the education process of students. However, Čiuladienė and Paužienė (2012) indicate that the majority of Lithuanian general education schools are not sufficiently prepared for inclusive education.Methods. The sample consisted of 170 parents of students with SEN in grades 5–10. The scale of Parental Involvement in School was used to establish parental involvement in children’s education process. Results. The parent involvement levels in children’s education process were established using three five-point scales: Parent Involvement with Teacher/School – 1.60 points; Teacher Involvement with Parent – 2.22 points; Parent Involvement with Child’s Schoolwork – 3.03 points.More educated parents compared to parents with lower education indicated that communicating with teachers they really felt equal partners (χ 2 = 20.37, p < .001).Parents admit that better collaboration between parents and teachers can more encourage open and honest communication between them (63.5%). A little less than three-quarters of parents often or very often received information from teachers about their children’s learning and behaviour. Parents who claimed to have sufficient knowledge of educating their children sometimes indicated that they needed teachers and other professionals to help them with their children’s development problems (χ 2 = 14.11, p < .001).Conclusions. Most parents were involved in the education of pupils with SEN at home but they were little involved in their children’s educational process at school and other school activities.Keywords: student, special education needs, parent, teacher.