Ines Sučić

This study aimed to preliminarily investigate work-related stress, habits related to seeking psychological support, and awareness regarding the availability of psychological support within the prison system among correctional officers in Croatia. Data were collected within a larger ongoing project, and we present the findings here for 761 correctional officers (85% male). Generally, correctional officers in our sample assess their job as somewhat stressful, with males indicating higher levels of workrelated stress and work-life imbalance than females. Threefifths of correctional officers in our sample reported that they did not require psychological support, with no observed gender differences. Although three-fifths of correctional officers in our sample reported knowing how and where to seek psychological support within the system, almost half of those who indicated a need for psychological support did not pursue it. Correctional officers who reported experiencing more stress expressed more need for psychological support but less knowledge of how to seek psychological support within the system. Moreover, correctional officers with more work experience report a greater need for psychological support, and higher workrelated stress and work-life imbalance. The obtained results highlight the importance of raising awareness about psychological support for correctional officers in the Croatian penal system.

This study examined the structural organization of relations between personality nuances and different types of criminal offenses using an item–offense approach. The sample consisted of 592 male prisoners in Croatia ( M _age = 39.55 years, SD _age = 11.16). Network analysis showed a central role of the nervousness nuance in offending and recidivism, as well as its importance in distinguishing between violent and nonviolent offenses. Nervousness was positively associated with violent offenses but negatively with nonviolent ones. Moreover, trustworthiness also emerged as a central nuance for violent offenses, while thoroughness and laziness were key for nonviolent offenses. Overall, this study offers valuable insight into the relations between personality and criminal behavior using an item-level approach.

Despite the growing demand for care economy employees (e.g., nurses, teachers, and social workers), men remain underrepresented in these careers. While economically developed countries support more equal rights for women and men, their labor markets are highly gender segregated (Charles, 1992, 2003). We conducted a focused investigation of this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, testing whether gender gaps in care economy career interest are larger in more economically developed countries and, if so, what psychological and cultural factors underlie these patterns. We examined these questions with labor data from 70 countries (Study 1) and a preregistered study of career interests among 19,240 university students from 49 countries (Study 2). Although more economically developed countries tend to promote greater gender equality, our results reveal that the gender gap in care economy representation (Study 1) and interest (Study 2) is especially large in such countries. We did not observe parallel patterns for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics representation or interest. Results from Study 2 supported an integrated theoretical account of this development paradox in care economy interest: Cross-national variation in the gender gap in care economy interest was predicted by country-level variation in economic development and individualism/collectivism but not by self-expression values or country-level gender equality, countering prior (controversial) claims of a gender equality paradox. Furthermore, larger gender gaps in communal values (e.g., men's lower valuing of helping and caring for others) were a proximal predictor of larger gender gaps in care economy interest in highly economically developed countries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Prison social climate represents enduring social, emotional, organisational and physical characteristics of a correctional institution as perceived by inmates and correctional staff. Prison social climate may be attributed partly to the shared environment and common characteristics of individual prisoners in the unit/prison. It is assumed that prison social climate also exerts lasting, post-incarceration effects. Thus, this study aims to describe the potential criminogenic impacts of different prison social climate dimensions on prisoners' behaviour within prison and upon release. Among reviewed prison social climate dimensions, observed staff-prisoner relationships, prisoner-to-prisoner relationships, and observed levels of safety are considered the most important determinants of prison social climate. Despite the conceptual and methodological diversity of the reviewed studies, it could be concluded that prisoners who rated their institutional experiences more negatively, especially in terms of in-prison relationships and security, were more likely to misbehave in prison and were more likely to (re)offend.

In Croatian prisons, there is a relatively high prevalence of offenders convicted for abuse of narcotic drugs (Art173/2, CC/97) who are heterogeneous in terms of their characteristics. Determining the relationship between the characteristics of those offenders and their behaviour before and during the execution of prison sentences helps predict their future behaviour. Therefore, this study aims to determine the profile of perpetrators of crimes related to the abuse of narcotic drugs, to investigate potential differences among subgroups of these perpetrators, and to examine whether they differ in the assessed risk for future criminal behaviour/probability of recidivism, penitentiary opinion on conditional release (CR), and Conditional release Committee decision on CR. We analysed penitentiaries’ reports with the opinion on CR for 111 male drug abuse offenders (Mage = 31; SDage = 6.51), containing rich data related to various offenders’ characteristics and behaviours. Specifically, we analysed offenders’ socio-demographic and anamnestic data, previous convictions, imposed security measures with sentence, proposed special obligations with CR, elements from the individual programs for the execution of prison sentence, mitigating and aggravating circumstances of committing the crime, positive reasons in prisoners’ application for CR, and penitentiaries’ explanations in support of the prisoners’ application for CR. The conducted cluster analysis did not show statistically significant differences between subgroups of offenders in the assessed risk for future criminal behaviour/probability of recidivism, penitentiary opinion on CR, and Conditional release Committee decision on CR, but there were low to moderate correlations between specific offenders' characteristics and these variables.

The psychosocial climate in prison refers to the extent to which the whole institution is perceived safe for prisoners and prison officers and supportive of rehabilitation and behaviour change. It encompasses the institution's social, emotional, organisational, and physical determinants and is important for prisoners and prison officers. Moreover, tracking the psychosocial climate can be used to indicate changes and evaluate treatment programs. Compared to other countries, there is a lack of systematic research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons, and the existing research focuses more on the prisoners than the prison officers' perspective. The perceived psychosocial climate in prison officers is, among others, related to attitudes about work tasks, interactions with co-workers and prisoners, job satisfaction, well-being, motivation and job performance, stress, and burnout. Thus, this paper aims to provide an overview of research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian from the prison officers' perspective. Furthermore, the findings from the project Psychosocial climate in prisons – prisoners' and prison officers' perspective conducted in 2017 in Croatian penal institutions (seven penitentiaries and 14 prisons), focusing on prison officers' perspective (N = 699), will be discussed. Finally, methodological and practical issues related to research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons will be considered.

The Dark Tetrad personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) have been continuously linked to various deficits in affective reactivity. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of the Dark Tetrad and processing of emotional pictures. A total of 144 participants (56.9% female, Mage = 22.18, SDage = 2.26) completed measures of the Dark Tetrad, and rated pictures selected form the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), classified in accordance with their norms into highly arousing positive and negative. Affective processing measures included participants' valence and arousal ratings, while cognitive processing was measured my means of the response latency for each response. The results showed that the dark traits were related only to valence, but not arousal ratings. Higher narcissism and lower sadism were associated with more positive valence ratings of positive pictures, and higher sadism was associated with more positive ratings of negative pictures. Moreover, higher Machiavellianism predicted faster assessment of valence and arousal of both positive and negative pictures, and higher sadism predicted slower assessment of negative pictures' valence. Obtained results indicate that deficiencies in affective processing are more pronounced in sadism compared to other dark traits, while Machiavellianism is associated with advantages in cognitive processing, highlighting their significance and uniqueness in the Dark Tetrad constellation.

The interest in the so-called dark traits in the area of individual differences is rising, and there are several instruments assessing currently the most prominent dark traits constellation, the Dark Tetrad. The first aim of this study was to examine the structure of the newly developed Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) measure in the Croatian context using latent variable modeling and testing two competing models: the confirmatory factor analytic model with four interrelated factors where items load only on their respective trait or factor, and the bifactor model with both the general “dark” factor where all the items load on and four specific orthogonal factors on which only their respective items load. The second aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Dark Tetrad traits and egoistic and moralistic socially desirable responding. Data were collected on a convenience sample of 439 participants (81% female) in Croatia. The results showed that, although some of the fit statistics of both tested models fell somewhat below the conventional acceptable fit threshold, their values were comparable to those from the original validation study, indicating that the Croatian version of SD4 is valid and can be used to assess the Dark Tetrad traits. Moreover, relations between the Dark Tetrad traits and egoistic and moralistic socially desirable responding point to the distinctiveness of narcissism from the rest of the Dark Tetrad.

The aim of this study was to provide deeper insight into the relationship between pet-related life events and the subjective wellbeing of pet owners, as well as to analyze definitions of happiness that included reference to pets. This research was conducted online as a part of the Croatian Longitudinal Study on Wellbeing (CRO-WELL). For the purposes of this study, the following variables were selected: overall happiness, life satisfaction, subjective ratings of health, and the occurrence and parameters (positivity, negativity, importance, anticipation) of two pet-related life events: acquiring a pet and the death of a pet during the previous year. Additionally, of a pool of lay people’s definitions of happiness (n = 4,059), those containing a reference to pets (n = 89) were analyzed. The total sample consisted of 5,034 participants, of whom 658 acquired a pet in the past year, 272 experienced the death of a pet, and an additional 221 experienced both events. Participants who experienced the death of a pet during the previous year were significantly less happy and satisfied compared with those who did not obtain a pet and did not experience the death of a pet in the previous year. Overall happiness was weakly positively correlated with positive evaluations of obtaining a pet and the importance of obtaining a pet. The anticipation of the death of a pet was positively related to positive evaluations of the death of the animal, suggesting an adaptation process took place before the death. Participants who attributed less importance to an event were more likely to experience positive events (obtaining a pet) as less positive and negative events (death of a pet) as less negative. Participants who anticipated an event evaluated it as more positive and less negative. Out of 4,059 participants who provided definitions of happiness, 89 (2.2%) of them included pets in these definitions. Over half of them referred to the pet as the most important member of the family or was equal to other family members, while in the remaining definitions pets were only a part/fragment of a broader definition of happiness. Participants referred mostly to dogs or used the generic word “pet,” while cats, the only animal named beside dogs, were mentioned in only a few cases. Greeting the owner was the most frequently mentioned activity, while the joy of a pet and unconditional love were the most frequently mentioned emotions.