Report “Family Relations in Croatia from the Youth Perspective“

To celebrate the International Day of Families the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb prepared a report “Family Relations in Croatia from the Youth Perspective“.

Family as a primary community has the strongest influence on the development of children and youth. Although often silenced and ignored, the voice of youth is crucial for the understanding of the quality of family relations in the Republic of Croatia.

The report was prepared based on a research that included 12,744 participants (3,899 pupils - 7th graders of elementary schools, and 8,845 third graders of secondary schools).

From the perspective of youth, the report answers the following questions:

• How much are youth in Croatia satisfied with the relationships with parents?
• How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the relations with family members?
• Does the use of digital technologies by youth affect the quality of their relations with family members?
• How much do youth trust their parents?

The results indicate:

• In Croatia, a large majoriy of youth express satisfaction with their relations with parents.
• For the majority of youth, the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a negative effect on relations with family members. Moreover, a part of youth find that the pandemic had a positive effect on family relations.
• The prevailing perspective of youth in both generations is that their personal use of digital technologies does not affect the quality of relations with family members.
• Youth in Croatia trust their parents strongly.
• Trust in other groups of people from the personal circle is much lower, which particularly refers to peers in class and neighbours.
• There are clear gender differences in youth perspectives on all measures, whereby girls give lower estimations.
• None of the measures showed regional differences among youth, pointing to a strong homogeneity of these generations' perspectives in various parts of Croatia, with regard to family relations.

The research report was prepared by Boris Jokić, PhD and Zrinka Ristić Dedić, PhD.

The report is part of the activities of the project “Changes in the Organization of the Educational Process caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Educational Experiences, Well-being and Aspirations of Pupils in Croatia“, financed by the Croatian Science Foundation.

The report is available at the link. (in Croatian)