Matt Lee, Phd, full professor
Threats to Higher Education and Psychology in the US
In this keynote lecture, Dr. Matt Lee discusses the politics of teaching psychology in the US given nationwide threats to education and their harmful effects on free speech, intergroup dialogue, and academic freedom. Lee reviews challenges in the classroom and at institutions navigating how to function while preserving an ethical duty to the profession of psychology, what the experience has been like for faculty and students in 2025, and adaptations and adjustments to teaching in the current environment. Lee concludes with examples of individual and institutional efforts to resist the anti-educational attacks and persevere.
Matt Lee has been a university professor for 17 years, with a background in clinical/community psychology and specialty areas in cross-cultural psychology and ethnic identity and conflict. He has taught psychology at the University of Zadar, and has led a study abroad program in Croatia and Bosnia about the 90s wars in ex-Yugoslavia and post-conflict reconstruction efforts. His research focuses on Asian American mental health, campus climate, and classroom pedagogy. He is currently an associate editor at the Asian American Journal of Psychology.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zrinka Greblo Jurakić
The hidden cost of sporting success: Characteristics, consequences, and prevention of violence in sport
It is well established that engaging in sport can substantially benefit the physical and mental health of children and adolescents. Yet research exploring the links between sports participation and different aspects of young athletes’ psychosocial well-being has yielded inconsistent findings. This indicates that the positive effects of sport should not be assumed, nor do they emerge automatically. As a result, alongside efforts to understand the factors that foster sport’s beneficial potential, growing attention is being directed toward identifying those factors that may adversely affect athletes’ physical and mental health, performance, and motivation to remain involved in sport. Recent research shows that the link between participation in organised sport and the psychosocial well-being of young athletes is shaped to a great extent by the quality of interpersonal relationships within the team, the value system upheld by the club or organisation, and the characteristics of the wider social environment. Evidence also indicates that in sport settings dominated by a strong win-at-all-costs mentality, the developmental and educational functions of sport are frequently overshadowed. In such contexts, various forms of violent behaviour are often justified as a “positive” drive toward achieving superior results. The lecture will present research findings on the harmful consequences of the “end justifies the means” approach, as well as data on the prevalence, characteristics, and consequences of different forms of violence in youth sport in Croatia. The empirical insights will be interpreted in the context of attitudes and beliefs that contribute to the emergence of violence and higher tolerance of violent behaviour in sports settings. The lecture will also showcase various initiatives in Croatia aimed at safeguarding children’s right to participate in sport in a safe, non-violent, and supportive environment.
Zrinka Greblo Jurakić completed her undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (University of Zagreb). She spent several years working at the Faculty of Kinesiology and is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Croatian Studies (University of Zagreb), where she teaches courses in social psychology, motivation, and the psychology of sport and exercise. Her research primarily focuses on sports psychology, particularly the positive and negative effects of participation in organised sports, prevention of violence in sport, and factors contributing to girls’ lower participation and higher dropout rates in sport. She plays an active role in both national and international projects and campaigns dedicated to raising awareness and promoting education on the importance of safe and supportive sporting environments. She is a member of the Council of Europe’s international Safe Sport expert team, the European Handball Federation’s expert group for sport psychology, and the Commission for the Protection of Children in Sport of the Croatian Olympic Committee. Her scientific contributions have been recognised with multiple awards, including the 2024 Ramiro Bujas Psychology Award of the Croatian Psychological Association, granted for outstanding contributions to the public promotion and advancement of psychology.
Marina Vidović
From our side of the couch – Promoting a culture of recovery
In an effort to reduce marginalisation, stigma, and social exclusion of people with mental health difficulties, and drawing on our own lived experience as an organisation founded by and for individuals with mental health conditions, we have developed several projects offering a PACKAGE OF FREE PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT SERVICES in the community. Our GOAL is to improve the quality of life of people living with mental illness and to support their social inclusion through activities that enable them to draw on their own skills, experiences, creativity, and abilities, while making a positive contribution and feeling valued within their community. Through a range of work and volunteer initiatives, participants have the opportunity to create meaningful impact, seek and receive support throughout their recovery, and, in time, become part of the support network for others.
Marina Vidović is the president and founder of the Association for the Promotion of Mental Health Feniks Split, which provides free support services to individuals with mental health difficulties in Split-Dalmatia County. From the outset, her vision was for the organisation to be predominantly led by individuals who themselves face such challenges, in order to collectively address the shortcomings of the existing system and offer high-quality community-based support programmes. Through numerous community projects, she works to amplify the voices and restore the agency of people whose personal power is often diminished as a result of psychiatric diagnoses. Her efforts promote hope, confidence, recovery, and the possibility of living a meaningful and fulfilling life. She has personal lived experience with mental illness and is a trained peer-support specialist – the first certified Intentional Peer Support trainer in Croatia. She holds the Core Training Certificate in eCPR – Community-Based Support in Emotional Crisis (Daniel Fisher, MD, PhD), as well as the QualityRights Training Certificate: Mental Health, Human Rights & Recovery issued by the World Health Organization. In recognition of her activist and humanitarian work in the community, she was nominated for the Fierce Woman Award in 2021, and for the 2024 national T-portal Visionary of the Year award, where she was a finalist in the Social Impact category. She serves as a civil society representative on the Social Council of the City of Split and is a member of the Ministry of Justice’s Commission for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities.
Prof. Dr. Daniela Šincek
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences OsijekChallenges of Growing Up in a Digital World: Risky Online Behaviours Among Youth
Risky behaviour in digital environments encompasses various communicational and behavioural risks arising from the growing integration of digital contexts in the daily lives and developmental pathways of young people. The lecture will present insights from research conducted over the past decade, with a particular focus on cyberbullying, sexting, problematic internet use, and excessive gaming. The research draws on general theoretical frameworks, most notably Jessor’s problem-behaviour theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, which provide a basis for understanding how individual, family and peer factors shape digital habits and behavioural patterns as well as more specific conceptual models, such as Caplan’s social-skills model of generalized problematic internet use, and Griffiths’ components model of excessive gaming. Findings consistently highlight empathy as a key protective factor against cyberbullying, whereas low self-esteem, heightened susceptibility to peer pressure, and gender-specific patterns increase the likelihood of engaging in both cyberbullying and risky forms of sexting. Family support and the quality of parent–child relationships further buffer these risks and foster safer digital practices. A developmental perspective is of particular importance for future research and practice: the young people who were at the centre of earlier studies are now entering the period of emerging adulthood. This raises questions about the continuity and transformation of digital behaviours during the transition to adult life, as well as how these behaviours may shape digital practices and norms from the standpoint of future parents of the next generations of digital natives.
Prof. Dr. Daniela Šincek is a Full Professor of Social Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, where she has worked since 2006, following several years at the Social Welfare Centre. She served as Head of the Department of Psychology (2014–2016) and Director of the Centre for Internet and Society (2019–2021). She has led numerous scientific and professional projects, has been a certified court expert in psychology since 2012, and since 2024 she runs her own private psychological practice. She completed her undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies in social psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and is currently in training in transactional analysis. Her research focuses on risky behaviours in digital contexts, particularly cyberbullying, sexting, problematic internet use, and excessive gaming. She has published around 40 papers in national and international journals. Her projects, both national and European, are dedicated to understanding and preventing digital risk behaviours. She currently leads the project “Digital ADAPTation of Emerging Adults – Adjustment to Digital and Educational Environments in the Context of Mental Health and Risk Behaviour” (D-ADAPT) funded under the NPOO call. She is an active member of the Croatian Psychological Chamber and the Croatian Psychological Association, a reviewer for academic journals, and continuously advances her expertise in psychological assessment, therapy, and violence prevention.