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Behavioural Disorders

toringchangesthat wouldprovideguidelinesfordeterminingcurrent needs,
with a projection into the future of that area. The data were collected based
on an insight into five major studies of behavioural problems in the area of
Pula, the largest Istrian city in Croatia, during the last forty years, as part of
the previously mentioned research or projects. Samples of examinees were
described in the previous chapter. There were written traces of studies earlier
(Singer1980),but no common characteristicscouldbefoundforcomparison.
The data were processed and analysed on the basis of relative frequencies,
chain indexes (Vt) and projections (Y), which were used to calculate more
detailed changes in the state of phenomena in successive periods.
The observed research variables are:

– earlier records and interventions,
– broken family relationships,
– running away from school,
–inadequate use of free time,
– excessive alcohol consumption,
– aggressiveness.

Results and Discussion
Looking at the trends in individual forms of behavioural disorders over the
last forty years (table 1), the last observed year, 2018, stands out immedi-
ately. It is significantly different from all other observed years. These find-
ings are, in part, not surprising, due to the reason that this research, unlike
all previous ones, was conducted on a regular population of students, with
no behavioural disorders recorded up to that time. Above all, this can be
seen from the missing information, that the fact that there were no previous
records and interventions was stated by the students themselves. Also, con-
sidering the sample, it was expected that these examinees would run away
from school less and be less aggressive. The same year, this time in a nega-
tive sense, stands out in the area of alcohol abuse, which actually indicates
the alarming fact that alcohol abuse is very high among children whom we
consider to be properly developed, i.e. without recorded behavioural disor-
ders.
Observing the trends of the previous years (1984, 1994, 1998 and 2008), the
course in all observed forms of behavioural disorders is relatively uniform,
with minor deviations over the years. The number of previously registered
examinees and those for whom interventions have already been undertaken
showsadownwardtrend.About halfoftheobservedexamineeswith already

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