This paper reviewed developmental studies on children in infancy, early, and middle childhood conducted over the previous year in Japan. The review covers research papers published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology, The Japanese Journal of Psychology, and Japanese Psychological Research from July 2020 to June 2021, and the poster presentations of The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology, held in 2021. After analyzing the overall characteristics of the papers presented at The 63rd Annual Meeting from the "Development" category, the research papers were categorized into four topics focusing on the social context (s) of child development: (a) studies related to the interpersonal context, (b) studies related to the family context, (c) studies related to the school context, and (d) studies related to the multiple contexts. The findings from the papers are highlighted, and future directions in terms of several perspectives, including research methods, types of participants, and importance of theory, are discussed.

  This paper reviews developmental studies on adolescence into old age over the past year. Several studies on adolescence and beyond have been practical research intended to solve specific problems. However, the number of studies on developmental phenomena are decreasing.

  Presentations from The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology indicated numerous studies on parent-adolescent relationships. Although several studies on the effects of COVID-19 are mentioned, they were related to its short-term effects on adaptation and behavior. Moreover, the results of studies on the long-term effects on development are a future issue.

  In addition, problems related to web surveys as a research method and the misuse of statistical analysis are discussed.

  This paper reviews recent research on teaching, learning, and cognition, focusing on the articles published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology from 2020 to 2021 and the research presented at The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology held in August 2021. Focusing on "collaborative learning" as the perspective of the review, we organized the studies into categories related to learners, teachers, and learning design. As a result, it is shown that research on collaborative learning had accumulated in all categories. In addition, as future prospects and issues, the following were identified: for learners, clarification of what is nurtured through collaborative learning over the long term; for teachers, clarification of practical knowledge to create issues to be handled in collaborative learning; and for learning design, clarification of more flexible collaborative learning design and learners' learning in it.

  The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of recent trends in educational and social psychology research and bullying research. In the first section of the paper, educational and social psychology research published in The Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology and The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, from July 2020 to June 2021, are reviewed. In the second part of the paper, trends in research on bullying from The Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology and The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology published over a 12-year period from 2010 to June 2021 are reviewed. Finally, the definition of bullying, cyberbullying in schools, and prospects for future research into bullying are discussed.

  The focus of this article is on reviewing studies on personality by Japanese researchers that were published and/or reported over the period from July 2020 to June 2021. It aims to discuss further developments in the personality research area. All of the research studies were arranged within a framework along four viewpoints: (1) studies dealing with personality traits comprehensively, (2) individual differences in psychological constructs or traits of personality, (3) social attitudes, and (4) development of personality and its relation to social adjustment and mental health. The following four points were found to be current research trends in personality studies, and their future directions are discussed. First, studies using meta-analysis or the secondary use of big data increase our understanding of personality traits, and further investigations using these methods are expected. Second, there were many studies related to a construct or a trait of personality multidirectionally, and the integration of these studies are needed. Third, it is important to investigate attitudes toward various social problems. Fourth, an emergence of studies focusing on the promising research themes of relationships among personality, social adjustment and metal health were found.

  This paper reviews current clinical psychological study trends published from July 2020 to the end of June 2021 and the poster presentations presented at The 62nd & 63rd Annual Meetings of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. The studies are classified by clinical psychological problems, clinical psychological interventions, and five major areas of clinical psychology. Next, issues related to research methods and research environments and areas and themes expected to be researched further are discussed.

  This study provided a perspective on future research in using ICT tools for students with learning disabilities toward guarantee and creation of their learning. To encourage the future research, the effects of using ICT for students with learning disabilities were organized by a mini-review of empirical and case studies. This study focused on evidence in the following five areas: reading (decoding, reading comprehension), writing (notetaking, spelling errors, expression), motivation, independence, and psychological well-being. Previous research findings suggest that ICT as assistive technology (e.g., text-to-speech, word processing, smart pen, idea art apps, speech-to-text, e-learning system) and use of strategy play an important role in guarantee and creation of learning for students with learning disabilities. Finally, this study prospected three important ICT research topics for students with learning disabilities in Japan: developing assessment and fitting, building evidence, and exploring school success factors.

  The purpose of this paper was to review research trends in the field of school psychology in educational psychology during the year from July 2020 to the end of June 2021 and to discuss the issues involved. First, the research trends of 65 presentations delivered in the "School Psychology (PG)" section of The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Educational Psychology are discussed. In the second half of the paper, 27 papers from three domestic Japanese journals related to school psychology were selected, and their research trends were summarized. Finally, trends in research methods of the reviewed papers and future issues are discussed.

  Path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used in 9 of the 24 papers published last year on quantitative studies in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology. Current trends in SEM application were investigated and the associated problems to promote SEM's correct understanding and application were examined. The results indicated a recent tendency to use more complex and advanced SEM models, including multi-group analysis and longitudinal and hierarchical data models. However, researchers using advanced methods must be accountable, and psychometric and assessment specialists must continue educational and instructional activities from the users' perspective so that applied researchers can correctly use these methods. It is hoped that academic societies will ensure the quality of peer-reviewed publications and prepare detailed publication manuals. It is suggested that applied and theoretical researchers and academic organizations continue to promote the appropriate use of SEM and other advanced statistical methods.

  The purposes of this review were to reveal trends in research about self-regulated learning (SRL) and related research areas and to suggest future perspectives of studies in Japan. In particular, the review focused on studies in school education. Fifty-two papers were extracted from a search through some leading Japanese journals (2011-2020). The review revealed that (a) the participants of studies ranged from elementary school to high school students, and most studies focused on English and mathematics, (b) few studies treated all of three major components (metacognition, motivation, and learning strategies), and (c) there was various research such as investigative research and practical intervention studies. From the review, it was predicted that the number of applied field research studies based on SRL theory would increase. The two future directions "research to create educational practices based on SRL theory" and "research to describe educational practices from the view of SRL theory" were suggested.

  Test accommodation is often requested to assess the learning outcomes and abilities of students with developmental disabilities. Evidence-based decision making is required for choosing appropriate test accommodations. The purpose of this article is to present guidelines for practice and directions for future research on test accommodations. A review of recent studies revealed that extended examination time is effective for students with developmental disabilities. Using personal computers for essay examinations is effective only if a student's typing skills are sufficient. Some research showed that it might take longer to take an examination with presentation accommodations such as larger print. Separate room accommodation is effective for some students but negatively effects others. Individual differences may be the reason for inconsistent research results and for making the selection of test accommodations difficult. Careful assessment of functional impairment is necessary for both practice and research.

  This paper examined issues in teaching introductory psychology in Japanese high schools. Psychology is taught as a component of the civics curriculum in high schools, not as a subject. In the U.S. and the U.K, high school psychology is a popular elective subject based on scientific psychology, making the goals of psychology education in these countries different from those in Japan. The psychological content in civics had remained unchanged for nearly 60 years, focusing on adolescent psychology and psychoanalysis as part of the European history of philosophy. Next, academic societies' efforts to solve these problems are discussed. In the new National Standard starting in 2022, content from psychology, such as individual differences, emotion, cognition, and development, has been introduced in the civics curriculum as "Ethics." Furthermore, content related to psychology is also addressed in other subjects, and the necessity of cross-subject learning is discussed. Finally, teachers' and students' needs for psychological education and future issues that psychologists and academic societies should resolve are considered.