Assuming an Aging Stress-Support Model, we analyzed the effect of aging stress on the mental health and roles of formal/informal support under aging stress circumstances. It was found that: 1) Mental health in the elderly is highly dependent on total scores of Activity of Daily Life (ADL): 2) Lack of instrumental and emotional support heavily affects on the elderly's mental health, and/or it is a major determining factor of subjective well being: 3) In formal support, perceived emotional support showed a major effect against loneliness. When instrumental support is low, subjects with high perceived emotional support showed lower subjective well being than those with low: 4) In informal support, contact frequency and intimacy with Social network (SNW) members showed a positive main effect on fulfillment. When instrumental support is low, low intimacy groups have lower scores in subjective well being than high intimacy groups. These results indicate that informal support plays a major role against aging stress, whereas formal support complements the rest, supporting our present thesis.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between life-style and mental, physical health among industrial workers. 794 workers completed WAC (Wellness Assistance Chart) as a measure of life-style, mental health, and physical health. The results revealed that those who work in service business exercise least of all businesses, and their state of mental health was worst. Those who work in transportation exercise much of all businesses, the researchers exercise much and take much care of daily exercise, and the salesman exercise least. In addition, the salesman smoke and drink much of all businesses. The implications of these findings for behavioral modification were discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sensation seeking and health risk behavior. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to university students (290 males and 264 females) in two universities. The questionnaire measured health risk behaviors, i.e. traffic-related risk behaviors, cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking. The sensation seeking scale-abstract expression including three subscales, a health locus of control, and a self-esteem scale were also measured in the questionnaire. Findings indicated that sensation seeking and the subscales were positively related to some traffic-related risk behaviors, especially in males, and that sensation seeking was moderately associated with cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking for both sexes. In addition, it was found that, as compared with health locus of control and self-esteem, sensation seeking was of moderate important personality trait in explaining health risk behavior. Finally some problems for future studies including health education were discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of general perceived control upon psychological stress process in junior high school students. Concurrently a hypothesis that affective response was first response in psychological stress process was set up. The presence of stressful experience, general perceived control scale for children, first affective response, coping behavior was administered to 193 junior high school students. The multiple regression analysis and ANOVA were applied to the data. The main resuluts were summarized as follows: (1)The influence of general perceived control upon confronting affective response was significant; (2)The influences of general perceived control and confronting affective response upon problem-orientd coping behavior were significant; (3)High general perceived control group manifested more confronting affective response than low perceived control group.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of aerobic exercise training on the cardiovascular-autonomic function and self-report evaluation in healthy Type A individuals. Seventy eight participants were first recruited by the local newspaper, and 14 male and 14 female individuals of them were chosen as subjects in this study by the Type A behabior pattern (TABP) questionnaire. Then, the subjects were randomly assigned to the 9-week aerobic exercise training (AE) and waiting-list control (WC) groups. The cardiovascular-autonomic function was assessed during the mental task by the spectral component analysis of electrocardiographic R-R interval variability for both subject groups prior to and following the training period. In addition, weight and ventilatory threshold (VT) as a physical fitness index were also compared between the pre- and post-training. Results revealed that while the AE group improved their VTs and decreased their weights following the training, the WC group didn't. The AE group showed a significantly greater power of high frequency obtained by the spectral component analysis after the 9 weeks compared to that prior to the training period, which indicated enhanced cardiovascular- parasympathetic (CP) function by the training. However, the AE group didn't show the improvement on the subscores of TABP. Some of the measures of perceived change had significantly greater scores for the AE group, relative to the WC group, after the training period. These results suggest that aerobic exercise training contributes to the enhancement of CP function and indirectly to the prevention of cardiovascular disease for Type A individuals, although it may not influence TABP itself.

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(1) How subjective emotional changes occur in the process of the relief of tension and (2) whether these changes depend on the disposition of the tension-causing events were examined. Tension-causing events were classified into　pleasant events and aversive ones. In order to rate emotion which subjects experienced at the tension-causing events, subjects were asked to draw curves on a questionnaire. The results showed that the levels of tension in both categories increased until the start of the event, decreased during the event and still further after the event. In the aversive events, the amplitude of the change was greater than that in the pleasant events. After aversive events were over, shifts toward opposite direction from tension to relaxation and from unpleasantness to pleasantness could be observed, while not in the favorable events. In conclusion, this study suggested that the emotional changes in the process of the relief of tension depend partly on the disposition of tension-causing events. The disposition of events influences to the amplitude and the shifts toward opposite direction of emotional changes.

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This paper describes the development of an instrument, the Nursing Job Stressor Scale (NJSS). The statements on the job stressors were identified from the literature and redesigned to describe nursing situations that result in stress. A 55-items questionnaire was administered to a sample of 568 hospital nurses. Nurses were asked to indicate on a 5-point scale how intensively they experienced such situations as stressful. Factor analysis using a principal factoring with a varimax rotation resulted in 7 subscales that closely paralleled the conceptual categories of stressor on which the scale was based. These subscales were: conflict with other nursing staffs, nursing role conflict, conflict with physicians and autonomy, death and dying, qualitative work load, quantitative work load, conflict with patients. By selecting 33 items, a new set of the Nursing Job Stressor Scale was developed. Test-retest reliability as well as internal consistency indicated that the seven subscales were reliable. Validity was determined by correlating the total score from the Nusring Stresssor Scale with measures of burnout. These examinations showed the usefulness of the scale.

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“The sense of a life worth-living” is a term valid for the analysis of adolescence as well as other periods in life, and it has been chosen as a research subject by many researchers. However, there has not been any study which includes making a scale. The present study, therefore, first makes a scale based on a series of researches; i, e. preparatory research by open ended question on “the sense of a life worth-living” secondary research to confirm the obtained data, and a main research to check the reliability and the validity of the scale drawn. Conclusively, a definition of the sense of a life worth-living is presented. As a result, the 49 types of “the sense of a life worth-living” adopted in the preparatory research was reduced to 42 types. In the main research where questionnaires faithfully prepared from the original were used, the number was further reduced to 31 types after item analysis mainly using factor analysis. At this time, the scale was made from a multidimentional structure of 4 factors. The value of criterion related validity is observed to be high, and a high reliability coefficient is also obtained by the test-retest method and the α coefficient. Drawn from the above results, the scale on “the sense of a life worth-living” consisting of 31 types has face validity, content validity, factor validity and creterion-related validity, hence it is a reliable scale. According to the present scale, “the definition of the sense of a life worth-living” among college students is that they are aware of the value of their exsistence, satisfied with the present situation and have a will to live. However, they also seem to believe that enjoying life also has the sense of a life worth-living.

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