The purpose of this investigation was to examine stressors associated with a family member's death, i.e., “secondary stressors”. One hundred and twenty one people who had suffered the bereavement of a spouses answered questionnaires concerning secondary stressors (Bereavement Secondary Stressors Scale: BSSS) and psychosomatic health (General Health Questionnaire Japanese Version, 28 items: GHQ-28). The results of factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed that BSSS consisted of five main factors: “Financial problems”, “Trouble with other people”, “Incidental tasks during bereavement”, “Deterioration of family relationships” and “Difficulties in daily life”. The results indicated that secondary stressors of bereavement, with the exception of “Financial problems”, influence psychosomatic health. Furthermore, psychosomatic health may deteriorate as a result of secondary stressors after conjugal loss, in addition to the deterioration caused by the loss of the spouse per se. Females tended to experience more “Financial problems” and “Incidental tasks during bereavement”. Conversely, males tended to face more “Difficulties in daily life”. The implications of these findings to bereavement care are discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that negative rumination is one of the vulnerabilities to depression in college students (N = 513; N = 360). We compared the relationship between the severity of previous depressive episodes and negative rumination, with the relationship between the severity of previous depressive episodes and the other well-known psychological vulnerabilities to depression (perfectionism, melancholic personality, and attribution style). The results indicated that negative rumination was more closely related to the severity of previous depressive episodes than the other variables. This finding suggests that negative rumination is a significant factor leading to depression.

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The present study examined the relationship between guilt and shame, and their relationship to mental health. Three hundred twenty-nine Japanese university students answered the Situational Guilt Inventory (SGI), the Situational Shyness Questionnaire (SSQ), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to predict mental health from guilt and shame. It indicated that social activity disorders were negatively predicted from ‘shame-free, pure’ guilt and positively predicted from ‘guilt-free, pure’ shame. SEM also revealed that ‘guilt-free, pure’ shame positively predicted anxiety and sleeplessness. It is suggested that guilt has a socially adaptive function. By contrast, maladaptive behaviors result from shame. The relationship between shame and depressive tendencies were limited to men. Sex differences are discussed in terms of the adaptive functions of shame.

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The present study was conducted to develop an Anger Arousal and Lengthiness Scale (AALS), and to investigate its validity and reliability. The AALS was designed to measure individual differences in proneness to anger arousal and the tendency towards maintaining anger over a long period. These tendencies are considered to be risk factors for ischemic heart disease. Two hundred and sixty two college students participated in the study. A factor analysis of 13 items included in the AALS yielded two factors, proneness to anger arousal and tendency toward anger lengthiness. Both Cronbach's alpha coefficient and test-retest correlation were high enough to support the reliability of the AALS. The validity of the scale was established by significant correlations of this scale with both the Japanese version of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and the anger scale of the Cornell Medical Index. The utility of the AALS was discussed in the context of the relationships between emotion and health.

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