The influence of perceived interparental commitment on self-affirmation in female adolescents was investigated. Participants (n=131) completed a questionnaire composed of interparental commitment, fulfillment and self-esteem. The Children's Perception of Interparental Commitment Scale contains four dimensions: “Whole acceptance of being / Unsubstitution”, “Social pressure / Powerless”, “Idea of permanence / Group orientation”, and “Material dependence / Efficiency. Self-affirmation in female adolescents was negatively affected by mother's “Social pressure / Powerless and “Material dependence / Efficiency”. Father's “Idea of permanence / Group orientation” was predictive of the low self-affirmation in female adolescents. Conversely, mother's “Idea of permanence / Group orientation” was predictive of high self-affirmation in female adolescents. The mother's commitment may play an important role in self-affirmation of female adolescents.

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The relationship between eating, sleeping, and evacuation, with mental health was investigated. In Study 1, we developed the Physical Condition Scale (PCS) consisting of three sub-scales, each with four items that were designed to assess the quality of eating, sleeping and evacuation. We also developed the Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWBS) to assess mental health. SWBS consists of five items designed to assess subjective well-being in daily life. In Study 2, the test-retest reliability of the PCS was examined. The results indicated that the PCS is reliable. Moreover, PCS, scores could discriminate changes in eating, sleeping, and evacuation. In Study 3, we investigated the relationship between eating, sleeping, and evacuation, and mental health in adults (n=269). Results of multiple regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between the three sub-scales of the PCS and SWBS. This finding suggests that increasing satisfaction with eating, sleeping, and evacuation can facilitate mental health.

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The effectiveness of dance movements for developing the body image was investigated. A sequence of dance movements was taught to 42 college students by a specialist dance teacher, 26 students in the self-study group learned the same dance movements through watching a video, and 33 students who participated in other dance classes were used as a control group.
The results indicated that positive changes in the quality movement because of the dance experience affected the participants self-image as being more graceful than the control group. Although statistically significant differences were not detected, certain body image items were marginally different between experimental and control groups. The results suggest that practicing dance movements may help to improve certain aspects of the body image accompanied by improvements in the quality of dance movements. However, further studies are needed to verify the empirical usefulness of dance movement to the body image.

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The influence of parental child-rearing attitudes and children's attitudes regarding the way their parents rear them on proneness to eating disorders as measured by the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) was investigated. The parental child-rearing attitudes were measured using the Family Relationships Inventory (FRI). The attitudes of children regarding how their parents rear them were measured by Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). The responses of 89 female university students and their parents indicated that “PBI-overprotection” score of the father and “PBI-care”score of the mother explained the “EDI-proneness to eating disorders” and “EDI-bulimia” scores. It was also suggested that PBI-care and overprotection scores of parents and “FRI-communications between parents” score of the father might predict “EDI-ineffectiveness” and “EDI-perfectionism”. It is concluded that the attitude of female students regarding how their fathers rear them had a significant influence on the “EDI-proneness to eating disorders”.

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The relationship between positive and negative running addiction and psychological characteristics of runners: junior high school students, high school students, university students, and working people were investigated. Participants, (n = 318, 12-70 years old) completed three questionnaires designed to evaluate positive and negative running addiction, type-A behavior pattern, and compulsiveness. Results of the Running Addiction Questionnaire indicated that university students were characterized by high positive addiction and high negative addiction. Working people were characterized by high positive addiction. Junior high school students (13%) and high school students (23%) exhibited high negative addiction. Working people who experienced the runners' high scored high on running addiction and commitment. Compulsiveness was more strongly correlated with negative addiction in males than type-A behavior. Although negative addiction had been investigated in a number of former studies, these results indicate the need to investigate positive addiction more closely.

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The relationship between work control (WC), which was classified into goal control (GO) and method control (MC), and psychological stress response was investigated by experimentally producing stress situation that are experienced in the work place. A between-subject design, 2 (GC high and low) × 2 (MC high and low) was tested in 72 student participants. Results of an ANOVA indicated that WC, which is effective in decreasing the psychological stress response, depends not only on the relationship between WC and the stressful situation but also on the psychological stress response. It is suggested that the results of this study should be adapted to actual work stress situation in the future.

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A job-stress coping inventory was developed and used to investigate determinants of stress reactions in novice nurses (n=418) with less than 1 year of nursing experience after graduation. Analysis of responses to the inventory indicated four types of coping styles: problem solving, avoidance/optimism, social support seeking, and self-reproof/introspection. A longitudinal study using the inventory was undertaken with 43 nurses at 3, 6, and 12 months after starting work, which suggested that the stress level in novice nurses differed widely. Stress due to nursing care peaked at 3 months and stress due to human relations in the workplace peaked at 6 months. Depression was positively correlated with conflict with superiors, and avoidance/optimism coping. Depression was negatively correlated with avoidance/optimism coping at 3 months. Self-reproof/introspection coping and conflict with nursing care were positively correlated with depression at 6 months. Moreover, problem-solving coping was positively correlated with depression at 12 months.

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