Purpose: This study aimed to clarify the prevalence and influential factors of sexual behaviors among Chinese junior high school students using the validated measures and research methods employed in the Japanese study for the purpose of developing an effective sex education program to prevent premature sexual behaviors among Chinese junior high school students.

Methods: The study sample was comprised of 681 students from the seventh to the ninth grade of five junior high schools in Shanghai, China. The data were collected in October 2011, using anonymous and self-administered questionnaires.

Results: For the experience of kissing, there was no gender difference. For sexual intercourse, it was found that there was a gender difference, showing that the percentage of males who had ever experienced sexual intercourse was higher than that of females. According to the results of univariate analysis, significant relationships were found between the experience of ever kissing and cigarette smoking for males and alcohol drinking for both genders, showing that students with the experience of kissing were more likely to smoke and drink in the past month than those with no experience of kissing. In regard to social skills, students with the experience of kissing showed higher scores on aggressive behavior compared to those with no experience of kissing for females. In regard to stress coping skills, students with the experience of kissing showed higher scores on behavioral avoidance for males and distraction for females compared to those with no experience of kissing. In regard to psychosocial variables concerning sexual intercourse, students with the experience of kissing tended to have stronger behavioral intention about sexual intercourse while in their teen years and to have more positive attitudes toward sexual intercourse before marriage compared to those with no experience of kissing for both genders. According to the results of the multivariate analysis, male students who had drunk alcohol in the past month, had higher scores in behavioral avoidance of stress coping skills and had strong behavioral intention about sexual intercourse, and female students who had drunk alcohol in the past month, had higher scores in distraction of stress coping skills and recognized that their friends had experiences of sexual intercourse were likely to experience kissing.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that educational contents related to the prevention of alcohol drinking, the enhancement of problem-focused coping skills and the decrease of behavioral intention about sexual intercourse should be included in sex education for preventing premature sexual behaviors among Chinese junior high school students.

Background: Since 2008, there has been a heightened awareness in Japan concerning the use of illegal drugs by college students. As a result, colleges and universities have been implementing drug abuse prevention programs as required by the government. Previously, drug abuse prevention programs in Japan mainly targeted middle school and high school students. We conducted a study concerning the prevalence of drug use and related factors among college students to inform drug use prevention programs targeting college students.

Methods: A questionnaire was completed by 1,445 sophomore students at 16 colleges and universities throughout Japan in 2012-2013. The questionnaire asked respondents about current drug use and other drug use related experiences. It also assessed students’ personal backgrounds, orientations toward drugs, and personality characteristics.

Results: Among the respondents, 2.1% reported having drug use experience. The logistic regression analyses indicate the risk of drug use, measured by past drug use and the intent and willingness questions, is correlated with the students’ sense of norm toward drug use, Pachinko/Pachi-slot experiences, club/rave experiences, and personality characteristics such as self assertiveness and affinity for sensation.

Conclusions: The present study confirms that there are college students already have had experience of using drugs (2.1%), and the risk of drug use is correlated with several behavioral factors and students’ personality characteristics. The findings suggest a drug use prevention program targeting college students would be more effective if it aims to raise the sense of norm among not only individual students but also the school as a whole and includes monitoring Pachinko/Pachi-slot and club/rave activities. Individual students’ personality characteristics should also be considered in designing a prevention program. Since the present study was conducted at only those schools which complied with our request for cooperation, it is difficult to generalize these results to represent the national college population.

Aim: To investigate how changes occur in students’ health, self-esteem, and lifestyle habits according to grade progression.

Method: A self-administered questionnaire survey of fourth- to sixth-grade students from Prefecture X was conducted in December in 2010 and 2011. The survey included questions on the following: basic attributes, lifestyle habits (eating and sleeping habits), the psychosomatic complaints scale (hereinafter referred to as “PCs scale”), and the Self-Esteem Inventory (hereinafter referred to as “SEI”).

Results: Data of 304 students for which the data matching between the 2010 and 2011 surveys was possible, were used for the analysis. The changes were examined between gender or grade, according to grade progression. Comparison of the 2010 and 2011 results showed that the prevalence of female students who ate breakfast daily significantly decreased from 87 fifth-grade students (94.6%) to 82 sixth-grade students (89.1%). The bedtime of male students changed significantly from 21:58 in the fifth grade to 22:28 in the sixth grade. This trend was also noted with female students whose bedtime changed from 21:55 in the fifth grade to 22:25 in the sixth grade. The length of sleep for female students shortened significantly from 8 h 28 min in the fifth grade to 7 h 57 min in the sixth grade. The PCs scale scores showed significant increase (p = 0.035) for female students from 28.0 in the fifth-grade to 31.4 in the sixth-grade. Within the subscales of SEI, there were no significant changes in any gender-grade groups.

Conclusion: Skipping breakfast is considered a contributor to lifestyle-related diseases. Therefore, the results suggest the need for adequate health guidance that encourages improved breakfast habits for students. Maintaining a regular bedtime is one of the most important factors for a stable life rhythm, and the short length of sleep have negative impacts on health. Therefore, the results suggest the need to provide health guidance to fourth- and fifth-grade students encouraging regular sleeping hours and bedtimes before 22:00. The fifth and sixth grades involve the period during which secondary sexual characteristics develop, and thus are characterized by considerable physical and psychological changes. The results suggest the importance of health support initiatives that help students resolve developmental issues of mind and body.

Background: Problem behavior is a factor that can make everyday life and studying in educational settings difficult for children with developmental disorders, resulting in reduced quality of life. Problem behavior is one of the difficulties presented by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental disorders; and self-injurious behavior (SIB) is one such behavior that clearly negatively impacts the child’s quality of school life. Recent studies have indicated the effectiveness of initiatives to reduce problem behaviors through promoting and supporting task engagement behavior.

Purpose: The present study is an interventional study carried out on three children with ASD enrolled in special needs schools. Behavior support plan that promoted task engagement behavior was carried out with the objectives of (a) confirming whether task engagement behavior is effective in reducing SIB in targeted settings and (b) verifying the effects of task engagement behavior on problem behaviors other than SIB in everyday school life.

Methods: For each child, an examination was carried out to determine the setting within school life in which SIB occurred most readily; this setting was specified as the target setting. Functional assessments of the children within these settings were carried out and behavior support plans drawn up on the basis of the results were carried out. In the target settings, instruction from homeroom teachers took place in both intervention and baseline periods.

Results: As the result of above procedure, all three children showed greater task engagement behavior during the intervention period than during the baseline period, and there was a reduction in SIB from the start of the intervention period. In addition, the results of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist Japanese Version (ABC-J), which evaluate behaviors in everyday life, completed by the same teacher showed that in everyday school life outside the specified target setting, there were improvements in three subscales of ABC-J (1.Irritability/Agitation, 2.Lethargy/Social Withdrawal, 4.Hyperactivity/Noncompliance).

Conclusions: The results indicate that carrying out a behavior support plan that promotes task engagement behavior based on a functional assessment not only reduces SIB in the intervention setting, but also brings about improvement in other problem behaviors shown by the child in everyday school life.