The aim of this study was to determine whether the desire for slenderness in young men was associated with perceptions and misconceptions of the self-evaluated physique, criteria for the ideal physique or interest in shape and weight control/loss behaviors (SWCBs). The study subjects were 599 male students of a vocational school (18-23y old), who were targeted in a self-administered questionnaire survey. They were divided into two groups, those desiring weight loss (group A) and those not (group B). The results obtained for those desiring weight loss revealed that 45.9% of the students desired weight loss, although 73.8% of students in group A had BMI 18.5 to 24.9, i.e. were in the normal weight range. In group A, 29.5% of students, and in group B, 25.9% of students had misconceptions about their proper body weight. In both groups A and B, 34~49% of subjects chose "weight" and "height" as criteria for their ideal physiques. Subjects were commonly interested in "endurance exercise", "muscle exercise", "how to eat" and "calories" as SWCBs and the rate of subjects who were interested in these items in group A was higher than in group B. The number of students who were interested in unhealthy and/or risky SWCBs and who had dieted 2 times or more were higher in group A than in group B. The rate of subjects who tried unhealthy and/or risky SWCBs among the subjects who had dieted 2 times or more was higher than that among the subjects who had dieted once. These results suggest that repeated dieting causes unhealthy and/or risky SWCBs. These results demonstrate that in male students, misconceptions about physique are associated with unnecessary weight loss and interest in unhealthy and/or risky SWCBs. Thus, it is important to provide adolescents with health education emphasizing appropriate recognition of the physique.

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific influence of past sports experience on establishing the habit of exercise in Japanese high school students. The participants were 2,725 (male: 58.0%) high school students in Japan. Survey items included current exercise habit (frequency, and duration), and past sports experience (number of sports events [NSE], commencing time of sports [CTS], and time spent per week [TS/wk]). An exercise habit was defined the implementation of exercise three or more days/wk and one or more hrs/day. Data were randomly split into sample A and B halves. Forty seven percent of the participants were included in the exercise habit group. From the result of a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis for sample A, the rule of the highest ratio of the exercise habit group (72.9%) was NSE > 2 events, and TS/wk > 6.9 hrs. From the result of a CART analysis for sample B, the rule of the highest ratio of the exercise habit group (76.3%) was NSE > 2 events, and TS/wk > 8.3 hrs. Split sequences indicated the same results between the samples. The results of logistic regression analysis using each sample indicated that NSE and TS/wk were statistically significant in both samples. Therefore, the study, although limited to statistical methods and characteristics of samples, suggested that a requirement for establishing exercise habits in youth was NSE > 2 events, and TS/wk > 6.9-8.3 hrs before entering senior high school.

We evaluated a health instruction program for drug abuse prevention that utilized CD-ROM material. The purpose of this study was to accumulate useful data to contribute to the spread of drug abuse prevention education and multimedia education. Subjects in this study were 408 junior high school 2nd grade students (consisting of 203 males and 205 females. This program was undertaken once in February 2000 and again in November 2000. Two health and physical education teachers working in the subject school cooperatively taught the lesson (Team Teaching). Student operated individual PCs, one per student, and studied all contents of the CD-ROM material. Two lessons were done in each case. We conducted surveys 1 week before, 1 week after, and 1 month after the instructions to evaluate for educational effect. This investigation was composed of 14 items concerning knowledge of drug abuse prevention, 9 items concerning awareness of and attitude toward drug abuse, 4 items concerning the CD-ROM material, and space for free description. We have proved in previous research that the educational effect was excellent regarding knowledge. In this paper, we report on the educational effect regarding awareness and attitude for drug abuse. The results are as follows: · The ratio of groups with ‘permissible’attitudes toward drug abuse decreased. The ratio of those with ‘non-permissible’attitudes increased. · In all of the 9 items concerning awareness of drug abuse, feelings of precaution and resistance increased. · Drug refusal attitudes and skills were clearly promoted. Therefore, It was proven that health instruction utilizing this CD-ROM material brought many excellent results.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the feelings of the general public regarding the "physical fitness" (PF) of children, and the cause and effect relationship. This study was conducted using a questionnaire between February and March 2004. The sample of analysis comprised 1,393 adult males and females. The questionnaire consisted of 6 items on basic attributes, and 25 items on the status of specific physical fitness and motor ability elements of children today compared to children in the past. The proportion of subjects having actual feeling that modern children have lower PF level compared to children of the past were 46.6-76.6% for the item "Image of PF for Protection", 45.0-73.0% for "Image of PF for Performance", 27.7-50.8% for "Image of Motor Ability", and 35.5-66.1% for "Image of Mental Factor". The results showed a tendency toward a high score for "Image of PF for Protection". On the other hand, the cause and effect relationship among actual feelings on "PF" of children was also clarified. According to the analysis, the path coefficients from each PF/MA element to "Image of General PF " were 0.54 for "Image of PF for Protection", 0.26 for "Image of PF for Performance", 0.15 for "Image of Motor Ability", and 0.02 for "Image of Mental Factor". The results thus showed that the "Image of PF for Protection" had the strongest influence. The above findings suggest that practice of focusing on training "PF for protection" is necessary to eliminate feelings of the general public regarding the "decline of PF" in children.

The objective of this study was to clarify the effect of dietary habits on unidentified complaints. A questionnaire survey was carried out in 2004 and the subjects were 901 children including 458 males and 443 females, from the 3rd grade to the 6th grade at two elementary schools. A chi-square test was applied to test the correlation between lifestyle and unidentified complaints. Then, cumulative logistic regression analysis was applied and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The results showed that lifestyle correlated with unidentified complaints significantly. Furthermore, disordered lifestyles showed higher odds ratios for unidentified complaints. Especially, compared with children who had breakfast everyday, odds ratio was 2.9 for males who seldom had breakfast, 4.2 for females. In addition, the frequency of defecation correlated not only with unidentified complaints, but also with the habit of having breakfast. Therefore, we concluded that dietary habits are an imported part of the lifestyle of children and it is possible to reduce unidentified complaints through modifying disordered dietary habits.

A 14-years-old schoolgirl having suffered from anorexia nervosa for a year was referred to our counseling room by her family doctor. She was admitted to the hospital suffering from weakness, fatigue, and amenorrhea as a result of marked weight loss over a six-month period. She was a high achiever who pushed herself to excel in every facet of school life, falling short only in her social relationships. She put pressure on herself to excel in every academic subject and was worn out, leaving little time for friends, and ultimately leading to social isolation. The constant pressure led to anorexia. Using role-plays based on KiKi's Delivery Service (KDS) scripts (Hayao Miyazaki animated movie, "Majo no takkyuubin"), we helped her discover her personal style and develop her interpersonal social skills. Our role-play model proved to be a successful treatment for anorexia nervosa and we recommend these methods for patients with anorexia nervosa needing a more developed sense of identity.