This study examines a cooperative system between elementary and junior high schools in a certain city and its effectiveness in preventing school maladjustment. In this cooperative system which sent sheets of paper about each 6th grade pupils over 15 absent days per year in elementary school days written by elementary school teachers and consulting comments made by clinical psychologist to junior high school teachers. This system was first tested in Japan, where it was initiated in 6 junior high schools and 18 elementary schools. Detailed analyses of 6 schools showed that the program had mixed results in preventing school maladjustment. The importance of active utilization of this system, the necessity of school system to support teams, and the number of teachers sharing the information were discussed.

[Purpose] This study examined whether there is a difference in motivation between children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD） and typical development (TD） by measuring several learning motivations in the framework of self-determination theory.

[Methods] In both the strongest and weakest subject conditions, 17 participants from both the ASD and TD groups responded to a learning motivation scale encompassing four subscales: external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic regulation.

[Results] In the strongest condition, there were no differences in scores on each subscale between the ASD and TD groups. However, in the weakest subject condition, scores for identified regulation in the ASD group were significantly lower than those for the TD group. The ASD group also had significant lower autonomy scores (consisting of the four subscales） than the TD group, regardless of conditions.

[Discussion/Conclusion] These results revealed that children with ASD have lower autonomy, and their motivation style in learning consisted of introjected regulation along with a combination of several motivations.

In this study, we study the characteristics of attachment styles by classifying university students according to their narcissistic vulnerability.

A paper-based survey of university undergraduate and graduate students was conducted, and the responses of 209 subjects were analyzed. We conducted cluster analysis on an abridged version of the narcissistic vulnerability scale and extracted four groups: the non-vulnerable group, the insufficiency of self-soothing group, the covert sense of entitlement group, and the vulnerable group. We then conducted single-factor ANOVA with the groups as independent variables and attachment styles as dependent variables.

The results showed that “secure” attachment was significantly greater for the insufficiency of selfsoothing and vulnerable groups than for the covert sense of entitlement group. “Secure” attachment was significantly lower for the non-vulnerable group than the insufficiency of self-soothing group. “Ambivalent” attachment was significantly greater for the covert sense of entitlement and vulnerable groups than for the nonvulnerable and the insufficiency of self-soothing groups. “Avoidant” attachment was significantly lower for the insufficiency of self-soothing group than for the other three groups. The non-vulnerable group did not exhibit the “unstable” attachment style, while the vulnerable group did, which showed that the “unstable” attachment style formed between subjects and their primary attachment objects during childhood underlies university students’ narcissistic vulnerability. Also, in contrast to the insufficiency of self-soothing group’s showing a “stable” attachment style, the covert sense of entitlement group showed an “unstable” attachment style.

This suggests that the characteristics of university students’ covert sense of entitlement and insufficiency of self-soothing reflect differences in attachment styles.

This study evaluated a scale to detect psychological signs of school maladaptation in students. The sample consisted of 1,420 students (597 junior high school students and 823 senior high school students） in

A and B Prefectures.

Following item and factor analyses of the students’ responses to a questionnaire, the Psychological Sign Scale was developed, consisting of one factor and 10 items. The scale was confirmed to have adequate internal consistency, reliability, and criterion-related validity.

We investigated differences in the psychological signs of school maladaptation between the risk group (students identified by teachers as predisposed to school maladaptation） and the control group (students not identified as predisposed to school maladaptation).

The results indicated that the risk group had significantly higher psychological signs of school maladaptation than the control group did, thereby demonstrating the content validity of the scale.

Finally, the practical uses of the scale and future considerations of this study were discussed.

[Objectives] There have been concerns that teachers’ quality of life (QOL） has decreased; however, as yet, a study of the QOL of teachers using an international assessment scale has not been conducted in Japan. Therefore, we undertook a preliminary study of teachers’ QOL using the eight subscales of the SF-36, a comprehensive QOL scale related to health. In addition, we utilized the recently proposed three-component model and summary score.

[Methods] This study targeted a group of teachers (n=82） and one of non-teachers (n=82). We randomly selected the members of the non-teacher group to match those of the teacher group by age and gender. Then, we compared the teachers to the non-teachers in terms of their scores on the SF-36’s eight subscales and their three-component summary scores and studied the characteristics of both of these criteria for the group of teachers.

[Results] The results showed no difference in the SF-36 between the two groups. The teacher group scored below the Japanese average score of 50 points in the areas of “mental health” (48.1±10.1), “physical role function” (45.1±11.5), and “emotional role function” (45.6±11.2). The three-component summary score for the SF-36 of the teacher group showed the Japanese average for the physical health component (50.3±10.6） and mental health component (50.0±9.2). However, the role/social component (41.7±11.6） was below the Japanese average.

[Discussion] There was no difference between the QOL of the teachers and non-teachers, and both groups showed relatively similar QOL on the emotional component. However, the QOL for the role function component decreased in the teacher group. Moreover, the decrease in the QOL for role functioning was further clarified by analyzing the SF-36 three-component summary score. This analysis will be helpful in further QOL research.