The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF) is a widely used scale to measure attitudes toward psychological professionals. Thus, this study aims to develop and evaluate the Japanese version of the ATSPPH-SF for high school students using confirmatory factor analysis. Based on the preliminary study with a sample of 454 high school students, the original scale consisting of one factor with 10 items produced a two-factor structure: a “trust toward counselors” factor and a “sense of resistance toward counselors” factor. Similar to previous studies, the instability of factor structure was confirmed in the present study. Subsequently, the main study focused on a sample of 277 high school students. Following the scale modification, the results indicated that the ATSPPH-SF consisting of one-factor with five items adequately fits the data: χ²(5)=7.149; p=n.s.; GFI=.989; AGFI=.968; CFI=.994; RMSEA=.039. In addition, the internal consistency reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was adequate at .77, the test-retest reliability was good at .67, and the concurrent validity was confirmed. However, as a result of I–T correlation and GP analysis, the item that should be deleted was not confirmed.

The purpose of this research was to focus on scenes of differing opinions in the classroom and consider interpersonal conflict resolution styles for elementary school students from the perspective of QOL (Quality of Life). A questionnaire survey was conducted on a total of 421 fourth- and sixth-grade students (202 boys and 219 girls).

In the beginning, children were classified according to resolution style. Five groups were discovered as a result of cluster analysis: a resolution-emphasis group, a dialogue-emphasis group, a other-transforming group, a self-restraint group, and a passive-resolution group. Next, we considered the difference in QOL by group. We performed a single factor analysis of variance by considering each group as an independent variable and the “QOL total score” of the “elementary school student QOL measure” and the five sub-area scores as dependent variables.

The main results are as follows:

1) The main effect for the groups was recognized in the “QOL total score” and three sub-area scores (emotional well-being, friends, and school life)

2) It became clear that the “QOL total score” and “emotional well-being” were higher for the dialogue-emphasis group than for the resolution-emphasis group, the other-transforming group, and the self-restraint group; and “friends” and “school life” were the highest for the resolution-emphasis group.

3) In addition to “emotional well-being,” “friends” and “school life” were low for the resolution-emphasis group.

These results suggest a relationship between conflict resolution styles in scenes of differing opinions among elementary school students in classrooms and QOL.

Many previous studies have noted the significance of social support for students preparing for university entrance examinations. Another conceivable possibility is that within counseling practice, such support intended to reduce career decision-making stress could actually create psychological burdens on the students. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school students preparing for university entrance examinations to investigate their tendencies toward career indecision and clarify the relationship between social support and mental turmoil in their career decision-making processes. The results revealed that social support encouraged decision-making by way of a stress-buffering effect in some cases, but it also clearly indicated that when coinciding with an underdeveloped career-path consciousness and a lack of experience in making career-related decisions, such support did not include problem-focused coping strategies that help these decisions. Furthermore, despite the intentions to evasively or temporarily deal with psychological burdens arising from the social support through repeated internalization or externalization, it was revealed that this emotion-focused coping led to the exacerbation of psychological burdens rather than appropriately addressing them. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the mental turmoil associated with such career decision-making included a cyclical structure in which the internalization and externalization of psychological burdens were repeated, which ultimately weakened the stress-buffering effects of such social support for career decisions.

This study targeted 51 undergraduate students at a private university, using questionnaires and interviews to focus upon “difficult events occurring in relation to past interpersonal relationships” thought to be external causes of over-adaptation, such as environmental and socio-cultural factors, which have not been extensively studied in previous studies.

The results of this study indicate that, in dyadic relationships, the group that experienced “dependency relationships” during junior high school had a significant “desire that people think well of them,” and the group that “experienced being maliciously attacked” during high school made more “efforts to live up to expectations.” Moreover, in terms of relationships with groups, the group that “witnessed malicious acts by others” in junior high school made more “efforts to live up to expectations,” and the group that “witnessed malicious acts by others” in high school were more “considerate of others’ feelings.” In terms of the development process, the group that had higher “consideration of others’ feelings” and “desire that people think well of them” in dyadic relationships endured “malicious attacks” and “experienced malicious acts by others” from junior high school through high school. In terms of relationships with groups, the group that had higher “self-restraint” disliked “appearing in front of people” from elementary school through junior high school. The group with high “self-insufficiency” had more experience “appearing in front of people” in elementary school compared with the group with low “self-insufficiency,” but experienced uncomfortable thoughts upon seeing people who did not act in groups in junior high school.

As a result, it became clear that there is a relationship between the malicious activity of “bullying” and an over-adaptation tendency, and events that have been considered as difficulties in the past tend to be continuously perceived as such.