[Purpose]

Improving teachers’ abilities to support their students is an urgent issue for preventing children’s problem behaviors. Therefore, I developed a scale to assess teachers’ abilities to support children from different perspectives and investigated the constitutive concept of teachers’ abilities to support children statistically.

[Methods]

Participants were teachers (N=404; 164 men and 240 women) in eight elementary schools and eight junior high schools in the Tohoku region. A tentative version of the “Child Support Ability Scale for Teachers.” Which contains 45 items rated on a four-point scale, was developed based on a survey of free descriptions. Furthermore, numbers of children with school refusal in each class and teachers’ worries were also investigated.

[Results]

Through item and factor analyses, five factors (i.e., counseling ability, ability to cooperate with other teachers, assessment ability, ability to cooperate with specialized agencies, and ability to control emotions) were statistically extracted. The scale’s administration indicated that:(1) female teachers and elementary school teachers had relatively high abilities for supporting children; (2) teachers’ worries and their abilities to support children were closely correlated; (3) teachers in classes with truants generally had lower abilities to support children, compared to teachers in classes without truants.

[Discussion]

It is suggested that effective future training programs for improving teachers’ abilities to support children should be investigated by using the scale developed in this study from the perspective of preventive and developmental educational counseling.

[Purpose]

Internet Addiction (IA) is a serious problem for college students who frequently use such communication tools as social networking services (SNS). However, research on types of Internet behaviors related to IA is rare. In the present study, self-presentations on SNS were adopted as mediating variables to examine mental health’s influence on SNS addiction.

[Methods]

College students (N=403) using Twitter, a popular SNS, completed a self-report questionnaire. Collated data was evaluated via path analysis to examine effects of self-esteem, loneliness, and dissociation as mental health indicators for SNS addiction; self-presentations on SNS served as mediating variables.

[Results]

Results from correlation analysis indicated that vain self-presentation on Twitter correlated negatively with mental health indicators. In addition, path analysis results showed that low self-esteem’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by vain self-presentation. In contrast, loneliness indirectly restrained Twitter addiction. Furthermore, although dissociation’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by vain self-presentation, dissociation was also found to promote Twitter addiction directly.

[Discussion/Conclusion]

This study’s findings revealed that mental health’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by self-presentation on Twitter, but also had direct effects on Twitter addiction. Future studies must examine individual mental health’s influence on self-presentation on Twitter and Twitter addiction in detail, using a longitudinal method. Additionally, surveys using innovative methods that involve more concrete aspects of Internet behaviors, such as actual activity logs, would be beneficial.

[Purpose]

For considering positive aspects of experiencing the crisis and the support content that effective during both crisis and recovery, this study created a process model for crisis and recovery in student guidance and counseling that rookie junior high school teachers often face.

[Methods]

Interviews about crises in student guidance and counseling were conducted with public junior high rookie teachers at five Z Prefecture schools. Using the “KJ method”, we created a process model.

[Results]

Junior high rookie teachers faced a narrow range of crises, but a variety of individual and workplace risk factors was present in the background. Crisis recovery methods, for instance, emotional support from colleagues, and guidance and support from senior colleagues, were effective. In fact, the experience became a turning point in the new teachers’ career development.

[Discussion/Conclusion]

Crises in student guidance and counseling faced by junior high rookie teachers may fall into become a serious situation. For rookie teachers to recognize and overcome a crisis situation before burning out, they should look for “horizontal” support, i.e., emotional support from same-age colleagues, and “vertical” guidance and support from senior colleagues. By fostering collegiality internalized by the faculty culture, we helped new teachers overcome crises and promoted maturation in teachers’ student guidance.

[Purpose]

Help-seeking is an important strategy for coping with daily stress or concerns. Although many factors either facilitate or inhibit help-seeking, very few studies have focused on personality variables’ impact on help-seeking. This study examined effects of adult attachment on university students’ help-seeking intentions toward friends.

[Methods]

University students (N=455) completed a questionnaire measuring help-seeking intentions, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, level of concerns, depression, and support from friends.

[Results]

As the result of structural equation modeling, attachment avoidance showed significant direct negative effect on help-seeking intentions, while attachment anxiety showed no direct effect on help-seeking intentions. Results also showed attachment anxiety’s indirect positive effect on help-seeking intentions mediated by level of concerns and attachment avoidance’s indirect negative effect on help-seeking intentions mediated by friends’ support.

[Discussion/Conclusion]

Proportions of help-seeking explained by attachment were higher than those of previous studies, suggesting that considering attachment is important for understanding why some people are reluctant to seek any help.

[Purpose]

The number of studies on factors related to levels of cooperation among school counselors (SCs) and teachers is insufficient. Thus, this study examined the relationship between frequency of teachers’ help-seeking behavior and levels of cooperation among SCs and teachers.

[Methods]

We conducted the “SC Positive Use Program” in a boarding school A (an elementary school) and a public junior high school B (a junior high school) and examined changes in frequency of help-seeking behavior before and after the program. Furthermore, we categorized all conversations occurring during help-seeking behavior between teachers and SCs according to their specific functions. By examining changes in conversations’ functions, we could capture changes in levels of cooperative behavior.

[Results]

In elementary school A, our results showed no change in frequency of teachers’ help-seeking behavior and levels of cooperation behavior. In junior high school B, however, results revealed an increase in both help-seeking and cooperation.

[Discussion]

Therefore, these results suggest a relevant relationship between frequency of teachers’ help-seeking behavior and levels of cooperation among SCs and teachers.

[Objectives]

This study aimed to investigate developmental changes and gender differences in self-esteem in children during preadolescence and adolescence.

[Methods]

The self-esteem scale for children (Urabe, 2016) was used to investigate self-esteem in 750 children (365 boys, 385 girls) from the fourth year of elementary school through the third year of middle school, as well as in the second year of high school. Two factors (positive feelings and negative feelings) pre-identified by factor analysis were tested by two-way analysis of variance using educational stage and gender as variables.

[Results]

(a) The score for positive feelings in the middle school stage was lower than that in the elementary school stage, but was comparable to that of the high school stage. (b) The score for positive feelings in boys was higher than that in girls. (c) The score for negative feelings in boys was unchanged among the three school stages. (d) In girls, the score for negative feelings in the middle school stage was lower than that in the elementary school stage, but was similar to that in the high school stages.

[Discussion]

Examination of the two factors of positive and negative feelings demonstrated developmental changes and gender differences in self-esteem in children more clearly, and showed an essential involvement of negative feelings in gender differences. Causes of the above changes and differences are discussed.