The deterioration of workers’ mental health and the resulting decline in their work performance have become significant contemporary problems. This study examined the relationship between reinforcement sensitivity (i.e., the behavioral inhibition/activation systems), rumination, depression, and the decline in work performance among local government employees. All the regular and non-regular employees in a local government aged 20 years or older, working over 29 hours per week, responded to a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire survey. We analyzed the responses of 2,223 employees. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that depression was positively associated with a decline in work performance. Also, the behavioral inhibition system was positively associated with depression, partially mediated by rumination. In contrast, the behavioral activation system was negatively associated with depression, which was not mediated by rumination. These results are meaningful for developing a psychological model of depression related to local government employees’ work performance decline.

This study used text mining and examined workers’ psychosocial burdens caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees in the Fukushima Branch of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO Fukushima) and related workplaces responded to a web-based questionnaire survey. The survey inquired about psychosocial burdens caused by COVID-19, and the participants responded using a free-text format. We analyzed the responses of 215 respondents. Logistic regression analysis indicated a stronger association between female workers and severe psychological distress than male workers. In addition, correspondence analysis showed that workers with severe psychological distress used more words related to “income” and more first-personal pronouns such as “I” or “we.” In contrast, women with college-age children used more words related to “online college courses,” “burdens,” and “anxiety.” These results suggest that female workers with children experience significant stresses associated with their children, and workers with severe psychological distress experience psychosocial burdens related to their income.

This study compared the ratio of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tendencies and psychological distress in university athletes and general university students to clarify the relationship between ADHD tendencies, injury history, and psychological distress among university athletes. I used a cross-sectional research design and conducted an online survey with university athletes (n=150) and general university students (n=150) recruited through an online research company. The results showed no significant differences in high ADHD tendencies or increased psychological distress between the two groups. Moreover, regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between the interaction terms of athletes’ ADHD tendencies and gender for previous sports injury experiences. Furthermore, injury experiences were notably higher in male athletes with high ADHD tendencies. In addition, ADHD tendencies were directly related to university athletes’ psychological distress levels. These findings suggest the need for support to reduce injuries and psychological distress of athletes with ADHD tendencies.

We developed a Web-based experiential learning intervention named Friend Supporter to reduce the general public’s cancer-related stigma. This study investigated the participants’ perceptions and experiences of Friend Supporter using the think-aloud method. From June to August 2021, we used snowball sampling and recruited participants aged ≥20 years who had never been diagnosed with cancer. We conducted the 5-week intervention with the participants in a natural setting. We also administered a questionnaire survey to 13 participants after each module, conducted review interviews with 8 participants after completing the intervention, and respectively extracted 7 and 12 categories using content analysis. The results indicated that participants highly evaluated the intervention’s content, although specific participants were dissatisfied with the intervention. A few participants reported the need to consider older people and their difficulties in managing worksheets that lacked concrete examples. Optimizing the intervention requires refining the system, offering detailed instructions or supplementary materials, and presenting the option to view actual cases. We suggest that these measures can enhance the intervention’s usability and feasibility.

This study developed a compact scale with improved validity and reliability for assessing satisfaction with university life. We reconstructed the “Satisfaction of University Life” Scale (SoULS-21) developed by Okuda et al. (2010b), which has four subscales: Commitment to the University Life, Companionship Satisfaction, Study Satisfaction, and Absence of Anxiety. We conducted a factor analysis using student data from five universities (N=934). The results extracted 12 items with the identical four-factor structure as the SoULS-21 (SoULS-12). The SoULS-12 had high reliability. We also investigated the construct validity of the SoULS-12 by examining correlations between these four subscales and related scales, which indicated an acceptable correlation. These results supported the reliability and validity of SoULS-12 for assessing satisfaction with university life.