Teachers’ behavioral support is an effective way of supporting students in educational settings. However, the factors influencing behavioral support have not yet been examined. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of teachers’ peculiar beliefs, sensitivity to contingency, and psychological flexibility on their behavioral support. Data were collected from 300 elementary-school teachers. The results showed that teachers’ peculiar beliefs and values regarding psychological flexibility influenced their behavioral support. Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and values moderated the effects of teachers’ peculiar beliefs on behavioral support. Based on these results, the approach to teachers is discussed.

Rumination-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (RFCBT) is a novel form of CBT that specifically targets rumination—a cognitive vulnerability factor underlying the onset and maintenance of depression and anxiety. RFCBT has been proven effective in both the treatment and prevention of depression and anxiety. The current investigation administered RFCBT as a structured self-help intervention with minimal therapist support to 21 female university students presenting with a high tendency to ruminate or worry. To examine the temporal changes in each participant, we adopted a multiple-baseline design. Furthermore, a follow-up was conducted after 12 months to investigate the long-term effectiveness of the intervention. Visual inspection of the graphs indicated that rumination, worry, depression, and anxiety decreased during the intervention period, and this trend persisted throughout the follow-up period. Based on these findings, the effectiveness of RFCBT in preventing depression and anxiety, as well as future directions for further research, are discussed.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience high rates of sleep problems. This study systematically reviewed the psychosocial interventions for sleep problems in children with ASD. Using PubMed, this systematic review identified 7 studies involving children with ASD. The reviewed studies examined psychological interventions (n=3), use of specialized bedding (n=2), exercise (n=1), and information provision (n=1). The results of this study indicate that sleep diaries, sleep hygiene, creating and visualizing regular schedules and routines, daytime activity recommendations, learning coping strategies for individual sleep problems, and booster sessions are important in interventions for sleep problems in children with ASD.

Problem-solving training (PST) reduces aggressive behavior in children. However, it may not be effective if the perceived contingency is low, which is a characteristic of children with continual aggressive behavior. This study examined the effectiveness of PST, in combination with perceived contingency, in reducing aggressive behavior, considering developmental differences. The participants were 219 elementary school students and 192 junior high school students, divided into two groups: one group received only PST (PST group), and the other received PST and perceived contingency (PST＋BA group). Effectiveness was measured before and after the intervention. There was no overall change among elementary school students. However, there was a main effect of group on physical, verbal, and overall relational aggressive behavior among junior high school students. As the results of the intervention differed between elementary and junior high school students, it is necessary to clarify the differences in mechanisms according to developmental stage.

In this study, comprehensive support was applied to an eighth-grader who had been absent from the classroom for 1.8 years, to re-shape and maintain his classroom attendance behavior after transferring to a new school. His non-attendance was considered to be the pre-condition of poor academic performance and lack of age-appropriate endurance and social skills, the condition of his screaming behavior in the classroom, response to his crying and screaming behavior by making him stay in the principal’s office or nurse’s office, and maintenance condition of his tardiness and early dismissal. Therefore, we clarified his future vision and provided academic support, social skills training, physical training, contingency management based on functional analysis to eliminate screaming behavior, contingency management to eliminate tardiness and leaving early, and guidance on how to manage absences due to illness. After 2.5 months, he began attending school and participating in classroom activities, continuing to attend classroom until his graduation from junior high school. After entering high school, his prognosis remained good and he went on to attend university. This comprehensive support approach, with the addition of a behavioral assessment for classroom non-attendance, was effective in re-shaping and maintaining attending-classroom behavior after the non-attendee transferred to another school.

In this study, the effectiveness and drawbacks of a comprehensive support approach incorporating a technique selection method for in-school fear and anxiety were examined. The approach was applied by a school counselor to a first-year junior high school student who was not attending school because of fear of the homeroom teacher and reprimanding situations, and anxiety about other students. The main criteria for technique selection were the presence or absence of dialogue and an antianxiety response. Assertiveness training, stimulus fading, and imagery desensitization were applied to address fear of the homeroom teacher, whereas imagery desensitization and in vivo desensitization using inner speech were applied to address anxious situations of eye-to-eye confrontation with classmates. Reshaping of school attendance was performed through the successive approximation method using the health room, learning guidance, physical fitness guidance, and appropriate rest guidance. After approximately two months of intervention, the student could attend all classes and extracurricular activities and remained in full attendance until he entered college. The student’s behavior demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed technique selection for reducing school fear and anxiety. One challenge identified was related to guiding preparatory studies and introducing objective assessments.

This paper reports a case study in which we assisted a patient who was admitted to a juvenile prison for homicide by assault, and then hospitalized for interventions to expand his range of behavior. The patient complained of “homicidal impulses” and refused to have interpersonal contact outside the protection room. Additionally, the reported having aggressive and contemptuous thoughts as internal reactions to interpersonal stress. Therefore, as an in-session intervention, we provided value clarification while avoiding an unconstructive discussion of homicidal impulses, thus allowing the burden of the impulse and the subjective intensity of stress to be quantified. Shared self-monitoring allowed the patient to expand his range of behavior while visualizing and preventing high-risk situations. Exposure to interpersonal situations may have provided an opportunity for behavioral experimentation that weakened the intensity of the belief that “I would kill someone.” Furthermore, alternative behaviors to aggressive scripts may have been formed because of the expanded behavioral repertoire of cognitive coping, reporting burdens, and seeking help when overwhelmed.