The present study is a 6-month follow-up survey done as part of the evaluation of the effects of a stage-matched intervention for preventing smoking acquisition among junior high school students. The participants,288 students (131 males and 157 females) in a Japanese junior high school, answered questions about their present stage of smoking acquisition, their knowledge about the relation of smoking and health, and their skill in resisting smoking behavior. The smoking education program included a leaflet and portable card that were used not only for imparting knowledge but also for behavioral and cognitive skills through role-play aimed at the targets of smoking acquisition in each of the 4 stages (pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, and action). From the baseline to the 6-month follow-up, the number of students in the pre-contemplation stage increased, whereas those in the contemplation and the action stages decreased significantly. The mean scores on the knowledge and skill measures increased after the stage-matched intervention. These results suggest that stage-matched intervention to prevent smoking acquisition could be effective, especially for Japanese junior high school students in the contemplation and action stages.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of social skills training on the psychological stress responses of junior high school students with peer-relation difficulties. Study 1 examined the effectiveness of social skills training in a single junior high school student, using an ABAB design. The results showed that when the student was being trained in prosocial skills, and on a follow-up measure, his stress responses were lower than in baseline. In Study 2, using a multiple baseline design, 3 students were given social skills training to improve their social interactions, and psychological stress responses were measured. The results showed that the stress response scores of the students who were being trained in prosocial skills were lower than in baseline. These results suggest that social skills training may be an effective technique for reducing psychological stress responses in junior high school students.

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The present study investigated the effects of a stress management program on junior high school students. The program consisted of teaching students about psychological stress mechanisms and training them in progressive muscle relaxation. In order to assess the effects of the program, 64 students were asked to complete 4 scales before and after the program was implemented. The scales included a cognitive appraisals scale (2 subscales: controllability and influence), a stress coping scale (3 subscales: positive coping, support seeking, and avoidance coping), and a stress responses scale (4 subscales: irritated-angry feelings, helplessness, depressive-anxious feelings, and physical symptoms). The results were as follows: (a) high stress responses decreased, (b) the initially low appraisal of controllability of stressors in-creased, and the initially high appraisal of the influence of stressors decreased, and (c) those students who were initially poor at coping reported that they increased the frequency of their coping behaviors.

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The present study investigated shaping and maintenance programs for the school attendance behavior of an 11-year-old girl who had not been attending school. The hypothesis was that the cause of her non-attendance was her lack of swimming skills, her parents' willingness to let her stay home when she complained about participating in swimming classes at school, and her grandmother's reinforcement of school non-attendance. Training focused on swimming skills, and included establishing an educational and treatment relationship with the girl, swimming training by her family members, guidance for her parents, home visits from her teacher, and support from her teacher for participation in swimming class. After 4 sessions extending over 2 months, she returned to school. At a one-year follow-up, her school attendance was found to be maintained. These results suggest that when school non-attendance is related to a specific aspect of school, then in the assessment, information should be collected about conditions necessary for maintaining school attendance.

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Some researchers have asserted that the problem behavior of students with disabilities in general classrooms may function as avoidance. The occurrence and maintenance of the problem behavior may be caused by difficulties in teacher-student interactions, and interactions between the teacher and a student with disabilities may, in turn, be influenced by the teacher's evaluation of that student. In the present study, a student with aggressive behavior in an elementary school third-grade classroom was given therapy in order to decrease his social avoidance. His teacher was a 50-year-old male. The student's and his teacher's behavior in class, and the teacher's evaluation of problems in their interactions were studied. After the student's behavior changed in the therapy sessions, his problem behavior decreased, and he looked at the teacher more. The frequency of the teacher's approaches to the student increased, but that change was not stable. The teacher reported that problems in interactions with the student were more influential after the therapy than before, and that he could not cope with those problems after the student's behavior changed.

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