The present study aimed to examine effects of social anxiety on the focus of attention and the instability of attention during an anticipatory situation and a social-evaluative situation. After screening by the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) , the participants, 24 undergraduate students, were divided into a high social anxiety group (n=13) and a low social anxiety group (n= 11). In a speech session, the participants pushed a button when they detected any behavior exhibited by 2 raters. Following that session, the participants rated the focus of attention, instability of attention, and their impressions of the raters' behavior. Internal information processing was facilitated more in the high social anxiety group than in the low social anxiety group during both anticipatory and social-evaluative situations. Moreover, both groups detected negative behavior more than neutral or positive behavior, and showed instability of attention during the social-evaluative situation. These results suggest that the focus of their attention was shifted to external or internal information within attentional resources.

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The purpose of the present study was to develop a Japanese version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1992) . Participants were 370 students (179 boys, 191 girls) from 9 to 15 years old. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the Japanese version of the Children's Depression Inventory had 1 factor. The reliability of the Children's Depression Inventory was investigated by Cronbach's a; its validity, through correlation with the Youth Self Report test (Kuramoto et al., 1999, in Japanese) . The results indicated that the Children's Depression Inventory had high reliability and validity. The average total score on the Japanese version of the Children's Depression Inventory was high compared with that on the original English-language edition. Higher scores than the clinical cut-off score of the English version were obtained by 14.9% of the participants. The sample size in the present study was not large enough to enable standardization of the Children's Depression Inventory; furthermore, the present study was conducted only with a non-clinical sample. Further research with large normative and clinical samples is necessary to confirm the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Japanese version of the Children's Depression Inventory.

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The present study examined effects of classroom-based Social Skills Training (SST) on preschool children (43 boys, 35 girls) , and also examined the characteristics of the children who were most affected by that training. The children were assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (a) high social skills, (b) intermediate social skills, and (c) low social skills. The target social skills were positive social initiations and responses. The coaching procedure was comprised of instructions, modeling, behavioral rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement. In the low and intermediate social skills groups, the children's cooperative behavior improved greatly. The teacher rated the children in the low social skills group as having improved on social skill dimensions. The findings are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the children for whom the Social Skills Training was most effective.

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Study I investigated the assessment of pupils in an elementary school second grade class via self-monitoring for self behavior and pre and post-Social Skills Training (SST) . In Study II, Social Skills Training was given to a self-monitoring group (n =32) that had conducted self-monitoring pre and post-Social Skills Training and a control group (n= 33) that had only had Social Skills Training. The scores for social skills and stress were significantly reduced in both groups; this reduction was maintained even after 7 months. In addition, interactions during the performance of the social skills were revealed in the classroom through self-monitoring. It was suggested that self-monitoring affected the students' understanding of the changes in the groups and the maintenance of the effects of Social Skills Training.

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Parents of children with developmental disabilities often make appropriate requests and consult with their children's teachers in order to receive special services for their children. In the present study, functional assertiveness training was conducted with five mothers of children with developmental disabilities. Functional assertiveness, which encourages the use of indirect speech, is considered a more polite form of self-expression. The effect of the training was evaluated using an AB design. The role-playing assessment employed a first interview scene with a homeroom teacher. The participants' requests and consulting behavior during the intervention were rated as being more polite and specific than those made in the baseline phase. Current school teachers (n=2) rated the mothers' assertiveness skills (requesting and consulting) during the intervention phase as being more desirable than those in the baseline phase.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of support for promoting and maintaining the school attendance behavior of a second-grade boy diagnosed with Asperger's disorder, who intermittently refused to go to school. As a result of an assessment, the following factors were found in the school setting: difficulties in relations with friends, difficulties with Chinese characters (the Japanese kanji writing system) , and problems at school events. The support program included (a) behavioral counseling for the parent, and (b) social skill training for the boy and his older brother. Support was provided in a 3-step phased approach. Step 1 was removal and reduction of disliked activities; Step 2, improvement in the boy's skills; and Step 3, maintenance of school attendance behavior, with the parent as supporter. Through this intervention, the boy's school attendance behavior was promoted and maintained. As a result of understanding the boy's characteristics, the parent could function as an independent supporter, promoting and maintaining the boy's school attendance behavior in the home setting, and also cooperating with the school.

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