The purposes of the present study were to develop the Children's Social Problem-Solving Scale (C-SPSS) and to examine the efficacy of a method of classroom-based social problemsolving training. In Study I, in which the Children's Social Problem-Solving Scale was developed, interpersonal conflict situations were collected from 92 children by an open-ended question method. Analysis of the data from 365 elementary school children (ages 10-12 years) indicated that the test-retest reliabilities of the Children's Social Problem-Solving Scale were moderate, and the content and construct validities were acceptable. In Study II, 43 children received social problem-solving training, while 45 children were a waiting-list control group. The results indicated that the problem-solving skills of the children in the social problemsolving training group improved from before to after training, whereas the children in the control group showed no improvement. In addition, interpersonal self-efficacy also improved in the training group but not in the control group. Potential clinical applicability of the Children's Social Problem-Solving Scale, the utility and limitations of social problem-solving training, and future directions were discussed.

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Self-statements by junior high school students about interpersonal stress situations at school were investigated in the present study, and the relation between their self-statements and psychological stress was analyzed. Junior high school students (N = 914) completed a selfstatement questionnaire on interpersonal situations in school. Factor analysis conducted to identify the structure of their self-statements revealed the following: (a) positive selfstatements included positive evaluations of situations and of coping with stressful situations; (b) negative self-statements included negative evaluations of the self, of others, and of situations, as well as statements about anxiety and avoidance of responsibilities. A t-test analysis of the differences in stress scores between the students with high and low self-statement frequencies indicated that the students with a high frequency of positive and negative selfstatements tended to have higher stress scores than did the students with a low frequency of self-statements.

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The purposes of the present study were to develop a Japanese version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPG) which comprehensively assesses schizotypy, and to investigate the multi-dimensionality of schizotypy. College students (N = 558) completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. The internal consistency of the scale and its test-retest reliability were sufficiently high (α=.63〜.86; r = .76 〜.86, respectively). The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire also was found to have high convergent validity, in that the correlation coefficients between it and the Schizotypal Personality Scale were moderate. When confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with the sample to compare 7 possible models, a 3-factor model of disorganization provided the best fit. Furthermore, cluster analysis revealed that participants could be categorized into 4 clusters, including a "high schizotypy" cluster, a "positive schizotypy" cluster, a "negative schizotypy" cluster, and a "low schizotypy" cluster. This suggests that each factor is different from the others. Although these results do not confirm that the difference in the factor structures is a result of the continuity between schizotypy and schizophrenia, the 3-factor structure of schizotypy might provide some insights into the symptoms of schizophrenia.

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The purposes of the present study were to implement class-wide social skills training (CSST) for third-grade children and to examine effects on their social skills acquisition, peer acceptance, and subjective reports of school adjustment. Class A (n=37) was the intervention group, and Class B (n=35) , a comparison group that received no class-wide social skills training. Rather, Class B was taught in the usual way. The teacher of Class A had reported interpersonal difficulties among the students. Based on a behavioral assessment of the children's peer relationship problems at school, "emotion understanding", "requesting", and "declining" were selected as the target skills. Following class-wide social skills training, the intervention group showed improvement in the 3 target skills. Peer acceptance also improved in the intervention group. The children in the intervention group were more likely to report an increased level of school adjustment at the 3-month follow-up. The increase in social adjustment was largest in those who had showed the lowest adjustment scores before the intervention. On the other hand, the school adjustment of the children in the comparison group did not change significantly.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of classroom-based social skills training (C-SST) on first grade elementary school students. The participants were 30 first-grade elementary school students (16 boys, 14 girls; 6-7 years old) in one class. The target skill was selected in cooperation with the teacher in charge of the class. We developed a classroom-based social skills training program that the students could work with easily and be readily motivated by. Classroom-based social skills training was done 2 times. Effects of the training were evaluated using teacher-reported target skill behavior scores, social skill scores, self-reported target skill behavior scores, and classroom satisfaction scores. The results suggest that the classroom-based social skills training improved the target skill behavior, social skills, and sociability.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of adding solution verification training and a relaxation procedure to problem-solving training (PST) for adolescents. One group of participants (n = 49 eighth-grade students) received traditional problem-solving training, i.e., 6 sessions on generation and evaluation of solutions. The other group (n = 62 eighth graders) received combined problem-solving training, in which solution verification training and a relaxation procedure were added to traditional problem-solving training. Problem-solving processes in the combined problem-solving training group showed greater improvement than did those in the traditional problem-solving training group. Furthermore, aggressive behavior in the combined group decreased more rapidly than did aggressive behavior in the other group. These results suggest that although the small number of intervention sessions limits the effectiveness of problem-solving training, participants' problem-solving processes are likely to be improved when problem-solving training includes solution verification training and a relaxation procedure.

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