The present study investigated the development of permutation operations in terms of both strategies for making permutations and conceptual understanding of permutations. In Study 1, 19 kindergartners, 21 2^<nd> graders, 21 4^<th> graders, 20 6^<th> graders, and 20 8^<th> graders performed tasks such as making permutations and predicting the number of possible permutations and the symmetrical relations (Nakagaki, 1979) of permutations. The results showed that conceptual understanding of permutations gradually develops as a generalized strategy for making permutations across various kinds of problems. In Study 2, the subjects were 47 5^<th> graders. The results of Study 1 were re-examined, and the results of Study 2 confirmed those of Study 1. In previous research, differences in performance across various kinds of permutation problems were explained by quantitative differences in information processing capacity, but the present study explained them in terms of qualitative differences in conceptual understanding.

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The present study verified how a mother's trust in her husband affected her daughter's evaluation of her father, and how the daughter's evaluation of the father affected her psychological well-being. We questioned 153 couples and their daughters (daughter's age range=17-28 years, mean=22.3, SD=2.2), and found the following. First, stronger maternal trust in the father was associated with a more positive recognition by the daughter of her relationship with her father. This reflected the mother's role as a go-between for the father-daughter relationship. Second, recognition of the father's supportive influence helped make the daughter feel prouder of herself, happier, more satisfied, and less likely to feel depressed. In conclusion, the perception of a supportive and positive influence from the father appears to be very important to the well-being of daughters.

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The relationship between mothers' emotional expressivity and children's temperament was examined in a sample of 311 mothers of children, ages 3 to 6 years. Mothers completed questionnaires about their own emotional expression (Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire-"SEFQ") and their children's temperament (Children's Behavior Questionnaire-"CBQ"). The results were as follows. First, the mother's expression of positive emotion was related to her child's degree of self-control, while a mother's expression of negative emotion was negatively related to her child's degree of self-control. Second, the mother's expression of negative emotion was related to her child's negative emotionality, but her expression of positive emotion was not related to her child's negative emotionality. Third, maternal expression was not related to her child's extraversion/surgency. Finally, each aspect of temperament (self-control, negative emotionality, extraversion/surgency) was mutually and negatively related. The results suggested that mothers' emotional expressivity reflected their role as a regulator of children's emotions. The discussion focused on the role of the environment as an influence on children's temperament.

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This research examined the effects of mastery on the depressive symptoms of mothers, from the viewpoint of coping. Mastery expresses a sense of control over various events, and was believed to be a psychological factor related to depressive symptoms of mothers. The authors conducted an investigation on depressive symptoms, mastery, coping, and stress. Of the 21 mothers who participated, nine had high mastery while five had low mastery. The results indicated that mothers with high mastery used a considerable amount of problem-focused coping, and did not readily develop depressive symptoms. In addition, these mothers attempted to expand their personal networks; hence, they acquired emotional support from more sources, compared to mothers with low mastery. Finally, it was suggested that even if mastery were high, depression increased when the situation did not improve. The discussion considered a method of intervention and support for mothers with depressive symptoms.

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This study examined factors related to co-parenting and differences between mothers and fathers, by focusing on the team-work between mothers and fathers in parenting. Participants were 185 dual-income couples with 3- to 6-year-old children (whether or not the couples had additional children was not considered). Path analysis of the data for fathers showed that "awareness of the mother's expectations for co-parenting and consultation by the mother" influenced "mutual understanding and adjustment," "division of the role as the child's playmate," and "division of care of the child." In addition, the father's "degree of positive attitude toward his parenting role" and "pleasant working environment" (i.e., coworkers were understanding about child care) were significant predictors of "mutual understanding and adjustment" and "division of care of the child." Maternal data were consistent with paternal data, demonstrating that "awareness of the father's expectations for co-parenting" and degree of the mother's positive attitude toward her parenting role influenced "mutual understanding and adjustments, "division of the role as the child's playmate" and "division of care of the child." Finally, mothers' responses indicated that "mutual understanding and adjustment" regarding parental responsibility was important for the mother's feeling of support by a "pleasant working environment," in that it offered support and understanding for people who balance work and parenting.

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This study examined the relationship between various levels of the understanding of lies and the action of telling a lie. Children ages 3-6 years (N=73) performed five tasks: (1) identification-participants judged whether a statement was a lie or the truth; (2) discrimination-children explained the difference between lies and truth; (3) definition-they explained the meaning of lies and truth; (4) lie/mistake-children discriminated between lies and mistakes; and (5) behavior-examined whether children could tell a lie as they were instructed. The results showed that older children correctly identified statements as a lie or truth, understood that lies and truth were different, and told a lie as they were so instructed. However, they could not explain the difference between and the notions of lies and truth. Additionally, younger children's lies were not plausible enough to deceive others.

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This study examined developmental processes of parent-child relations, in terms of the give and take of money between children and others. A questionnaire survey was conducted on students in the 5th grade of an elementary school (N=134), 2nd grade of a junior high school (N=225), and 2nd grade of a high school (N=173) in Osaka, Japan. The questions focused on the following points; how children get money, children's actual behavior and consciousness of social norms (judgments of right and wrong), peer relationships, and parent-child relationships, in relation to children's usage of money. The results showed the children's developmental processes of independence from their parents, and the formation of a social self. With age, they increased in their economic strength, purchasing activity, and earning activity, shifted from give and take of money under parental authority to use of money in peer relationships, and became independent of their parents' consciousness of norms. These data indicated that the developmental process of children-parent relationships is embedded in collaborative activities, as mediated by cultural tools and artifacts.

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Researchers have investigated young children's awareness of their own mental activity, but have not examined the factors contributing to the development of this introspective ability. The present study tested the hypothesis that recursive cognition about children's own mental states from other people's points of view (second-order false-belief understanding) was related to the development of introspective ability. In an experiment, 7-9 year old children (N=52) performed an introspection task and a second-order false-belief task. The results showed that children who passed the second-order false-belief task performed better on the introspection task than those who failed. This finding supported the hypothesis that understanding of second-order mental representation was related to the development of introspective ability. The discussion focused on possible interactions between these abilities, emphasizing the social-cognitive function of recursive thinking.

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Previous studies have reported conflicting findings about relations between narcissism and the psychological health of adolescents. A large-sample meta-analysis examined these relations, and the relations between narcissism and self-esteem. The index of narcissism was limited to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The index of psychological health included depression, anxiety, neuroticism, loneliness, and subjective well-being (life satisfaction and positive/negative affect). Relevant studies were obtained by electronic database, literature, and manual searches. This resulted in a sample of 35 studies from 29 articles about psychological health and 74 studies from 48 articles about self-esteem. The estimated population correlations were approximately 0.2 for psychological health and 0.3 for self-esteem. These values suggested that relations between narcissism and psychological health and self-esteem were both relatively weak. Further examination is necessary concerning different aspects of narcissism and psychological health.

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The present study examined how children expressed their own comprehension of text and how they listened to others' comprehension in classroom discussions. Elementary school 5th grade children in two classrooms (Class A: n=34, Class B: n=33) took part in observations and immediate recall tasks. The results included three main findings: (1) utterances of students who used the words in the text or referred to others' contributions stimulated other students to listening during discussions; (2) during discussions, teachers allowed students to return to the text, read it, and anticipate it again with specific queries; (3) students interacted actively when teachers revoiced students' utterances that were not clearly connected with the text. The frequencies of the students' utterances that included words of text or were connected with others' utterances differed between the two classes. These differences suggest that ground rules for classroom discussion were shared among students and affected their speaking and listening styles.

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