This study investigated the worry and stress associated with high school entrance examinations, mothers' and children's later recall about the entrance exams, and the influence of mothers' social support on their children. Mothers (N＝3,085) and their children completed an Internet-based questionnaire. The results indicated that children experienced various worries and stresses connected with the entrance examinations, and that many children also had feelings of self-growth as a result of the examinations. Children gained a sense of fulfillment by studying and felt that the entrance examinations were overall a positive experience. Social support from the mothers had both positive and negative effects on children. This support promoted a sense of self-fulfillment through self-development as a result of studying, but also contributed to children's worry and stress.

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The present study investigated the development of assertive expression of anger among preschool and elementary school children. In the experiment, 110 children ages 5–7 were presented hypothetical stories involving interpersonal conflicts with peers, and they were asked about the facial expressions of the protagonists. They heard four stories, two of which were about facial expressions and the other two were about both facial and verbal expressions. Sixth- and 7-year-olds chose the more intense angry facial expression than did the 5-year-olds, when the protagonist expressed his emotion only facially. In addition, 7-year-olds chose the more intense angry facial expression when the protagonist expressed his emotion by face alone, compared to when he expressed anger both facially and verbally. Finally, 7-year-olds understood the positive function of anger expression to inform others of one's intention. Therefore, the results suggest that the understanding of the assertive expression of anger develops between ages 5 to 7.

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How do parents communicate with babies before their infants learn to talk? It has been observed that parents use Parental Proxy Talk (PPT) as if the speech came from the infant's own voice. In other words, PPT reflects their expectations what the infants were thinking and feeling. The present study of PPT explored how PPT functions from birth to 15 months of age, and how PPT contributes to communication with pre-verbal infants. Dyadic interactions of twelve mothers with their infants were observed and analyzed. The results showed that there were three periods in the development of the use of PPT; (1) a gradual increase between 0–3 months, (2) a peak period from 6–9 months, and (3) a period of decreasing use of PPT from 12–15 months. The study also showed that PPT functions to support not only the pre-verbal infants but also parents themselves, e.g., in parents' emotion regulation.

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This study investigated whether preschool children give a “don't know” response to an unanswerable question, and developmental changes in “don't know” responses. Participants were 4-year olds (n＝27), 5-year olds (n＝31) and 6-year olds (n＝33). On each of three tasks, participants were asked both answerable and unanswerable questions. To elicit more “don't know” responses, a Question Card was used which visually indicated the “don't know” state. Four-year old children correctly indicated a “don't know” response to the unanswerable question, and the “don't know” response was less prevalent in 5-year old children. In addition, there were non-verbal indications of a “don't know” state other than a clear “don't know” response. These results suggest that the point in development when children can correctly say “I don't know” is earlier than previous research had indicated, and that the meaning of the “don't know” response in 4-year old children is not the same as that for 5- and 6-year olds.

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Pictures are one of the important communication tools used by young children. The present study clarified the development of intention in young children's drawings, examining developmental changes in children's naming of drawings in a communication situation. Preschoolers (20 2-year olds, 26 3-year olds, 29 4-year olds, and 30 5-year olds) were asked individually to draw a figure (e.g., a circle: without-naming condition) and a figure which was named by an experimenter and child (e.g., a circle labeled an apple: pre-naming condition). After the drawing session, an experimenter asked three test questions: (1) “What is this?”; (2) “It looks like ‘X' (e.g., ‘a red light'). Which picture did you draw?”; and (3) “What picture were you going to draw at first?” The results showed that although 2-year olds decided to draw an object, significantly fewer of them answered with pre-naming (e.g., an apple). These 3-, 4- and 5-year olds answered with pre-naming even though they were given different names by the experimenter. In addition, significantly more 5-year olds accepted the naming from the experimenter, compared with the 2- and 3-year olds.

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This study investigated relations between scores on the Nursery Teacher's Rating Development Scale for Children (NDSC) and school adaptation, as well as the predictability of school adaptation based on NDSC scores. Two kinds of data were available for 386 toddlers: the NDSC as completed by nursery school teachers in the previous academic year at nursery school, and the Teacher's Rating School Adaptation Scale for Elementary School Students-All Student Version (TSSA-EA) completed by elementary school teachers six months after these children finished nursery school. Analyses of correlations between the NDSC and TSSA-EA revealed a relation between the NDSC scores and school adaptation. Multiple linear regression analyses and risk analyses indicated that the subscales of the NDSC predicted the following subscales of the TSSA-EA: Academic Problems, Psychosomatic Problems, Interpersonal Problems, and Emotional Problems.

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The goals of this study were to examine the hypothesis that psycho-social self-identity has an effect on the active learning of students by mediating their intrinsic motivation for grades. A university sample of 131 freshmen, 264 sophomores and 279 juniors (N＝674) completed a questionnaire. First, based on mediational analysis, correlations showed that psycho-social self-identity, active learning of students, and intrinsic motivation were all positively correlated at all three years of college. Second, the results of multiple-population analysis showed that the hypothetical model (i.e., that psycho-social self-identity has an effect on the attitudes of students by mediating their intrinsic motivation for grades) fit the data regardless of college year. Finally, to examine the relationships among variables correctly, a boot strapping method revealed indirect effects of intrinsic motivation for all three groups. These results indicate that psycho-social self-identity and intrinsic motivation assume a crucial role in promoting the active learning of students.

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This study examined the reciprocal relationship between intelligence and depressive symptoms over time, in an elderly Japanese sample. Participants (age range＝65–79: N＝725) were from the first wave of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences Longitudinal Study of Aging (NILS-LSA). They were tested three times and followed for about 4 years. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and intelligence was assessed by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised Short Forms (WAIS-R-SF). Structural equation modeling with a cross-lagged panel design showed that intelligence was related to subsequent depressive symptoms at every time point, such that poorer cognitive functioning was related to higher depressive symptoms. However, depressive symptoms were unrelated to subsequent intelligence. These findings suggest that intellectual ability may predict depressive symptoms in community-dwelling Japanese elderly adults.

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This research investigated the roles of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory among 2nd and 3rd graders (N＝160) when posing subtraction problems in “Combine” and “Compare” scenes. The problem in the Combine scene was concerned with the relationship between a set and a subset. The Compare scene problem was concerned with the relationship between two different sets. Children with higher scores for verbal working memory posed the subtraction problem with appropriate expressions and information congruent with the pictures presented in the Combine scene, in comparison to children with lower scores for verbal working memory. Children with higher scores for visuo-spatial working memory posed the subtraction problem with appropriate expressions and information congruent with the pictures presented in the Compare scene, compared to children with lower visuo-spatial working memory scores. These results suggest that verbal and visuo-spatial working memories play different roles for children's understanding of Combine and Compare scenes, and that different approaches are required to provide instruction on problems consisting of these two types of scenes.

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This research examined the relationships among phonological awareness, vocabulary, and spelling in English among Japanese children. Phoneme isolation from words, blending phonemes into words, and phoneme deletion from words were used to assess phonological awareness in English, based on the work of Stahl and Murray (1994). The participants were 73 first- and second-grade junior high school students. While the second-grade students had better vocabulary knowledge, there were no differences in phonological awareness and spelling between the two groups. Their errors in phonological awareness were mainly mora-based, i.e., the students answered based on morae instead of phonemes. The results of hierarchical regression analysis, with vocabulary as a dependent variable, showed that grade and spelling explained more than fifty percent of the variance. Phonological awareness, especially phoneme blending, explained a significant amount of the spelling results. Phoneme-based phonological awareness rather than mora-based awareness is apparently needed for the acquisition of spelling knowledge by Japanese children, which in turn is closely related to the acquisition of vocabulary.

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