This study aimed to clarify the process through which resident mothers maintained fathers' parenting time with their children following separation or divorce. The narratives of 10 resident mothers who maintained the fathers' parenting visitation time were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The results indicated that upon granting parenting visitation time to the father, mothers had no confidence in their children's interests. Mothers maintained parenting time by wavering between holding expectations for the father and expecting them to desert. Furthermore, mothers alternated between feeling anxious and secure regarding parenting time while not knowing whether the father's parenting time would benefit the child. The following factors also affected the process: feelings of loss, feeling overwhelmed with childcare, and having peer support. The study's results regarding the difficulty of parenting time and the factor of the continuation of parenting time were also discussed.

This study investigated the cognition of kawaii (cute in English) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), focusing on gaze allocation and baby schema. Individuals with ASD are believed to have a different cognition of kawaii from those who underwent typical development (TD). Previous studies have shown that kawaii causes sociality, with ASD individuals experiencing difficulties in social communication. In the present study, 16 ASD individuals and 24 TD control participants looked at manipulated images of baby schema (manipulated eye size and cheek swelling) and then rated them according to their cuteness, measuring eye gaze with an eye tracker. The results showed that baby schema has no effect in the cuteness cognition of the ASD group, who exhibited shorter eye fixation time in the image than the TD group. In addition, the ASD group looked closely at the eyes of the images they rated as “cute,” suggesting that cute images lead to certain changes in the gaze of ASD individuals.

This study seeks to clarify psychological and social maladjustments in children who exhibit strong feelings of gender dysphoria (GD). This study surveyed 58 people who experience persistent feelings of and have been diagnosed with GD as well as 5,221 students (grades 4–9). The GD group answered questions about their feelings during childhood. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed 20 points to be the cut-off on the scale. Moreover, 0.82% of boys and 2.02% of girls in elementary schools and 0.60% of boys and 3.27% of girls in middle schools scored over 20. Compared to others, these students displayed higher rates of depression, aggression, peer problems, a desire for thinness, bulimia, self-injury, and delinquent behaviors. Specifically, boys with stronger feelings of GD showed a higher rate of peer problems and abnormal eating behaviors when compared to girls. Therefore, this essay discusses how psychological and social maladjustments are mediated by personal relationships.

The present study comprehensively examined the causal effects of various free-time activities (learning, reading, playing outdoors, viewing television, playing video games, and using cellular phones) on academic achievement and emotional–behavioral adjustment (prosocial behavior, peer relationships, depression, and aggression) using large-scale longitudinal data obtained from 5,408 elementary and junior high school students (2,729 boys and 2,679 girls). Results from the two models (lagged effects and simultaneous effects models) used to test the causal relationships among variables were highly consistent. The findings showed the following: (1) learning and reading positively affected, while playing outdoors negatively affected academic achievement; (2) playing outdoors and learning positively affected, while reading and playing video games (solo playing) negatively affected emotional–behavioral adjustment. These results suggest that indoor activities requiring large amounts of cognitive processing contribute to academic development and that activities performed with friends or parents lead to emotional–behavioral development. Notably, since the above results were not necessarily consistent with previous findings in Western countries, they may reflect sociocultural factors specific to Japan.