Sports facility workers in Japan are exposed to mental health risks due to the demand of job characteristics and job insecurity due to many temporary workers. The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of mental health of Japanese sports facility workers, using the New Brief Job Stress Checklist. The survey was conducted on 488 workers in the capital area sports facilities in Japan, among which 378 valid respondents (183 office staffs and 195 instructor staffs) were grouped and data were analyzed. The survey included Job stress measured by the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire, and Mental health measured by General Health Questionnaire. To examine associations between job stress and mental health, χ2 test, t-test and linear regression analyses models were conducted. As a result, the two groups showed different job stress factors. (1) Office staffs showed better status in terms of qualitative and physical demand than instructor staffs, and the instructor staffs showed better status in terms of application of skill, job insecurity, and meaning of job. (2) Instructor staffs showed a better mental health status. For office staffs, the quantitative demand, job control, meaning of job, and job insecurity had a significant relationship with mental health. For instructor staffs, the physical demand, interpersonal relationships, job insecurity had a significant relationship with mental health.

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The purpose of this study was to examine how affective experience changes while walking on Kumano Kodo. To this end, in May (Study 1) and September and October (Study 2) 2017, two questionnaire surveys were conducted for Japanese walkers on the Kumano Kodo trail. Based on the Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai et al., 2006), four types of affect (high-arousal positive, lowarousal positive, low-arousal negative, high-arousal negative) were measured. Results of Study 1 that focused on affective changes before and after walking on Kumano Kodo revealed that lowarousal negative affect significantly decreased after walking. Results of Study 2 that focused on the four phases (five survey points) affective changes during walking on Kumano Kodo identified that only high-arousal positive affect changed according to the peak model (Clawson & Knetsch, 1966). In conclusion, this study indicates that affective changes while walking on Kumano Kodo vary not only in the valence dimension (i.e., positive vs. negative), but also in the arousal dimension (i.e., high- vs. low-arousal).

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Even though there is abundant constraint research in the context of leisure, little attention has been paid to the empirical examination of volunteer constraints in a sporting event. The present study aimed at understanding the theoretical construct of volunteer constraints in a sporting event and explored the influence of age, gender, and participating groups on volunteer constraints. Data were collected from 584 volunteers at the Kobe Marathon 2016. First, the results of CFA indicated that volunteer constraints were divided into three factors: (1) structural, (2) intrapersonal, and (3) interpersonal. Second, the results of one-way ANOVA demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference in the three factor constraints among the following age groups: 20 years, 20– 29 years, 30–49 years, and 50 years (p ＜ .001). Third, the results of the t-test showed that there was a significant difference in structural and intrapersonal constraints between males and females (p ＜ .001). Finally, the results of the t-test also revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in structural constraints between first-time participants and repeaters (p ＜ .05). Based on the above findings, it is concluded that volunteer constraints in a sporting event differ from age, gender, and participating groups.

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