The impact of parenting on the family orientation of university students and their identity formation during adolescence was investigated to identify parenting styles that promoted identity integration and minimized confusion. In addition, cooperation between fathers and mothers was analyzed to explain parenting styles. The results indicated that students of both genders who were raised by parents with an authoritative style more often evaluated that their parents cooperated in raising them compared with those who were raised with other parenting styles. Moreover, identity integration was significantly higher among students who were raised with an authoritative parenting style than among those raised with an authoritarian and uninvolved parenting style, whereas the opposite outcome was seen for identity confusion. Therefore, it was concluded that in the process of identity formation during adolescence, parenting styles that are responsive to children are essential, as is putting demands on them to mature based on proper criteria, i.e. disciplining them. However, further discussion is required about the fact that no differences were seen for the permissive parenting style.

Recently, the adaptive function of resignation in psychological health is widely noted, especially from the standpoint of its relationship with mindfulness and acceptance. In this study, we developed two scales: one for measuring the stress-monitoring intention and one for measuring adaptive resignation. Then, we examined the relationship between stress-monitoring intention and psychological health in the light of the adaptive function of resignation. A questionnaire study was carried out with 600 Japanese workers in their 20s to 40s (300 males and 300 females: mean age = 35.37 years, SD = 7.66 years). The questionnaire’s reliability and validity were demonstrated. Mediation analysis revealed mediated effects of adaptive resignation in the relationship between stress-monitoring intention and psychological health. This result suggested that stress-monitoring intention has a dual face to psychological health, and the adaptive resignation eases the negative relationship, and amplifies the positive relationship. Finally, the meaning of this study’s results in terms of cognitive behavioral therapy and stress education in Japan are discussed.

We examined the hypothesis that the effect of signaling on students' prose comprehension is significant only when structure strategies are deficient during production. Participants included first-year high school students (N = 120, mean age 16.0) and university students (N = 120, mean age 20.8). Students' tendencies to use structure strategies were evaluated and classified as lower-structure (LS) or upper-structure (US) strategy using the median (23 high school students and 25 university students). Participants performed sentence arrangement, recall, and reconstruction tasks. Each task consisted of expository sentences with or without signaling. The results indicated the following: (a) Signaling facilitated structure identification in organizational processes in the US strategy group of high school students, which improved their prose comprehension, whereas no effects were evident in the LS strategy group. (b) An identical effect was seen in the LS strategy group of university students, whereas it was not observed in the US strategy group. These results support our hypothesis. The boundary conditions for the effect of signaling on students' prose comprehension are discussed from the perspective of the production deficiency in structure strategy.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a useful evaluation measure of medical, health, and welfare activities, but it is difficult to apply it at the individual level. To solve this problem, we analyzed a widely used HRQOL instrument, the Medical Outcomes Study short form-36 (SF-36), using latent rank theory (LRT) to try to identify findings useful for supporting health care activities. We analyzed data from 2952 people obtained in a population health survey. In Analysis 1, we examined the feasibility of applying LRT. In Analysis 2, we performed qualitative interpretation analysis of the LRT results of Analysis 1 to determine more effective use of support activities in local public health care. Analysis 1 showed that LRT could properly extract information from SF-36 data. In Analysis 2, the LRT results allowed for the classification of each subject based on HRQOL status. The method would therefore be useful for determining appropriate interventions and selecting subjects for interventions. This study demonstrated a new methodology to more effectively use HRQOL measures in health care and psychological support.

This research aimed to develop a Japanese version of the Humiliation Inventory (HI-J) and to examine the validity and reliability of the HI-J. In Study 1, two subscales (cumulative humiliation and fear of humiliation) from the original Humiliation Inventory were used. Next, to examine the reliability of the subscales, an α coefficient was calculated. The α coefficients indicated that each subscale was internally consistent (α = .86 and .87, respectively). Furthermore, to examine the validity of the HI-J, when calculating the correlation coefficient with the predicted related variable, it was confirmed that each subscale was positively correlated with hostility, state humiliation, state embarrassment, and state guilt. In Study 2, sufficient retest reliability was confirmed for each subordinate scale of the HI-J (rs = .68 and .70, respectively). Based on these results, the HI-J was confirmed as a valid and reliable measurement of humiliating experiences.

This study aimed to examine the crime scene behavior and general characteristics of individuals who commit product-tampering crimes related to food. In total, 121 cases of product tampering that occurred in Japan from 1981 to 2016, in which the offender was arrested, underwent cross-table analysis and multiple correspondence analysis. The results identified five types of product-tampering crimes that differed according to the foreign matter used: “use of a needle or something similar”; “use of bits of metal or something similar”; “use of medication, including psychotropic drugs”; “use of an agrichemical or pesticide”; and “use of a detergent”. The crime scene behaviors and characteristics of the offenders differed according to the foreign matter used, and such differences may relate to the type of adulterant that is mixed into the food or drink. The findings of this study will be useful for systematizing product-tampering crimes and will contribute to food-defense and product-tampering criminal investigations.

The Caregiving System Scale (CSS: Shaver, Mikulincer, & Shemesh-Iron, 2010) was recently developed measure designed to assess the individual differences in the caregiving internal working model. The purpose of the present study was to translate the CSS into Japanese (CSS-J) and evaluate its validity and reliability. To accomplish this, we conducted four studies. In Study 1 (n = 600), we translated the CSS and replicated its two-factor model based on confirmatory factor analysis. After that, in Study 2 (n = 315), we examined the correlations between the CSS and other variables for criterion-related validation. In Study 3 (n = 229), we determined that previous helping success or failure experiences influenced a person’s current anxiety and avoidance levels, as measured by the CSS-J. In Study 4 (n = 31), we examined the test-retest reliability of the CSS-J among some participants from Study 3. The results of these four studies confirmed the validity and reliability of the CSS-J. We concluded that the CSS-J is useful for studying the various aspects of helping and attachment theory.

This study developed a motivational regulation strategies scale for cooperative learning, and examined the relationships among strategies, motivational factors, and engagements. First, a self-reported questionnaire with open-ended questions was administered to 261 undergraduates, and 46 items were developed for the motivational regulation strategies scale. Next, a self-reported questionnaire pertaining to these items was administered to 284 undergraduates. A factor analysis indicated a five-factor structure for motivational regulation strategies in cooperative learning. The results of a partial correlation analysis among these strategies, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value supported the construct validity of the scale. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that behavioral engagement was positively correlated with strategies to enhance a sense of duty, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value. Emotional engagement was positively correlated with active interaction strategies, strategies for structuring learning activities, and intrinsic value, and was negatively correlated with strategies to enhance a sense of duty. The effect of motivational regulation strategies on cooperative learning is discussed based on the present findings.

In speech, paralinguistic information and lexical content may convey different emotions simultaneously. To infer a speaker’s emotion from speech, adults are likely to rely on paralinguistic information, while young children tend to rely on lexical content. This tendency to rely on lexical content is called a lexical bias. The present study aims to reveal the developmental trajectory of the emotional inference of speech by testing Japanese children aged 3 to 9 years. We also examine the degree to which children override their lexical bias as they become better able to use paralinguistic information to correctly understand emotions. The results show that every year, Japanese children give more weight to paralinguistic information than to lexical content in judging a speaker’s emotion during speech. However, the results also suggest that the lexical bias cannot be sufficiently overridden by improved sophistication in emotional inference from paralinguistic information alone.

Children’s community sports require assistance of parents, such as in overseeing practices and in transportation to and from game venues; this means that parents are deeply involved with the teams. Parents have both positive and negative experiences with respect to their children’s sports activities. As a qualitative survey, this study aimed to clarify the kind of negative experiences that mothers have regarding their children’s community sports activities and to explore the conditions necessary for building a better team environment. Eight mothers with children who belonged to the community sports team until “retirement” were interviewed. Through analysis using M-GTA, the six categories were extracted: Problems concerning children’s competitive activities, problems with coaches, difficulties in balancing their own lives and the children’s activities, problems concerning the interference from and expectations of fathers, problems related to roles and duties, and relationship problems between mothers. Based on these results, educational intervention for parents was shown to be necessary, and recommendations for the future sports environment are presented.

This study examined the lay theory characteristics of “modern-type” depression using a text mining method. A total of 225 undergraduate students filled in a questionnaire. They answered questions about the characteristics and causes of as well as reasons for “modern-type” depression using free-form text entry. Then, they answered questions about their sources of information on “modern-type” depression. The results showed that participants mainly described that “modern-type” depression is common among young people and that people with “moderntype” depression lack awareness of the illness. Also, participants indicated that they obtained knowledge about “modern-type” depression from different information sources such as television and the internet.