In this study, the relationship between preventive behavior against COVID-19 and the behavioral standards of Japanese people was examined in order to determine whether or not shame/embarrassment mediates this relationship. A crowdsourced online survey was conducted in late May 2020 with 510 participants (mean age = 41.42, SD = 10.00, range = 20–81). Structural equation modeling indicated that peer standards suppressed both men’s and women’s general avoidance of the “three Cs”: closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings. In men, regional standards/care for others directly promoted preventive actions such as mask-wearing and disinfection, in addition to the three Cs avoidance. Furthermore, these preventive actions were promoted through shame/embarrassment. Alternatively, for women, while regional standards/care for others directly promoted preventive actions such as mask-wearing and disinfection, shame/embarrassment did not mediate the relationship between their action standards and preventive behaviors. The relationship between the behavioral standards and people’s preventive behaviors against COVID-19, as well as the impact of shame/embarrassment on their preventive behavior, are discussed.

This study aimed to investigate high school student-athletes’ mental health, stressors, stress responses, and life skills (LS) during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the effect of stressors and LS on stress responses. An online survey was conducted from July to November 2020, and 1,348 student-athletes and 662 non-athletes who were in high schools in the western part of Japan participated. Findings illustrated that student-athletes’ mental health seemed to be worse compared to pre-COVID-19 data. The levels of athletes’ perceived stressors, stress responses, and LS were significantly different depending on gender, grade, and competitive level. Multiple regression analysis showed that perceived COVID-19-related stressors significantly related to stress responses while LS were a significant moderator of the relationship.

The present study investigates the changes in school satisfaction of high school students in credit-based schools. A total of 315 students (boys = 141, girls = 174) participated in longitudinal study surveys conducted annually during their high school years (a total of three surveys). The results of the latent growth curve model indicated that approved as a classmate increased, while infringed and maladjustment decreased. Furthermore, it was shown that the changes in approved as a classmate and infringed and maladjustment were linked. In addition, as a result of the growth mixture model, three profiles were extracted: (a) a profile similar to the latent growth curve model, (b) a profile in which there was no change in approved as a classmate but an increase in infringed and maladjustment, and (c) a profile in which there was no longitudinal change in either approved as a classmate or infringed and maladjustment. Based on these results, the direction of educational support in credit-based high schools and future prospects were discussed.

Other-race effect (ORE) refers to the phenomenon of better recognition of faces of one’s own race than those of other races. ORE has been reported in many situations, yet it has not been fully explored in the paradigm of visual statistical learning (VSL). In Experiment 1, we utilized the VSL paradigm to assess the ORE of infants aged 6－8 months. The infants were shown the familiar pattern of face stimulus components in the own-race or other-race condition. Surprisingly, the results showed that both the own-race and other-race faces were recognized, and no significant ORE was found in the infants who had presented ORE in previous studies. In Experiment 2, we tested adults’ ORE. The participants viewed a sequence of faces. Then, a test was conducted to examine whether they could differentiate the familiar triplets. Additionally, we showed them the faces in sequential and reversed order to investigate the generalization. In the results, although VSL couldn’t be generalized, a robust ORE through VSL was exhibited. Overall, these results suggest that ORE has a developmental trajectory.

This study aimed to develop an Interpersonal Curiosity Scale. In Study 1, a questionnaire with a preliminary pool of 56 items was administered to undergraduates, and from these, 11items were selected. The main survey was administered to college students (n = 839) and as a web-based survey (n = 1,500). Factor analysis revealed three factors: curiosity about personal emotions, curiosity about privacy, and curiosity about personal attributes. Cronbachʼs alpha showed that these subscales had sufficient reliability. In Study 2, the validity of the Interpersonal Curiosity Scale was examined using the Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale, the Sensation Seeking Scale, the Multidimensional Empathy Scale, and the Psychological Well-being Scale. The results of correlation analysis confirmed the validity of the three subscales. Implications about using the Interpersonal Curiosity Scale are further discussed.

The “inability to switch off from work” — thinking about work during personal lives — is one of the barriers to work-life balance. However, there is a lack of empirical research on the factors, and effective ways to support work-life balance have not been clarified because there is no scale to measure it. This study’s purpose is to develop the “Inability to Switch off from Work Scale.” We conducted a cross-sectional survey and obtained data from 416 full-time employees. The results of factor analysis indicated a three-factor structure consisting of “emotional recall” (α = .89), “work ability pessimism” (α = .94), and “problem solving” (α = .90). There were significant correlations with mental health problems and related concepts: psychological detachment and repetitive negative thinking. The partial correlation with mental health problems was observed even when related concepts were controlled. Furthermore, the results supported the hypothesis about the mediation effects of the “inability to switch off,” between workload and mental health problems. In general, the results support the reliability and construct validity of the new scale.

In this study, we surveyed 1,200 parents who had children aged 3－7 years, and developed a Parental Strategies for Extrinsic Regulation of Children’s Emotions Scale. This scale measures how parents regulate two of their children’s negative emotions: fear/anxiety and anger. Following a previous study, we developed five subscales of emotion regulation strategies (situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, reappraisal, and suppression) for each emotion scale (fear/anxiety and anger). Half of the participants were asked to report the extent to which they used each of the extrinsic emotion regulation strategies with fearful and anxious children, and the other half with angry children. The results of confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a five-factor model as hypothesized, and the scale showed moderate internal consistency. There was also a significant positive correlation between situational modification/reappraisal and children’s adaptation. The inter-subscale correlations and associations with other concepts were generally as hypothesized, indicating that this scale has sufficient reliability and validity.

The Emotion and Arousal Checklist (EACL) is a 33-item questionnaire developed to assess psychological states at a given moment and during the past week. We examined the application of this checklist to assess psychological states during the past month. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses identified nine subscales, similar to a previous study, which measured psychological states at a given moment and in the past week. The internal consistency of these subscales was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha. Study 2 confirmed the test-retest reliability at the one-week interval. In Study 3, the participants rated their psychological states during the past week four times at the one-week interval and during the past month at the fourth measurement. Reliability was demonstrated by the correlation between the mean of four times one-week measurement and the measurement for during the past month. Study 4 demonstrated criteria-related validity by comparing the subscale scores between the high- and low-stress groups. These studies confirmed the reliability and validity of the EACL for assessing psychological states during the past month.

A new method for measuring implicit self-esteem was developed: asking a person how much they like their name. One previous study which tested the validity of this name-liking measure with using mainly Westerner as participants found that the measure was positively correlated with the self-esteem Implicit Association Test (IAT), the name-letter task, and explicit self-esteem measures. In this study, we examined whether name-liking is an indicator of implicit self-esteem in Japan. In six studies, 646 participants completed the self-esteem IAT, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and name-liking measure. Meta-analysis showed that name-liking was positively correlated with the Rosenberg self-esteem scale but not significantly correlated with the self-esteem IAT. These results suggest that, in Japan, name-liking cannot be used as a substitute for the self-esteem IAT, which is the most commonly used measure of implicit self-esteem.

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarity in chronic regulatory focus (promotion/prevention) among mothers and daughters of young, middle, and older ages. A survey was conducted using the shortened 10- item form of the Japanese version of the promotion/prevention focus scale, and 77 sets of grandmothers (77.79 ± 5.61 years), their daughters (49.26 ± 4.12 years), and their granddaughters (20.17 ± 3.89 years) were studied as a part of the analysis. I compared scores on the promotion/prevention focus scale between grandmothers and their daughters (older age group) and granddaughters and their mothers (younger age group). The results show that the strength of a daughters’ promotion and prevention focus was similar to that of their mothers’ in the younger age group. On the other hand, only the strength of daughters’ prevention focus was similar to that of their mothers’ in the older age group. The results of this study suggest that daughters may be similar to their mothers, as they age, in their strategies to adapt to changes that focus on loss and risk.