Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether the Ichizen Psychoeducational Program was effective in improving self‒injuring tendencies and negative emotions scores (depression, anxiety, and anger) through an intervention trial.

Methods: The subjects were 74 university students. Participants were asked to choose either the intervention or control group (quasi‒experimental design). In their daily course of life, the intervention group (38 valid responses) was asked to do at least one good deed per day, and keep a record of their deeds. By contrast, the control group (36 valid responses) was not given any instructions.

Results: The results of the analysis of the low‒high self‒injury tendency group showed that the intervention group with high self‒injury tendency had significantly lower self‒injury tendency and depression, and anxiety scores in the Post and Follow groups than the control group with high self‒injury tendency.

Conclusions: The results suggest that the Ichizen Psychoeducation program may effectively alleviate self‒injuring tendencies and negative emotions among college students with such disorders.

This study investigated the association between friendships and unmitigated communion among contemporary adolescents, focusing on gender differences and related motivations. Although the existence of non‒interfering youths has been established, we deemed it necessary to concentrate on interfering youths and examine unmitigated communion. This study was conducted in January 2020 and included 376 college students (232 female students). Comparison of multiple models using structural equation modeling indicated that both male and female participants, high unmitigated communion was associated with “hurt avoidance” via an internalized motivation. Additionally, male participants, high unmitigated communion was associated with “hypomanic relationships” via an intrinsic motivation. The study findings suggest that male adolescents with high unmitigated communion exhibit more adaptive traits and motivation than their female counterparts. These results imply that future research should consider adolescents with interfering characteristics such as unmitigated communion when investigating friendships among contemporary adolescents.

This study aimed to clarify the concept of an “adolescent” as perceived by adolescents themselves. Participants were mainly undergraduate students (N = 179) who responded to survey items about their impression of adolescents, the ages when adolescence begins and ends, and criteria for such recognition. Five impressions of adolescents were identified: positioning in life, positive evaluation, negative evaluation, socio‒cultural, and related impressions. The mean ages at which undergraduates perceived adolescence to begin and end were 16.37 years (SD = 2.38) and 25.37 years (SD = 5.93), respectively. The most common reasons for recognizing the start of adolescence were school transition, psychological changes, and timing of development. The most common reasons for recognizing the end of adolescence were transition to adulthood, school transition, and social change. The results of the analysis indicated that undergraduate students do not have a strong sense regarding the term “adolescent,” that some adolescents use the period in their lives characterized by events such as school transition and social changes to mark the beginning and end of their adolescence, and that understanding the concept of an “adolescent” is meaningful to adolescents themselves.