The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between students' trust in their friends and their school adjustment. Junior high school students (N=563) completed a questionnaire. The results were as follows: First, exploratory factor analysis of the scale for students' trust in their friends revealed 3 factors: “sense of security in friends,” “distrust toward friends,” and “sense of dependability toward friends.” Second, the scores on “sense of security in friends,” “distrust toward friends,” and “sense of dependability toward friends” were significantly different according to the students' grade level and students' gender. Finally, students' trust in their friends was correlated with their school adjustment, and the correlation differed according to the students' grade level and students' gender.

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Psychological factors affecting the disclosure of personal information in social networking services (SNS) were investigated. In a web-based survey, users of Mixi (N=1051), a popular Japanese SNS, were asked about their disclosure of personal information in their Mixi profiles and about psychological factors such as attitude toward information privacy. Results indicated that those with low information privacy regarding their demographics (e.g., sex) and personal identity (e.g., real name) were prone to sharing elements of their profiles with the general public and to expressing more about their inner self in their profiles. Need for popularity and risk perception about crime positively affected tendency toward expressing the inner self in their profiles.

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In this study, we examined attention control as a factor moderating the association between mindfulness and well-being and examined the effect of attention regulation on that relationship in 145 university students. The results of the analysis indicated a main effect of observing and attention regulation on subjective well-being (SWB) and a main effect of observing, describing, nonreacting, and attention regulation on psychological well-being (PWB). Moreover, attention regulation moderated the effect of observing and SWB, and when observing was high, SWB was high. Further, attention regulation moderated the effect of describing and PWB, and when describing was high, PWB was high. These results indicated that it is necessary to observe an experience equally so that observing promotes SWB and suggested that flexible attentional control is necessary to observe experiences equally. The results also indicated that it is necessary to describe inner experiences accurately so that describing promotes PWB and suggested that high-functioning attentional regulation helps individuals verbalize inner experiences correctly.

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Recent studies have focused on “transportation into narratives,” conceptualizing narrative experiences through which readers are lost in the narrative world. In the current study, we translated two scales assessing narrative transportation: the Narrative Transportation Scale (NTS-J), developed by Green and Brock (2000), and a short form of the Narrative Transportation Scale (NTS-SF), developed by Appel et al. (2015). Studies 1 (N=920) and 2 (N=275) demonstrated that these scales not only have sufficient reliability but also a correlation with scales measuring imaginative involvement and literary response, suggesting criterion-related validity. Confirmatory factor analysis based on a one-factor model expected from previous studies revealed that the NTS-J had low goodness-of-fit indices. However, the same analysis of the NTS-SF showed better indices. Although the factor structure of the NTS remains to be investigated, the Japanese version of the NTS contributes to psychological research on reading narratives and empirical studies in the literature.

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This study investigated the effects of intentional suppression and negative mood on mind wandering during a lecture. Participants were asked to record their thoughts when cues were presented by the lecturer and to rate to what extent their attention was either on the lecture or on concerns unrelated to the lecture. Results indicated that the degree of intentional suppression predicted decreased mind wandering. However, negative mood mediated the relationship between intentional suppression and mind wandering. When participants had high levels of negative mood during the lecture, intentional suppression did not decrease mind wandering. These findings suggest that negative mood induces cognitive depletion and interferes with intentional suppression of mind wandering. The role of thought suppression in understanding the mechanisms underlying mind wandering is discussed.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and depression in preteen children, as mediated by parental attitudes toward child-rearing and by children's self-esteem. Questionnaires were completed by the mothers, fathers, and children (5th grade at elementary school) of 210 families. Mothers rated their children's inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Mothers and fathers were asked to answer questions regarding warm parental attitudes toward children and parent-child conflicts. Children completed self-report questionnaires regarding self-esteem and depression. The results indicated that children's inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity negatively correlated with parental warm attitudes and positively correlated with parent-child conflicts. Mothers' warmer attitude was related to children's lower depression, which was mediated by children's higher self-esteem. Fathers' attitude toward child-rearing was not related to children's self-esteem, but children's inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity were directly related to children's self-esteem.

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There are no useful scales that assess romantic jealousy multidimensionally in Japanese, and also, many issues that need improvement can be noted in representative jealousy scales such as the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale by Pfeiffer & Wong (1989). This study was conducted to develop the Multidimensional Scale of Jealousy in Romantic Relationships to assess components of romantic jealousy referred to in previous studies and to make some improvements. Three components of romantic jealousy were hypothesized: suspicious cognition, exclusive emotion, and cautious behavior. The results from 234 undergraduates showed three factors indicated by exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and high internal consistency. The results also showed concurrent validity with the “Mania love style” and construct validity with scales measuring fear of abandonment, reassurance-seeking, and intimacy.

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The purpose of this study was to create a scale to measure career development levels in female university students and identify any influences exerted by attachment to parents. The findings revealed that a secure base of attachment to parents had a positive influence on realization, commitment, planning, and goal setting in career development. In addition, the safe haven of attachment to parents had a positive influence on self-understanding.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate features and the structure of life skills in persons with high levels of sense of coherence (SOC). Welch's t-test indicated that the persons with the higher level of SOC showed higher life skills in planning, knowledge summarization, self-esteem, positive thinking, intimacy, and leadership than those with a lower level of SOC. Moreover, hierarchical cluster analysis by Ward method and structural equation modeling suggested that persons with the higher level of SOC showed life skills with a consistent hierarchical structure.

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