ABSTRACT
THE JAPANESE JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (2018, vol.29)

Vol.29 No.1

OGAWA, Motoi & TAKAGI, Hideaki: The Processes and Characteristics of a Mother’s Forgiveness towards Her Child: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents and Their Mothers.

The issue of forgiveness in mother-child relations has seldom been studied empirically, although Heisaku Kosawa has deepened our knowledge of this subject through psychoanalytic methods based on Ajase complex theory. The aim of this study is to clarify possible processes whereby mothers forgive their children, and their children are forgiven by their mothers. Specifically, 10 mothers were interviewed about what process they followed when they actually forgave their children, and their 12 adolescent children were asked about their processes of being forgiven. The data were analyzed by using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). The results showed that forgiving and being forgiven each has a four-level process model. The results assert that a mother tries to maintain her function as a parent even after some hurtful and/or puzzling experiences, and that her attitude consequently leads the child to realize that he/she is actually forgiven. In addition, we considered some possible recognition gaps between a forgiving mother and a forgiven child, and the clinical problems associated with these gaps.
【Keywords】 Forgiveness, Mother-child relationship, Ajase complex, M-GTA


TAKASAKI, Fumiko: Developmental Changes in Attitudes towards Praise.

One reason why praise of others is not always effective is a gap between the intention of the giver of praise and the perception of the recipient of praise. In this research, the factor which caused such a gap was defined as “attitudes towards praise” and this factor was analyzed in terms of developmental changes in attitudes. A sample of 1,058 individuals including middle school students, high school students, college students and adults completed a questionnaire on attitudes towards praise and their experiences as providers and recipients of praise. The results showed that as individuals got older, “approval” and “instrumental” attitudes were stronger while “standardization” and “hesitation” attitudes were weaker. While experiences of being praised strongly affected the formation of attitudes towards praise, it was evident that people were influenced more strongly by how they were praised than how often they were praised. It was also shown that how often one praised others influenced the praisers’ attitudes, as mediated by their experience of successful communication of praise.
【Keywords】 Praise, Attitudes towards praise, Experiences of praising others / being praised

NAGAOKA, Chika: The Effects on Attitudes of Readers of Descriptions of People with Developmental Disabilities.

This research examined the effects of written descriptions of people with developmental disabilities on the reluctance of abled readers to interact with disabled people. Participants without disabilities were asked to read one of 4 types of stimuli (between-subject factor) that were manipulated as two factors: concreteness (high/low) and description of interactions between a person with developmental disabilities and other persons without disabilities (included/not included). They were next asked to imagine a peer with some of the characteristics from the written stimuli and complete the friendship and self-assertiveness subscales of a questionnaire. The results indicated that participants who read a highly concrete document were significantly less reluctant to interact, compared to those who read a less concrete document; the participants who read a document describing interactions were not more significantly reluctant than those who read a document that did not describe an interaction. The discussion focused on use of knowledge from social psychology and suggested guidelines for documentation on developmental disabilities.
【Keywords】 Developmental Disabilities, Attitude, Stereotype, Concreteness

KABAYA, Shinsuke: Mothers’ Attuned Responses to Their Toddlers’ Negativism: Coherence with Responses at the Pre-Toddler Stage.

Recent research has focused on a kind of empathetic response called an “attuned response,” as exhibited by mothers of young children with secure attachment styles. Kabaya (2013) found that these mothers responded to their pre-linguistic infants’ negative emotions by making “mind-related comments with a smile.” The present longitudinal study examined another sample of infant-mother pairs (N = 40) to investigate whether mothers with secure attachment styles continue to exhibit such attuned responses to their toddlers’ negativism, which is accompanied by mother-toddler conflict. Mothers’ facial and verbal responses to their children’s emotional expressions were observed when their children were 8- and 14-months old. Regression analyses showed that mothers with secure attachment styles responded to their 14-month-old toddlers’ emotions of anger or negativism with “mind-related comments with a neutral face.” These mothers also responded to their 8-month-old infants’ negative emotions in the same way. This consistency suggests that mothers with secure attachment styles keep empathetically verbalizing their pre-toddlers’ and toddlers’ negative emotions.
【Keywords】 Attuned response, Attachment, Toddler, Longitudinal observations

Vol.29 No.2

MORIZAWA, Ryosuke, YOSHII, Sadahito & NAGASAKI, Tsutomu: Support for the Cooperative activity of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Use of “Informing” and “Requesting” in Partner’s Role Execution.

The study examined whether encouragement of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to learn “informing” and “requesting” would enable them to provide mutual support (support for the other when necessary) and engage in cooperative activity. An intervention condition was set in a game where a child with ASD and his partner worked together to complete a jigsaw puzzle, to encourage them to learn “informing” and “requesting.” The results showed that “requesting” and “informing” did occur, and children with ASD became able to provide the support needed by the partner to complete the jigsaw puzzle. It was also observed that when children achieved the completion of the jigsaw puzzle, they displayed “sharing” in which children with ASD shared joy with their partner, which suggested that cooperative activity did occur. Further, in daily life as well, it was observed that cooperative activity with teachers occurred and supportive behavior towards the classmates was displayed. Thus, it was suggested that children with ASD can engage in “sharing of emotions” and perform cooperative activity through the learning to inform and make requests.
【Keywords】 Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cooperative Activity, Informing, Requesting


URIU, Yoshiko: Large-Scale Inventory Survey on Physical and Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Aged 10-15: Fatigue, Daily Life Conditions, and Family Class.

The physical and mental health of elementary and junior high school students were investigated. The participants completed a questionnaire that inquired about their experiences of chronic physical complaints and negative feelings. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a four-factor structure: “Fatigue”, “Annoyance”, “Depression”, and “Insufficient concentration”. The relationships between these four factors were examined by structural equation modeling, which indicated that Fatigue influenced the other factors and that conditions of everyday life, including a short sleeping time among others, influenced Fatigue. A three-way (school × sex × family class) Analysis of Variance was conducted on each score, which confirmed the significance of each effect, with the exception of family class differences, which were only significant in elementary school students. These findings suggest that chronic physical complaints and negative feelings are reinforced not only by detrimental daily life conditions related to lower family class, but also by higher demands for academic achievement in junior high school students of higher family class.
【Keywords】 Physical and mental health, Family class, Daily life conditions, Academic achievement, Elementary and junior high school students


NISHIO, Chihiro, KUDO, Kazutoshi Kudo & SASAKI, Masato: An Ecological Study of the Development of Infants’ Independent Walking, and Resources in the Home Environment.

We observed 3 infants at their homes for a month from the time they began to walk, to examine the process of walking initiation. Walking initiation processes were broken down into 4 aspects: (1) postures before walking initiation, (2) hand use for support before walking initiation, (3) stepping strategies, and (4) carrying objects or not. The infants did not always initiate walking with forward steps and no objects in hand. Instead, they often stepped sideways, changed directions by twisting their bodies, shifted their posture, or carried objects. Although various types of walking initiation were observed, each infant seemed to have her/his own preferable types of walking initiation. The results suggested that the initial direction which infants faced before walking initiation, and whether furniture was available that could give infants support, constrained how they initiated walking. The development of walking can be understood as a task that emerges in a system that consists of the individual infant and the home environment.
【Keywords】 Development of walking, Walking initiation, Posture, Naturalistic observation, Home environment, Infant development


YANAOKA, Kaichi, TSUDA, Ayano & NISHIMURA, Chisa: An Observational Study on the Process of Script Formation in 3-Year-Olds.

This study clarified how 3-yea-olds from scripts, using a longitudinal observational method. As evidence for script formation, we focused on a hierarchical structure of action sequence, unchangeable order, and exchangeable order among actions. Twelve newly enrolled 3-year-olds participated in our study. We observed the “morning preparation” setting at a preschool, over a two-month period. After a month and a half, children spontaneously executed the action sequence according to the instructed order that their teacher taught, but after two months they tended not to follow the instructed order and executed some action steps in an exchangeable order. Study 2 found that ten 3-year-olds who had enrolled into their kindergarten school at the previous year showed a pattern similar to that in Study1. In addition, we asked the children’s teachers to divide the sequence of “morning preparation” into several groups. As a result, 3-year-olds accommodated the interchange of an exchangeable order within the groups, but they followed the instructed order among the groups. These findings offered novel insights regarding the process of script formation among 3-year-olds.
【Keywords】 Script, Order of actions, Preschoolers, Preschool morning preparation, Observational study


SATOU, Yuuki & KANAZAWA, Junichiro: Relationship between Maternal ADHD Symptoms and Parenting Style: Focusing on Emotional Dysregulation.

The present study examined the mediating effect of emotional dysregulation on the relationship between maternal ADHD symptoms and parenting styles, in light of the findings that Japan and other countries have different parenting styles. Participants were 179 mothers of preschool and elementary school children. The results of the mediation analysis revealed that emotional dysregulation dose indeed mediate the relationship between maternal ADHD and parenting style. As part of assistance to mothers with ADHD symptoms, it is useful to add coping methods for ADHD while implementing parent training. These results clarify the fact that emotional dysregulation is related to parenting style, which suggests that improvement of emotional dysregulation is one of the best ways to cope with ADHD and which could be added to parent training.
【Keywords】 Parenting style, Mother, ADHD, Emotional Dysregulation

Vol.29 No.3

SATOU, Yuuki & KANAZAWA, Junichiro: Relationship between Maternal ADHD Symptoms and Parenting Style: Focusing on Emotional Dysregulation.

The present study examined the mediating effect of emotional dysregulation on the relationship between maternal ADHD symptoms and parenting styles, in light of the findings that Japan and other countries have different parenting styles. Participants were 179 mothers of preschool and elementary school children. The results of the mediation analysis revealed that emotional dysregulation dose indeed mediate the relationship between maternal ADHD and parenting style. As part of assistance to mothers with ADHD symptoms, it is useful to add coping methods for ADHD while implementing parent training. These results clarify the fact that emotional dysregulation is related to parenting style, which suggests that improvement of emotional dysregulation is one of the best ways to cope with ADHD and which could be added to parent training.
【Keywords】 Parenting style, Mother, ADHD, Emotional Dysregulation


AKAGI, Mayumi: The Influence of Mother-Daughter Relations on Daughters' Identity and Mental Health.

Female university students (N=299) completed a questionnaire, and factor analysis of the data extracted five factors which were used to develop a scale with five sub-scales to assess mother-daughter relationships (the “Mother-Daughter Relationship Scale”). These subscales were used to classify participants into four types: (1) Rebellious (unhealthy separation), (2) Connected (healthy connection), (3) Independent (healthy separation), and (4) Subordination with conflict (unhealthy connection). The results indicated that both “connected” and “independent” types had features of high identity achievement, low “Pressure from mother” and low “Sense of inferiority toward mother.”. However, both “Rebellious” and “Subordination with conflict” types had features of low identity achievement, high “Pressure from mother” and high “Sense of inferiority toward mother.”. These findings suggest that “separation” or “connection” are not critical issues but that mother-daughter relations characterized by low “Pressure from mother” and low “Sense of inferiority toward mother.” are important for daughters’ identity achievement.
【Keywords】 Mother-daughter relations, Identity, Mental health, Adolescence, Separation/connection


HAMANA, Mai: Young Children’s Evaluation of Negative Situations and the Intensity of Their Emotional Reaction: A Comparison between the Evaluation of Damage to Self and to Others.

The present study investigated young children’s assessment of intention and degree of damage inflicted in the hypothetical situation in which the target of an aggressive act was either the child her/himself or a stranger. A total of 56 children, 4- to 6-year-olds, participated in the study. They evaluated the intention of the agent, the difficulty of the situation, the target’s ability to cope with the situation, and the intensity of the negative emotions of the target in two conditions: the self-target condition and the other-target condition. The results showed that children evaluated the agent’s intention more favorably in the self-target condition than in the other-target condition in cases where they evaluated the other-target condition first, followed by the self-target condition. In addition, they evaluated the target’s ability to cope more favorably, the situation as less difficult, and the intensity of the negative emotional experience as weaker in the self-target condition than in the other-target condition. These results suggested a relation between the children’s evaluation of the situations and their emotional inference.
【Keywords】 Young children, Emotion, Hostility, Intention, Ability


NAKATA, Ryuzaburo, KUBO-KAWAI, Namiko, OKANOYA, Kazuo & KAWAI, Nobuyuki: Elderly Adults Became Aggressive than Younger Adults in a Simulated Traffic Jam: Enhanced Left Frontal Brain Activity Associated with Approach Motivation.

Previous studies suggest that left-superior asymmetry in brain activity reflects the approach motivation of anger, i.e., when people get upset asymmetry increases. It is unclear whether this asymmetry of brain activity reflects blood flow as evidenced by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). This asymmetry may be greater in elderly adults than in younger adults because of their weaker inhibitory potential in the frontal lobe. The present study showed that elderly participants exhibited left-superior brain activity (front-dorsolateral area) in response to a traffic jam created by a driving simulator, whereas the young adults did not. In addition, slowing down of driving speed in response to unknown car trouble did not yield asymmetric brain activity in the frontal lobe in either younger or older adults. These results suggest that (1) only elderly adults experience subjective anger in a stimulated traffic jam, and (2) elderly adults exhibit left-superior frontal brain activity as evidenced by their NIRS scores. This seems to reflect increased approach motivation (i.e., anger), which suggests vulnerability in the inhibitory potential of elderly adults.
【Keywords】 Anger, Approach motivation, Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), Elderly, Driving simulator

Vol.29 No.4

KIBE, Chieko: Effects of Paternal Depression on Family Relationships: A Longitudinal Investigation in Early Childhood.

This study examined the longitudinal effects of paternal depression in the context of the family system based on findings on the relational mechanism obtained in the previous study (author, 2016b). Data were collected from both mothers and fathers of 135 children attending 12 different kindergartens in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Surveys were conducted when the children were three and five years old. The causal relation between paternal depression and father–child relationships and paternal depression and parental relationships were investigated using a cross-lagged effects model. Results revealed that paternal depression negatively affected the quality of father–child relationships as well as parental relationships, both of which were measured through self-reports by fathers. Findings suggest that paternal depression has a detrimental effect on fathers’ perception of the quality of family relationships. This study has confirmed the importance of considering paternal depression in early childhood and the need to also consider its influence on family members.
【Keywords】 Paternal depression, Father–child relationships, Parental relationships, Early childhood, Effects on relationship perception


SUNAMI, Naomi: Process and Characteristics of Difficulties Experienced by Teachers of Children with ADHD Tendencies: Qualitative Research Based on Teacher Narratives.

The purpose of this study is to examine the process and characteristics of teachers' involvement and difficulties with children with ADHD tendencies in regular classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 elementary school teachers and were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. This resulted in eight category groups. Then, a hypothesis model was generated. When improvement is not seen in [situations of adaptive difficulties], [teacher distress] arose. Next, the teachers developed a multidimensional understanding of the children by [understanding the characteristics] of the children’s behavior and cognition and [understanding the children] in terms of their inner world; involvement under this new viewpoint was organized through the [re-examination of responses]. Based on these results, the involvements that seemed to be useful for the children with ADHD tendencies in regular classrooms were arranged as (a)direct involvement with children, (b)involvement with the environment, and (c)multidimensional understanding of the children; then, educational suggestions were presented. Finally, meanings of the difficulties for teachers were considered.
【Keywords】 Regular classroom, ADHD tendency, Teacher distress, Involvement, Qualitative research


MURAKAMI, Yusuke & SAWAE, Yukinori: Characteristics of Motor Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as Indicated by Movement Variability: Longitudinal Study Based on the Multiple Time Scale Method.

From the perspective of the dynamic systems approach, previous studies have redefined motor development theory, and movement variability has been an essential evaluation index for analyzing motor development. Accordingly, this study investigated the characteristics of motor development in a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focusing on movement variability. The child’s jumping movements were analyzed using a longitudinal design that incorporated multiple time scales. Results indicate that the child with ASD made a total of 129 variable jumping movements during the 13 months of the study. These variable movements were seen to alternate between the stability and instability aspects. Furthermore, qualitative changes in his jumping movements occurred in response to changing task constraints, that is, - primarily, the way he cared about his own body or external constraints. These findings suggest that for children with ASD, adapting to task constraints is a critical factor for increasing movement variability and long-term motor development.
【Keywords】 Microgenetic scale, Task constrains, Instability aspect, Movement variability