Cross-cultural, population-based study on adolescent body image and eating distress in Japan and Finland.

This cross-sectional population-based survey compares the prevalence of self-reported body image and eating distress symptoms among adolescents in Japan and Finland, and associations between emotional/behavioral problems, body image and eating distress from a cross-cultural perspective. The study included 1,840 Japanese and 1,135 Finnish 8th grade students. The self-reported questionnaire included the Body Image and Eating Distress Scale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The female adolescents from both Finland and Japan reported much greater dissatisfaction with, and concern about, their bodies than the males and Japanese females expressed even higher distress than Finnish females. High levels of body image and eating distress were associated with psychiatric problems measured with the SDQ. There was a significant three-way interaction effect of body image and eating distress, gender and country with SDQ peer problems and prosocial behavior.

Association between bullying behavior, perceived school safety, and self-cutting: a Japanese population-based school survey.

BACKGROUND: No previous population-based studies have examined associations between self-cutting, perceived school safety, and bullying behavior among East Asian adolescents. METHOD: We examined whether bullying, victimization, and perceived school safety were associated with self-cutting by getting 1865 students with a mean age of 13.9 years (standard deviation 0.2 years) to complete questions on these variables. Psychiatric problems were assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS: About 5.6% of males and 11.9% females had practiced self-cutting and when we controlled these results for psychiatric symptoms, self-cutting was associated with being both a bully and a victim among males and females. In addition, self-cutting was independently associated with perceived school safety among females. Those who felt unsafe at school and were victimized were much more likely to engage in self-cutting. CONCLUSIONS: Self-cutting among Japanese adolescents was linked with bullying behavior and feeling unsafe at school. Secure school environments and school-based antibullying programs could help to prevent adolescent self-injurious behavior.

A clinical study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in preschool children--prevalence and differential diagnoses.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine (1) the prevalence and characteristics of ADHD in preschool children, and (2) differential diagnoses among children who display symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity in early childhood. METHODS: The participants were children living in Kanie-cho, in Japan's Aichi Prefecture, who underwent their age 5 exams at the municipal health center between April 2009 and March 2011. We first extracted children who were observed to be inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive during their age 5 exams and considered as possibly having ADHD. We conducted follow-ups with these children using post-examination consultations, visits to preschools, and group rehabilitation. The results of the age 5 exams were combined with behavior observations and interview content obtained during subsequent follow-ups. A child psychiatrist and several clinical psychologists discussed these cases and made a diagnosis in accordance with the DSM-IV-TR. RESULTS: 91 (15.6%) of the 583 children selected were considered as possibly having ADHD; we were able to conduct follow-ups with 83 of the 91 children. Follow-up results showed that 34 children (5.8% of all participants) remained eligible for a diagnosis of ADHD. Diagnoses for the remaining children included: pervasive developmental disorders (six children, or 6.6% of suspected ADHD children), intellectual comprehension problems (four children, or 4.4%), anxiety disorders (seven children, or 7.7%), problems related to abuse or neglect (four children, or 4.4%), a suspended diagnosis for one child (1.1%), and unclear diagnoses for 29 children (31.9%). CONCLUSIONS: ADHD tendencies in preschool children vary with changing situations and development, and the present study provides prevalence estimates that should prove useful in establishing a diagnostic baseline.

Hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex during digit span task: a near-infrared spectroscopy study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In this study, we examined changes in the concentrations of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin (oxy- and deoxy-Hb, respectively) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during the digit span task by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). METHODS: The digit span task consists of the digit span forward and backward tasks. The tasks were performed by 22 healthy undergraduate students who participated in this study. Differences in the mean concentrations of oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb between the baseline and task intervals were evaluated. RESULTS: In digit span backward, oxy-Hb was significantly higher during the task interval than during the baseline. Further, deoxy-Hb was significantly lower during the task interval than during the baseline in both digit span forward and digit span backward. Digit span forward performance was significantly higher for the right-PFC-dominant group than for the left-PFC-dominant group. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the digit span backward task is more demanding and requires greater activation of the prefrontal cortex than the digit span forward task. Our NIRS findings suggest that the digit span backward task involves executive functioning.

Ijime in Japan.

This paper reviews the problem of ijime in Japan from a variety of perspectives, primarily through studies conducted in this country. The term ijime is not uniform in concept, open to different interpretations given the disparity in definitions among different circles, making precise assessment of the actual conditions difficult. Such being the case, what is needed is further study on the mechanisms and actual state of ijime accounting for the flow of the times, and compilation of research to enable the creation of ever more effective modes of prevention and intervention.