In recent years, new concepts have been proposed to discriminate between healthy (adaptive) and unhealthy (nonadaptive) self-esteem. Among them, Yamasaki et al. (2017) proposed the concepts of “autonomous” and “heteronomous” self-esteem. As they underscored that autonomous self-esteem needs to be nonconsciously assessed, several nonconscious assessment methods have been developed using implicit association tests (IATs). However, any IAT has not been developed for younger children, even though it is necessary to measure autonomous self-esteem in early childhood because it is largely formed in early developmental stages.

The aim was to develop an IAT to measure autonomous and heteronomous self-esteem for 1st-grade elementary school children. In order to standardize it, the validity and reliability were examined.

Participants were 1st-grade children in a public elementary school in Japan. The final sample included 55 children (35 boys and 20 girls). Their two home-room teachers participated to evaluate the children. The IAT was administered twice, around four weeks apart. The original paper-and-pencil version of the IAT was developed based on the IAT by Yokoshima et al. (2021). In this test, the implicit association between two kinds of stimuli, category (e.g., “myself”) and attribute (face pictograms expressing high and low self-esteem), is measured in terms of accuracy and speed. The evaluation by teachers was conducted using 7-point Likert scales (“not true at all” to “very true”). The evaluation items were “this child proactively does what he or she wants to do alone or with friends for autonomous self-esteem and “this child is competitive and concerned with the consequences of other children” for heteronomous self-esteem.

The test-retest reliability was calculated using correlational analyses of the two measurements. The correlation was significantly positive, r = .70, p < .01. To examine the validity, the children were divided into high and low groups based on the cut-off scores (over 1 SD above the mean and under 1 SD below the mean). Statistical analyses showed that the evaluated scores were significantly higher in Group High than in Group Low regarding the characteristic of autonomous self-esteem, t (19) = 3.87, p < .01, d = 1.62, and that they were significantly higher in Group High than in Group Low for the characteristic of heteronomous self-esteem, t (19) = 3.14, p < .01, d = 1.32.

This study showed that the newly developed IAT for lower-grade children includes high reliability and validity. Hereafter, this test can be utilized at schools to assess autonomous and heteronomous self-esteem. As schools are interested in enhancing healthy and adaptive self-esteem, this tool will be an effective assessment method to ascertain how autonomous self-esteem is cultivated.

None Declared

Uchida & Yamasaki (2012, 2022) have developed a universal prevention program to enhance understanding and regulating others’ emotions for elementary and junior high school students. In recent years, affect and emotions are popular research topics in the domains of psychology and brain science. Most research has thus far focused on the effects of explicit affect on health and adjustment. However, an increasing number of studies have started to examine the effects of implicit affect on psychological outcomes. Although the program was developed for enhancing coping of explicit emotions for health and adjustment, the effectiveness needs to be examined also in terms of implicit affect.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of this program in terms of implicit and explicit affect.

Participants were 6th-grade children in a public elementary school in Japan. The final sample was 61 children (32 boys and 29 girls). Participants completed a battery of two questionnaires just before (Time 1) and just after (Time 2) the intervention program. The questionnaires were the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test for Children (IPANAT-C) for assessing implicit positive and negative affect (IPA and INA) and the Japanese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children (PANAS-C) for measuring explicit positive and negative affect (EPA and ENA). The universal intervention program that was one of the programs we developed for children’s health and adjustment was implemented over four regular classes targeting all children in their homeroom classes.

Data were analyzed by 2 (pre-intervention and post-intervention periods) x 2 (boys and girls) analyses of variance (ANOVA) with the hoc tests using Holm corrections. First, regarding the EPA and IPA, there was a significant main effect of periods (Fs (1, 59) = 6.82 and 4.54, p < .05, respectively), revealing in the post hoc tests that they significantly increased at the post-intervention period. In contrast, regarding ENA and INA, there was no significant main effect of periods. Moreover, regarding EPA, there was a significant main effect of sex. No significant period x sex interactions were found in any affect.

These results revealed that the current program was effective in enhancing explicit and implicit positive affect. On the other hand, no significant effects were found in enhancing explicit and implicit negative affect. The necessity of future research that will examine the sustainability of the effectiveness of the program is discussed, along with several limitations.

None Declared

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between affect and short-term life satisfaction (LS) taking into account the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and the balance of PA and NA.

The study included 398 students (184 men and 214 women) who completed six questionnaires three of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA. Two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale were used to measure deactivated PA and NA, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. Correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to mainly examine the relationships between affect balance (PA-NA and PA/NA) and LS.

The results of correlation analyses showed that LS was positively associated with affect balance in both activated and deactivated dimension. Additionally, the hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed a significant interaction between activated PA and NA, which indicated that the relationship between activated PA and LS in women was strengthened when the level of activated NA was relatively lower.

The findings in this study suggested that students who have stronger PA compared to NA might feel high LS in both activated and deactivated dimension. Moreover, it was suggested that the profitable effect of activated PA on LS in women would be larger when their activated NA was relatively weakened.

We examined the effects of affect and emotional suppression (ES) on short-term life satisfaction (LS). In doing so, we considered the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).

The final sample included the data collected from 398 students (184 men and 214 women). The mean ages were 19.15 yrs for men and 19.84 yrs for women. Participants answered six questionnaires two of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA, two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale to measure deactivated PA and NA, respectively, one subscale of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for gauzing ES, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. All of them were Japanese versions, answered on the past week.

Results showed that LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA, but that its positive association was stronger in activated PA than deactivated PA while its negative association was stronger in deactivated NA than activated NA. The interaction between deactivated NA and ES was significant in men, whose post-hoc tests suggested that deactivated NA was more negatively associated with LS when ES was higher.

This study suggested that activated and deactivated affect differ in their relations to life satisfaction. Moreover, it is likely that the detrimental effect of NA on life satisfaction is larger when the expression of NA is more strongly suppressed.

We examined the effects of affect and emotional suppression (ES) on short-term life satisfaction (LS) and depression. In doing so, we considered the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).

The final sample included the data collected from 496 undergraduate and graduate students (240 men and 256 women). Participants answered seven questionnaires for assessing activated PA and NA, ES of PA and NA, short-term LS, and depression, three of which were used for another study. All of them were Japanese versions, answered on the past week.

Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA, but that its positive association was stronger in activated PA than deactivated PA while its negative association was stronger in deactivated NA than activated NA. Similar findings were obtained for depression. The significant interactions suggested:

1. (1) higher scores of ES of PA weaken the positive association between activated PA and LS in both sexes;

2. (2) higher scores of ES of NA strengthen the negative association between activated NA and LS in men and weaken the association in women; and

3. (3) the positive association between activated NA and depression is weakened by higher scores of ES of NA in women.

This study suggested that activated and deactivated affect differ in their relations to life satisfaction and depression. Moreover, it is likely that although ES of PA and NA influences health, its effects would be different between men and women.

We need to consider both suppression of positive and negative emotions (PE and NE) in examining the effects of emotional suppression (ES) on health and adjustment. The purpose of study was to develop a new emotional suppression scale to measure suppression of PE and NE, and to examine the effects of emotional suppression of PE and NE on depression and short-term life satisfaction (LS).

Participants were 496 undergraduate and graduate students (240 men and 256 women). They completed three questionnaires for assessing ES, depression, and short-term LS, along with a questionnaire to test the validity of the Emotional Suppression Scale for Positive and Negative Emotions (ESS) that was developed in this study.

First, we confirmed two factors in the ESS, named as ‘suppression of PE’ and ‘suppression of NE.’ The alphas were .69 and .73 for men and .69 and .76 for women, respectively. and it was revealed that each subscale of the ESS has concurrent validity. Thereafter, hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher suppression of PE was associated with lower LS and higher depression. Meanwhile, suppression of NE did not show any significant associations with health and adjustment, which was inconsistent with previous findings. Moreover, no significant interactions between suppression of PE and NE were found.

In this study, the ESS was developed with factorial and concurrent validities. Moreover, this study suggests that the effects of emotional suppression on health and adjustment would be different depending on what type of emotions is suppressed.

When we attempt to scrutinize the phenomena relating affect and health, we need to consider the activation dimension of positive and negative affect (PA and NA). In this study, after developing a scale to assess affect, we examined the effects of activated and deactivated PA and NA on depression and short-term life satisfaction (LS).

Participants were 496 undergraduate and graduate students (240 men and 256 women). They completed three questionnaires for assessing affect, depression, and short-term LS, respectively. In order to test the validity of the Activated and Deactivated Affect Questionnaire (ADAQ) that was developed in this study, the other two questionnaires were administered.

In the ADAQ, four factors, activated and deactivated PA and NA, were identified alongside sufficient internal consistency and concurrent validity. Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that depression was negatively associated with PA and positively with NA, while LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA. These associations were found regardless of the levels of affect activation. Moreover, a number of significant PA x NA interactions revealed: (1) activated PA was negatively associated with depression, but this association was stronger with higher activated NA; and (2) regarding the effects on LS, the positive association between activated PA (or deactivated PA) and activated NA (or deactivated NA) was stronger with lower activated (or deactivated) NA.

This study suggests that the activation level of affect and relations of PA and NA would be differently influential on health and adjustment.

Participants were 5th- and 6th-grade children in two public elementary schools in Japan. The final samples were fifty-six children (25 boys and 31 girls). Participants completed a battery of three questionnaires just before (T1) and after (T2) an school-based universal prevention program for enhancing emotional coping abilities with others’ emotions, which was implemented in eight classes during one month. The questionnaires were utilized for assessing implicit positive and negative affect (IPA and INA), explicit emotional coping abilities to identify, understand, and regulate others’ emotions, and the adaptive status of children at school.

Hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher IPA at T1 was associated with higher explicit emotional coping and motivation for learning at T2. Also, higher INA at T1 was related to better peer relationship at T2. Moreover, higher IPA and INA at T1 were concerned with higher scores of classroom climate and approval at T2.

This study suggested that higher IPA leads to higher explicit emotional coping with others’ emotions. Also, it suggested that higher implicit affectivity (i.e., both higher IPA and INA) causes more adaptive status of children at school.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

We have developed a group of school-based universal prevention programs for children's health and adjustment. The programs are characterized by new theories such as the somatic-marker hypothesis and enjoyable methods that utilize animated stories and games. This study adopted one of the programs for the development of self-confidence.

The aim was to examine the effectiveness of the program. In addition to the direct purposes of the program, children's adjustments at school and homeroom class were evaluated as extended effects.

Participants were third grade children in six public elementary schools in Japan. The final sample included 442 children (219 boys and 223 girls). The program was implemented weekly in one regular 45-minute class over 8 weeks. Participants completed a battery of three questionnaires three times, 1 month before the start of the program (T1), 1 week before the start of the program (T2), and during 1 week after the last class of the program (T3).

Results showed that all of the main endpoints of the program significantly improved in the intervention condition (i.e., changes from T2 to T3), compared to the control condition (i.e., changes from T1 to T2). Moreover, children's adjustment at school and homeroom class increased in the intervention condition, compared to the control condition. However, implicit affect was unchanged.

This study suggests that the program is effective for enhancing self-confidence, along with adjustments at school and in class. Future research that examines the sustainability of the effectiveness of the program is planned.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

A growing body of research suggests that deficient emotional self-regulation (DESR) is common and morbid among attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients. The main aim of the present study was to assess whether high and low levels of DESR in adult ADHD patients can be operationalized and whether they are clinically useful.

A total of 441 newly referred 18- to 55-year-old adults of both sexes with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition (DSM-5) ADHD completed self-reported rating scales. We operationalized DESR using items from the Barkley Current Behavior Scale. We used receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves to identify the optimal cut-off on the Barkley Emotional Dysregulation (ED) Scale to categorize patients as having high- versus low-level DESR and compared demographic and clinical characteristics between the groups.

We averaged the optimal Barkley ED Scale cut-points from the ROC curve analyses across all subscales and categorized ADHD patients as having high- (N = 191) or low-level (N = 250) DESR (total Barkley ED Scale score ≥8 or <8, respectively). Those with high-level DESR had significantly more severe symptoms of ADHD, executive dysfunction, autistic traits, levels of psychopathology, and worse quality of life compared with those with low-level DESR. There were no major differences in outcomes among medicated and unmedicated patients.

High levels of DESR are common in adults with ADHD and when present represent a burdensome source of added morbidity and disability worthy of further clinical and scientific attention.