At-risk internet addiction and related factors among senior high school teachers in Japan based on a Nationwide survey

Internet addiction (IA) has been drawing attention to mental health. However, few reports have been found on the related factors of at-risk IA among regular workers by a nationwide survey. The study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of at-risk IA and identify related factors among senior high school teachers in Japan. This survey was a cross-sectional survey of high schools across Japan in 2017. There were 3189 teachers (2088 males and 1098 female) who participated in this survey. The questionnaire asked about their devices, both the time and the activities of using their internet, and sociodemographic factors. IA was measured by the internet addiction test (IAT) by which 40-79 points were classified as at-risk IA, and more as IA. We compared the related factors of at-risk IA and non-IA using descriptive analysis and multivariable regression analysis. The rates of IA and at-risk IA were 0.09% (n = 3) and 6.91% (n = 220), respectively. At-risk IA was positively associated with activities on the internet for gaming, entertainment, net-surfing, and younger ages. In addition, the at-risk IA group had a longer time spent on the internet than the non-IA group. Around 7% of high school teachers are at-risk IA in this survey, though they have regular work. Our results suggest that at-risk IA may be reinforced not only by the active internet use such as gaming, but also by purposeless behaviors, such as net-surfing. Managing time on the internet may support preventing at-risk IA among senior high school teachers.


Relationships of rapid eating with visceral and subcutaneous fat mass and plasma adiponectin concentration

Rapid eating has been demonstrated to be associated with obesity and overweight. However, few studies have characterized the separate relationships of eating speed with visceral and subcutaneous fat mass or circulating adiponectin concentration. We hypothesized that rapid eating is associated with the larger visceral fat tissue (VFT) area and lower adiponectin concentration, but not with the subcutaneous fat tissue (SFT) area in men and women. We performed a cross-sectional study of 712 adults aged 20-86 years (528 men and 184 women; mean ± SD age 59.36 ± 13.61 years). The participants completed a self-reported questionnaire, and underwent anthropometric and laboratory measurements and computed tomographic imaging of the abdomen as a part of annual medical check-ups. Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that rapid eating was associated with larger visceral (B = 24.74; 95% CI 8.87-40.61, p = 0.002) and subcutaneous fat areas (B = 31.31; 95% CI 12.23-50.38, p = 0.001), lower adiponectin concentration (B = - 2.92; 95% CI - 4.39- - 1.46, p < 0.001), higher body mass index (BMI) (B = 2.13; 95% CI 1.02-3.25, p < 0.001), and larger waist circumference (B = 5.23; 95% CI 2.16-8.30, p < 0.001) in men, which is partially consistent with the hypothesis. In contrast, rapid eating was found to be associated only with BMI, and not with abdominal adipose area or adiponectin concentration in women, which is a result that is not consistent with the hypothesis. These results suggest that there is no difference in the association of rapid eating with VFT and SFT areas.


Blunted cortisol and normal sympathetic nervous system responses to an acute psychosocial stressor in Internet addiction

Studies have demonstrated that addiction leads to blunted responses of cortisol and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to acute stressors; however, limited studies have examined the neuroendocrine and SNS stress responses in Internet addiction (IA). To examine acute stress responses in IA, the current study recruited a total of 76 Japanese university students and staff members (51 females and 25 males, mean age = 22.4 years, = 4.7), and measured the salivary cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), and blood pressure (BP) responses to an acute stressor under stress or a nonstress placebo conditions in IA and non-IA groups. The results revealed that patients with IA showed a blunted cortisol response to a stressor. In contrast, no differences were found in the sAA and BP responses between the IA and non-IA groups. These results suggest that IA may be characterized by blunted cortisol responses in acute stress settings.


The Association Between Problematic Internet Use and Neck Pain among Japanese Schoolteachers

Problematic internet use (PIU) has been suggested in relation to psychological symptoms among schoolteachers, but the relationship with physical symptoms remains unclear. We examined whether PIU or longer Internet usage time is associated with neck pain in schoolteachers. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 2582 teachers aged 20 years or older (35.6% women) in Shimane and Tottori, Japan in 2018. Neck pain was defined as ≥5 points on the Neck Disability Index. The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) was used to assess PIU. Internet usage time on weekdays and weekends was divided into five groups: 0, 1-29, 30-59, 60-119, and ≥120 min/day. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association of the CIUS score and Internet usage time on weekdays or weekends with neck pain, adjusting for sex, age, position at school, insomnia, and psychological distress. We observed 800 (31.0%) teachers with neck pain. The median (interquartile range) of their CIUS scores was 7 (2, 14). A higher CIUS score was independently associated with a higher prevalence of neck pain (odds ratio of 4th vs. 1st quartiles, 1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.87; trend P = .006). Compared with non-Internet users, Internet users on weekdays had almost double the odds of neck pain although the difference did not reach the customary level for designating statistical significance. In conclusion, teachers with higher scores in CIUS were associated with a higher prevalence of neck pain in Japan, suggesting adults with PIU being at risk of physical disorders.


Relationship between insomnia with alcohol drinking before sleep (Ne-Zake) or in the morning (Mukae-Zake) among Japanese farmers


At-risk Internet addiction and related factors among junior high school teachers-based on a nationwide cross-sectional study in Japan.

We clarified there is a significant relationship between at-risk IA and BOS among junior high school teachers in a nationwide survey. Our results suggest that finding depersonalization at the early stage may lead to the prevention of at-risk IA among teachers. Those who are at-risk of IA may feel personal accomplishment through use of the Internet.

This study was a cross-sectional survey by anonymous questionnaire. This survey was a random sampling survey of junior high schools across Japan in 2016. The participants were 1696 teachers at 73 schools (response rate in teachers 51.0%). We asked participants for details of their backgrounds, Internet usage, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Young, and the Japanese Burnout Scale (JBS). We divided the participants into either the at-risk IA group (IAT score ≧ 40, n = 96) or the non-IA group (IAT score < 40, n = 1600). To compare the difference between at-risk IA and non-IA, we used nonparametric tests and t test according to variables. To analyze the relationship between the IAT score and the scores of three factors of the JBS (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment), we used both ANOVA and ANCOVA, adjusted by relevant confounding factors. To clarify the contribution of each independent variable to IAT scores, we used multiple logistic regression analysis.

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine


Problematic Internet Use and Its Relationship with Psychological Distress, Insomnia, and Alcoholism Among Schoolteachers in Japan

Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking


Prevalence and Risk Factors of Internet Addiction Among Employed Adults in Japan.

This study showed that around 5% of school personnel in a rural area in Japan are at risk for developing addiction to the Internet and that using the Internet for game playing is related to at-risk IA. Our results suggest that employed adults should be instructed to use the Internet properly.


Post-event Processing Predicts Impaired Cortisol Recovery Following Social Stressor: The Moderating Role of Social Anxiety.

There is growing evidence that individuals with social anxiety show impaired cortisol recovery after experiencing social evaluative stressors. Yet, little is known regarding the cognitive processes underlying such impaired cortisol recovery. The present study examined the effect of post-event processing (PEP), referred to as repetitive thinking about social situations, on cortisol recovery following a social stressor. Forty-two non-clinical university students (23 women, 19 men, mean age = 22.0 ± 2.0 years) completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), followed by a thought sampling procedure which assessed the frequency of PEP reflecting the TSST. A growth curve model showed PEP and social anxiety interactively predicted cortisol recovery. In particular, PEP predicted impaired cortisol recovery in those with low levels of social anxiety but not in those with high levels of social anxiety, which contradicted the initial hypothesis. These findings suggest that PEP is differentially associated with cortisol recovery depending on levels of social anxiety. The possible mechanisms underlying these findings were discussed in terms of protective inhibition framework.


Unhealthy Mental States Are Positively Associated with Subjective Pain or Fatigue in Specific Body Sites among High School Teachers in Japan


Relationship Among Automatic Thoughts, Activities and Events, and Affect in Children

International Journal of Cognitive Therapy


Factors related to the awakening mood for seventh-grade students in rural Japan


Neurophysiological modulation of rapid emotional face processing is associated with impulsivity traits.

These findings demonstrate that higher impulsivity is associated with attenuated vMMN for emotional change detection in healthy populations, potentially because of weakened fronto-occipital functional connection that is responsible for the dual detector mechanism.


Stress-induced cortisol is associated with generation of non-negative interpretations during cognitive reappraisal.

Although baseline cortisol and sex may have impacted the results, the results suggest that stress-induced cortisol is associated with difficulty in non-negative interpretation generation during the cognitive reappraisal process.

Participants were allocated post-hoc to either a responder (n = 19) or non-responder group (n = 17) based on the cortisol response to the stress induction task. The number of non-negative interpretations generated following the stress induction task was reduced only in the cortisol responders. The number of post-stress non-negative interpretations was fewer in the responder group when compared by sex, baseline cortisol level, and the number of pre-stress non-negative interpretations, statistically controlled.


Impulsivity is Associated with Early Sensory Inhibition in Neurophysiological Processing of Affective Sounds.

Impulsivity is widely related to socially problematic behaviors and psychiatric illness. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between response inhibition and impulsivity. However, no study has intensively examined how impulsivity correlates with automatic sensory processing before the drive for response inhibition to sensory inputs. Sensory gating (SG) is an automatic inhibitory function that attenuates the neural response to redundant sensory information and protects higher cognitive functions from the burst of information processing. Although SG functions abnormally in several clinical populations, there is very little evidence supporting SG changes in conjunction with impulsivity traits in non-clinical populations. The present study recruited healthy adults (n = 23) to conduct a neurophysiological experiment using a paired-click paradigm and self-report scales assessing impulsive behavioral traits. Auditory stimuli included not only a pure tone but also white noise to explore the differences in auditory-evoked potential (AEP) responses between the two stimuli. White noise is more affective than pure tones; therefore, we predicted that the SG of AEPs (P50, N100, and P200) for white noise would correlate more with self-reported impulsivity than with those for pure tones. Our main findings showed that SG of the P50 and P200 amplitudes significantly correlated with self-reported reward responsiveness and fun-seeking, respectively, only for white noise stimuli, demonstrating that higher-scoring impulsivity subcomponents were related to greater SG. Frequency-domain analyses also revealed that greater desynchronization of the beta band for the second white noise stimulus was associated with higher motor impulsivity scores, suggesting that an impulsivity-related change of SG was associated with attentional modulation. These findings indicate that the measurement of SG of white noise may be an efficient tool to evaluate impulsivity in non-clinical populations, and should also be applied to clinical populations.


Post-error action control is neurobehaviorally modulated under conditions of constant speeded response.

Post-error slowing (PES) is an error recovery strategy that contributes to action control, and occurs after errors in order to prevent future behavioral flaws. Error recovery often malfunctions in clinical populations, but the relationship between behavioral traits and recovery from error is unclear in healthy populations. The present study investigated the relationship between impulsivity and error recovery by simulating a speeded response situation using a Go/No-go paradigm that forced the participants to constantly make accelerated responses prior to stimuli disappearance (stimulus duration: 250 ms). Neural correlates of post-error processing were examined using event-related potentials (ERPs). Impulsivity traits were measured with self-report questionnaires (BIS-11, BIS/BAS). Behavioral results demonstrated that the commission error for No-go trials was 15%, but PES did not take place immediately. Delayed PES was negatively correlated with error rates and impulsivity traits, showing that response slowing was associated with reduced error rates and changed with impulsivity. Response-locked error ERPs were clearly observed for the error trials. Contrary to previous studies, error ERPs were not significantly related to PES. Stimulus-locked N2 was negatively correlated with PES and positively correlated with impulsivity traits at the second post-error Go trial: larger N2 activity was associated with greater PES and less impulsivity. In summary, under constant speeded conditions, error monitoring was dissociated from post-error action control, and PES did not occur quickly. Furthermore, PES and its neural correlate (N2) were modulated by impulsivity traits. These findings suggest that there may be clinical and practical efficacy of maintaining cognitive control of actions during error recovery under common daily environments that frequently evoke impulsive behaviors.


Current status of outpatient forensic psychiatric treatment in Japan : analysis of the national survey from 2005 to 2013

わが国における触法精神障害者通院医療の現状 : 2005~2013年の全国調査の分析から


Effects of walking exercise on cognitive appraisal, depressive mood, and attentional resources in self-focused attention

自己注目に対する運動が認知的評価と抑うつ気分および注意資源に及ぼす効果

Self-focused attention can contribute to increasing depressive moods. It is known that attending to self-referential stimuli that direct attention inward might induce self-focused attention. Distractions help to disengage attention from self-referential stimuli. However, the effects of distractions in attenuating the detrimental influences of self-focused attention on cognitive appraisal, depressive mood, and attentional resources, while attending to self-referential stimuli have not been investigated. This study examined whether walking exercise, which is a behavioral distraction technique, would attenuate the effects of self-focused attention. Undergraduate and graduate students (<i>N</i>=42) participated in walking exercise, while attending to self-referential stimuli. Then, they completed the Cognitive Appraisal Rating Scale (CARS), the depressive mood subscale of the Mood Inventory, and a digit span task, for assessing cognitive appraisal, depressive mood, and attentional resources, respectively. Results indicated that the walking exercise reduced the scores for appraisal for effect, which is a subscale of CARS, and lowered depressive mood scores. However, walking exercise had no effect on attentional resource scores. These results suggest that walking exercise modified the appraisal for effect and reduce depressive mood while attending to self-referential stimuli.

The Japanese Journal of Health Psychology


Effects of distraction on negative behaviors and salivary α-amylase under mildly stressful medical procedures for brief inpatient children.

Inconsistent results have been reported on the effects of distraction on negative emotions during medical procedures in infants. These differing results may be attributable to the fact that the effects are apparent under a mildly stressful medical procedure. A total of 17 infants, 18 preschoolers, and 15 school-aged children who were hospitalized were administered, monitoring for vital signs, a mildly stressful medical procedure, by a nurse in a uniform with attractive character designs as a distractor. Consistent with the hypothesis, participating infants showed fewer negative behaviors and lower salivary α-amylase levels when distracted. The results support the efficacy of distraction in infants under a mildly stressful medical procedure.


The effects of attention retraining on depressive mood and cortisol responses to depression-related stimuli


Acutely elevated cortisol in response to stressor is associated with attentional bias toward depression-related stimuli but is not associated with attentional function.

Cortisol induces attentional bias toward a negative stimulus and impaired attentional function. Depressed individuals have high levels of cortisol, and exhibit an attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and impaired processing speed and executive attention, which are components of attentional function. Therefore, the study tested the hypotheses that an acute increase in cortisol in response to a stressor is associated with attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and impaired processing speed and executive attention. Thirty-six participants were administered the dot-probe task for the measurement of attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and the Trail Making Test A and B for the measurement of processing speed and executive attention before and after a mental arithmetic task. It was revealed that attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus following the stressor was observed only among the responders (i.e., participants with cortisol elevation in response to a stressor). On the other hand, no differences in the performance of processing speed and executive attention were noted between the responders and non-responders. The results indicate that acutely elevated cortisol is related to attentional bias, but is not related to processing speed and executive attention. The results have an implication for the etiology of depression.

Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback


Effects of Psychosocial Factors on Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Preventing Recidivism by Sex Offenders : A Meta-Analysis(Brief Notes)

性加害行為に対する認知行動療法の心理社会的要因が再犯防止効果に及ぼす影響 : メタ分析を用いた検討

The purpose of the present study was to identify psychosocial factors in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based treatment programs for sex offenders that may influence the reduction of reoffending. Cognitive behavioral therapy-based treatment programs for sex offenders were cate- gorized by the presence or absence of self-management. Meta-analysis of 13 studies investigated effectiveness of psychosocial factors in programs for sex offenders. The results verified the effectiveness of programs composed of sexual interests, distorted attitudes, socio-affective functioning, and relapse prevention. The present results suggest the need for adjustment of the procedures for improving self-management, such as stress management.

本研究の目的は，性加害行為経験者を対象とした認知行動療法的治療プログラムを構成する心理社会的要因が，性加害行為抑止効果に及ぼす影響についてメタ分析を用いた検討を行うことであった．性加害行為抑止を目的とした認知行動療法的治療プログラムを心理社会的要因の構成に基づき分類したところ，セルフ・マネジメントの有無に基づく分類がなされた．セルフ・マネジメントの有無が性加害行為抑止に及ぼす影響についてメタ分析を行った結果，性的嗜好，歪んだ態度，社会感情的機能，リラプス・プリベンションから構成される治療プログラムの性加害行為抑止効果が確認された一方で，ストレスマネジメントなどのセルフ・マネジメントの向上を目的としたアプローチの手続き上の工夫の必要性が示唆された．


Relationship Between Depressive Severity and the Certainty of Prediction in Interpersonal Events

対人的出来事に対する予測の正確さと抑うつ症状の関連


Effect of day-to-day variations in adrenal cortex hormone levels on abdominal symptoms.

Low cortisol levels before bedtime and a steeper diurnal cortisol slope during the day may be related to bouts of diarrhea during the day.


Attentional bias for Internet-related information and emotional information in Internet addiction: moderating role of sleep impairment


Factors Related to Feelings of Burden in Family Caregivers Living in the Mountainous Areas : Focus on Social Support

中山間地域在住の家族介護者における介護負担感に関連する要因 : ソーシャルサポートに焦点を当てて

Bulletin of Shimane University Faculty of Medicine


精神疾患の特徴に応じた TSST の適用と今後の課題

精神疾患の特徴に応じた TSST の適用と今後の課題

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究


サポート知覚促進の要素を取り入れた問題解決訓練が児童の学校適応感に及ぼす影響

サポート知覚促進の要素を取り入れた問題解決訓練が児童の学校適応感に及ぼす影響

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究


抑うつと不安における注意バイアスに対する心理学的介入の研究動向

抑うつと不安における注意バイアスに対する心理学的介入の研究動向

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究


臨床心理学研究における研究倫理に関する最近の動向

臨床心理学研究における研究倫理に関する最近の動向

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究


抑うつ症状の増強におけるコルチゾールの役割―メタ分析による検討―

抑うつ症状の増強におけるコルチゾールの役割―メタ分析による検討―

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究

早稲田大学臨床心理学研究