Sakushin Gakuin University

Research on the psychological impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has highlighted its negative and positive effects on children with autism spectrum disorder and their families. However, little is known about the neutral effects that remain the same, even in particular circumstances, and how children with autism spectrum disorder and their parents perceive each other. We explored how children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers perceived and experienced the pandemic in Japan. A mixed-methods design was employed. Thirteen children with autism spectrum disorder and 12 mothers participated. Data were collected through online semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Similarities and differences in perceptions were compared. The results revealed six broad themes and 27 categories. Regarding neutral effects, some mothers reported no substantial impact because there were no changes in their jobs or other dramatic life changes. In addition, some children were not affected because they had had no social contact before the pandemic or because their lives had not changed dramatically. Regarding the perceptions of children/mothers, most expressed that they/their children enjoyed spending time with their families. At home, mothers made various efforts to interact with their children. However, mothers and children differed in their perceptions, such as regarding the emergence of anxiety about conducting school events and the resolution of study-related concerns. There were negative, neutral, and positive effects on both children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers; specifically, they were striving to move forward to overcome the problems posed by the pandemic. Both parties tapped into their resilience by enhancing family interactions, such as cooking together or discussing children's interests. These findings have important implications for developing more creative solutions to the challenges of coping and resilience in future crises.

Delay-discounting, wherein the subjective value for delayed gain or loss decreases, has been attracting much attention from the social sciences as well as neuroscience and has been suggested asbeing related to reward processing in the brain. As reported, the feedback-related negativity (FRN), an electrophysiological measure of reward processing, increased by delayed-monetary gain and ΔFRN, which is the difference in FRNs for loss and gain at a certain time point, had no significant correlation with delay-discounting for gain. Thus, although a delay for gain could affect FRN, it is unclear whether FRN capturing such a delay effect has a direct relationship with delay-discounting in both gain and loss domains. In this study, we introduced a delay-specific indicator, ΔFRNdelay, that is, the difference between FRN with and without delays, and investigated its direct relationship during the doors task with the discounting rate measured by the delay-discounting task in both the gain and loss domains. We found that, for loss, the delay enhanced FRN, whereas no such effect was observed for gains, and that this indicator was significantly correlated with delay-discounting in both domains. To our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest that FRN is sensitive to the effects of delay in losses on reward processing and that the new indicator directly corresponds to changes in subjective value as measured by delay-discounting.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to address the research gap and quantitatively examine how the psychological contracts (PCs) between Japanese expatriates and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) influence the expatriation success of both Japanese expatriates and Japanese MNCs.Design/methodology/approachThis study constitutes exploratory research, using a quantitative analysis as the main research method and a qualitative approach as a complement. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and data from 100 Japanese expatriate respondents were analyzed.FindingsThe results indicate that the fulfillment of PCs is indeed important for expatriation success. The age factor of expatriates also has significant impact on expatriation success. There is no complementary relationship between the fulfillment of Japanese expatriates and MNCs.Research limitations/implicationsOther organization variables may also be considered. Future research could also examine organizations' perceptions of Japanese expatriates' fulfillment of PCs. It is necessary for developing advanced methods to conduct increasingly precise research and provide improved methodological contributions.Practical implicationsThe efforts of both individual expatriates and MNCs are therefore indispensable to achieve successful expatriation. Attention should be paid to the training and development of younger expatriates.Originality/valueThis study allows the author to address the gap in studies regarding the expatriation success of both Japanese MNCs and expatriates from the perspective of PCs. This study has created a scale to measure the expatriation success. This study explores the interaction effect of the fulfillment of PCs by expatriates and MNCs, which has not been addressed in the literature on expatriation success.

<p>In the science curriculum in Japan, as Mori et al. (2019) examined the content of course of study for elementary schools, there are opportunities to plant and grow plants in soil, and to learn about the erosion, movement, and deposition of sediment. However, the science curriculum does not include specific learning content about the characteristics and functions of soil. Furthermore, in the new course of study to be implemented in 2020 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2017), an emphasis is placed on science education aimed at the prevention of natural disasters (sediment-related disasters caused by localized rainfall, etc.), which have caused substantial damage in Japan recently. Thus, in the current reality of science education in Japan, there are no occasions for teaching about how ordinary soil supports our lives and affluent living.<br>The purpose of this study is to obtain suggestions on what should be taught at schools about soil by conducting a survey of university students who received such school education in Japan, to investigate their level of comprehension regarding the characteristics and functions of soil. <br>The survey was conducted in October 2019 in Tochigi Prefecture. Participants comprised 253 first-year university students who had just graduated from a high school (78 students majoring in humanities and social sciences, 175 students majoring in agricultural studies). The survey was in the form of a questionnaire. Soil’s “water retention” function received particular attention in this study. To survey the students’ understanding, they were asked the following two open-ended questions. Question 1: Why do plants require watering to grow? Question 2: How can weeds that grow on the roadside do so without watering? The first question was intended to examine the students’ understanding of why plants require watering to grow, while the second question was intended to assess their understanding of the water retention function of soil.<br>The most common answer to the first question was “Water is necessary for the growth of plants.” Sixty-five students majoring in humanities and social sciences and 165 students majoring in agricultural studies provided this answer. Approximately 25% of these students mentioned the mechanism of photosynthesis. Nearly half of the students answered, “because weeds are strong,” to the second question, which was the common answer. Twenty-six students majoring in humanities and social sciences and 77 students majoring in agricultural studies answered, “because it rains,” which was the second most common answer to the second question. Only four students majoring in agricultural studies, all of whom had attended university lectures on dendrology, were able to answer with reference to the water retention function of soil. <br>The responses provided in this survey indicate that while the students were taught that plants require water for growth, they were not educated about soil and its functions that are necessary for this process, which arguably shows the results of the science curriculum in Japan. Thus, it is necessary to develop teaching materials and lessons that will educate students about the characteristics and functions of ordinary soil. </p>

The present study had 3 objectives. First, we aimed to categorize the effectiveness of participation in school athletic clubs in accordance with findings from preceding studies (study 1). Second, studies on the effectiveness of athletic club activities were to be organized by generation with the changes observed in each generation also described with a view towards clarifying research tasks (study 2). Third, we aimed to clarify the effectiveness of athletic club activities that had not yet been demonstrated in previous research (study 3). In study 1, when we categorized the effectiveness of athletic club activities, we confirmed the construct, the subscale, and the observable variable that determined effectiveness in each study. Each concept was grouped based on similarity and made types having higher degree. The categories we derived were "school adjustment"; "scholastic ability"; "character"; "stress and mental health"; "psychosocial development"; "physical growth and development"; "sport as a habit"; "attitude towards sports"; "fatigue"; "lifestyle"; and "others". In study 2, when we investigated the transition of studies on the effectiveness of athletic club activities, we focused on the problem establishment in these studies. This was considered while examining the association between each problem establishment and social background or policies of the day. As a result, at first, researchers continued selecting students who participated in athletic clubs as appropriate subjects for examining the effectiveness of physical exercise or sports activity. Second, researchers are also interested in the negative effectiveness of participation in athletic clubs. Positive trends are particularly strong for "school adjustment" and "stress and mental health" studies conducted after 1998. Third, studies that demonstrated significance or effectiveness of athletic club activities increased after 1983, and the effectiveness that were determined diversified since that time. Researchers found out various significance and effectiveness of athletic club activities, and recognition of the potential for athletic club activities to address issues also increased. It can be said that we researchers don’t reach a common understanding on the significance and effectiveness of athletic club activities. In study 3, we brought attention to the effectiveness of athletic club activities that had been overlooked in previous studies by comparing effectiveness as determined in empirical studies how it had been determined in theoretical studies. Unnoticed effectiveness of athletic club activities was the acquisition of abilities and attributes necessary for developing sports society and culture.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether physical education lessons focusing on the long jump for elementary school fifth graders would be able to improve their vertical jump velocity. Twenty-eight elementary school fifth graders were instructed in the long jump over 5 lessons. To gain a higher vertical velocity, participants were instructed to pull their swing legs forward at the instant of touchdown for take-off and to lean their trunks backward during take-off. Measurements were taken during the first and fifth lessons. To evaluate the jumping motion, the body's center of gravity and segment angles were obtained using a high-speed video camera from a side angle.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of the lower limb joint moments on the horizontal and vertical velocities of the body mass center during jumping in different directions. Ten male university students performed forward, vertical, and backward jumps, during which their jumping motion (150 Hz) and ground reaction force (600 Hz) were collected. Induced acceleration analysis was performed to quantify the body mass center velocity produced by each joint moment. In all jump conditions, the hip, knee, and ankle joints exerted extension and plantarflexion moments, and most of vertical velocity of the body mass center was produced by the ankle moment. Additionally, the knee moment produced backward velocity and the ankle moment produced forward velocity, while the hip moment produced neither horizontal nor vertical velocities. These results indicate that the knee moment accelerates the body mass center backward and the ankle moment accelerates it upward and forward, regardless of jumping direction. Although there was no significant difference in the peak joint moments, significant differences were observed in the horizontal velocities produced by the knee and ankle moments. Moreover, significant differences were observed in the forward lean angle of the trunk at the beginning of the jump motion and lower limb segments at take-off. These results indicate that the velocity of body mass center was affected by not only the joint moments but also body configuration.