2007 Stress & Coping In Japanese Children & Adolescents

Stress and coping in Japanese children and adolescents

P. E. JOSE1, & D. F. KILBURG III2

1Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand & 2Eastern Washington University,

Cheney, Washington, USA

AbstractJapanese children and adolescents (n�580) provided self-reports of stressor intensity, coping efforts,and adjustment. A new measure of Japanese adolescent coping was created, and psychometricanalyses confirmed a reliable four-factor structure. Mean group difference analyses showed that girlsreported higher levels of self-image and peer relations stress, and reported using isolation andproblem-solving coping more and externalising coping less than males. Younger adolescents (5th/8thgrades) reported higher stress in the domains of school, peer relations, and family relations, whereasolder adolescents (10th grade) reported higher self-image problems. Statistical moderation was usedto examine how youth negotiated the stress process. Females were found to be more responsive toappearance, family, and peer difficulties. Affiliation coping by females operated as a buffer betweenappearance anxiety and dissatisfaction with appearance. Externalizing coping was not associated withpeer relations satisfaction for males, but it was negatively associated for females.

Keywords: Japanese, children, adolescents, stress, coping, moderation

The body of literature on how children and adolescents cope with stress has greatly

increased in size and sophistication over the last 10 to 15 years. However, most of the extant

research has examined European-American samples, and calls have been made to examine

other cultural groups and ethnicities (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The chief impetus to

examining individuals from different cultural groups is that we may find that they differ with

regard to how they appraise stress, choose particular coping strategies, and experience

adjustment and well-being.

A unique population that has received little attention to date is Japanese children and

adolescents. A remarkable characteristic of this group is that for much of this country’s

history they have lived in isolation from other peoples and cultures. As a result, the Japanese

are one of the most genealogically distinct and culturally homogenous populations in the

world. The present Japanese culture is a compelling contradiction to Western eyes in that

they value and uphold traditional cultural values and behaviors at the same time that they

have embraced many Western approaches such as capitalism and industrialization.

Economic development in Japan has seemingly taken place without compromising much

of the country’s original traditions and values (Beasley, 2000; Hendry, 2003; McCargo,

2004). Western psychologists are therefore becoming increasingly interested in under-

standing patterns of Japanese emotional adaptation that presumably results from Japan’s

Correspondence: Paul E. Jose, School of Psychology, P.O. Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington,

New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]

ISSN 1061-5806 print/ISSN 1477-2205 online # 2007 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/10615800701272519

Anxiety, Stress, & Coping,

September 2007; 20(3): 283�298

unique cultural and historical path. The present study reports data obtained from Japanese

children and adolescents concerning their experiences of stress, choice of coping strategies,

and resulting well-being in order to identify how these individuals cope with stress.

Conceptualization of the Stress Negotiation Model

Much research on stress and coping, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, has been

piecemeal in the sense that researchers assessed one area, or at best two areas, among the

following: stress, coping, and adjustment. Increasingly researchers have recognized that

these three domains need to be conceptually and empirically linked (see Cohen & Wills,

1985). The most influential theory about the nature of coping from a Western perspective is

Folkman and Lazarus’s conceptualization of coping as a mediator between stress and

adjustment (see Folkman & Lazarus, 1988; Lazarus, 1991; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

The basic relationship is the stress to adjustment relationship, and it is presumed to be

negative in valence. In other words, in the absence of any coping, a person who experienced

high levels of stress would also report poorer adjustment. However, as noted above, if a

person noticed a threat to his or her well-being (i.e., primary appraisal), then he or she

would likely engage in coping of some sort in an effort to re-establish a more positive

equilibrium. The enactment of coping, in turn, would be expected to have a beneficial effect

on a person’s psychological outcome if the coping effort had an adaptive effect. Jose (2005)

notes that social support has this type of positive mediational effect, but a maladaptive type

of coping, such as rumination, has a negative mediational effect.

The mediational model is attractive for its simplicity in explaining how individuals

negotiate the stress process (Jose, 2005), but criticisms have been raised by Holmbeck

(1997) and others about whether stress should be examined principally or exclusively as a

mediational process. Holmbeck notes that mediation should be employed with longitudinal

data, but that moderation is more appropriate with cross-sectional data. The advantage of

the moderational approach was enunciated initially by Cohen and Wills (1985), and their

view was that coping strategies*in their case, social support*should be viewed as

moderators of the basic relationship between stress and outcome. In moderation, one

determines whether the basic relationship is affected by a third variable (specifically an

interaction term composed between the independent variable and the moderator). In

essence, the association of stress on the outcome depends upon different levels of the

moderating variable, for example, the strength of the stress to outcome relationship can be

attenuated under conditions of high social support. A significant moderational effect, when

obtained, should be probed (see Aiken & West, 1991; Jose, 2003) to determine under which

conditions the coping strategy buffers (i.e., attenuates) or exacerbates (i.e., increases) the

relationship between stress and coping. Since we obtained a cross-sectional dataset in the

present study, we examined whether the identified coping strategies moderated the basic

relationship of stress with adjustment.

Research on Japanese children’s stress, coping, and adjustment

One of the earliest studies on Japanese youth, by Yamamoto and Davis (1979), focused on

children’s experiences of stress. They studied the stressful experiences of over 600 Japanese

and American children from grades 4 through 6. In both samples, children in higher grades

reported significantly more stress, however, significant sex differences were only detected

for the Japanese children (boys greater than girls). The authors concluded that the

284 P. E. Jose & D. F. Kilburg III

similarities in stress experiences between the two cultures were considerable, and speculated

that school children in metropolitan areas in industrialized nations may have much in

common, despite living in distinct cultural contexts.

A subsequent study by Nagane 12 years later (1991) obtained a divergent finding with

regard to gender. Nagane developed an everyday life event stress scale focused on school

events for Japanese elementary school students of 4th�6th grades. Factor analysis revealed

four domains: peer relations, class presentations, school achievement, and school failure.

Significant differences were found between sexes, but not across grades. Girls reported

more stress in school achievement than boys.

The first study to involve two components of the stress process among Japanese youth

was performed by Okayasu, Shimada, Niwa, Mori, and Yatomi (1992). They developed an

everyday life event stress scale focused on school issues for Japanese junior high students in

order to measure stressors and responses to six school domains. Stress tended to increase

generally across age, especially for study-related items. Girls reported more stress for study-

related and teacher-related items. These findings would appear to corroborate other

findings that girls are under at least as much educational stress as boys in Japan.

The next step in the evolution of this field was to tie together all three components of the

process: stress, coping, and adjustment. Ohsako (1994) studied coping effectiveness in

Japanese high school students (only 10th grade) using a translated version of the Ways of

Coping Checklist (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980) and an original Japanese state-trait anxiety

inventory. This study appears to be the first attempt at linking Japanese children’s coping

research to the American coping literature, and it is notable because stress appraisal,

coping, and an outcome (i.e., anxiety) were examined together. However, no attempts were

made to analyze gender or age differences.

Participants were asked to appraise the stressfulness of each of five domains of life

(‘‘schoolwork,’’ ‘‘friends/sweet-hearts,’’ ‘‘teachers/school environment,’’ ‘‘personality/body,’’

and ‘‘home’’), how much they generally used particular coping strategies within these five

domains, and reported levels on the outcome of anxiety. Stress appraisal and the outcome

tended to be positively correlated, as expected. In addition, coping tended to vary

depending upon context. As important as these findings are, several shortcomings must

be noted. First, the author did not seek to identify gender differences; second, no age

differences could be determined because of the narrow age range for the participants; and

third, no effort was made to examine these three components in an integrated manner.

A study by Kilburg (1997) attempted to address several of these problems. Kilburg

investigated Japanese elementary school children’s experiences of stress in four contexts

(education, health/fitness, family/home life, and peer relations) as a function of sex and age.

Older children reported significantly more education-related stress than younger children,

similar to Yamamoto and Davis (1979). In addition, girls reported significantly greater

stress intensity for the contexts of health/fitness and peer relations, but no differences were

noted for education and family/home. No significant age differences were detected by

Kilburg for emotion-focused coping. However, increases in problem-focused coping were

found across age. Girls were found to report significantly greater use of problem-focused

coping than boys. Although Kilburg’s study examined stress and coping in some detail, no

outcome measure was obtained, so he was not able to determine whether particular coping

approaches could be characterized as adaptive or maladaptive.

In summarizing the literature on Japanese children’s stress, coping, and adjustment

(Kilburg, 1997; Nagane, 1991; Ohsako, 1994; Okayasu et al., 1992; Yamamoto & Davis,

1979), several patterns have emerged, but many questions remain. It seems that Japanese

Stress and coping 285

children face an increasing amount of stress as they age, particularly education-related stress.

A reliable sex difference regarding education-related stress has not been found; however,

there is indication that girls experience more stress than boys when it comes to their bodies

and their peers. A variety of coping strategies have been identified as being used by Japanese

children, but we know little about the adaptiveness of these various coping strategies because

research to date has not used an integrated model of stress, coping, and adjustment.

The present study had two main goals. First, we attempted to construct a reliable and

culturally relevant measure of coping for Japanese youth, because one is lacking. Second, we

examined mean group differences and associations in the stress negotiation process. We

expected to find that older Japanese adolescents would report greater educational stress,

and girls would report higher stress in relation to their appearance and peer relations. We

expected that certain subfactors of the new coping scale (i.e., affiliation and problem-

solving) would function as buffers and others (i.e., isolation and externalizing) would

function as exacerbators of the links between stress and adjustment.

Method

Participants

Participants were all native Japanese children and adolescents who had never lived outside

of Japan. They were sampled from four separate schools near Tsu City in Mie prefecture,

which is a suburb of Nagoya, Japan. All four schools can be classified as being primarily

middle-class in terms of both income and education level. Parents were notified by

newsletter and individual letter that the research project would occur and were asked to

notify the school if they did not want their child to participate. Only 12 did so. On the day of

testing, out of 805 child questionnaires distributed, 597 were returned, giving a 74% assent

rate. After excluding individuals for missing data (i.e., more than 5% missing data), we

obtained a final sample of 580 individuals. Mean item substitution was performed on the

remaining surveys. Respondents attended either 5th, 8th, or 10th grade, but inadequate

numbers of children were obtained in the lowest two age groupings, so these two groups

were combined to form a single 5th/8th grade group. (Preliminary analyses showed that

these two age groups also manifested similar patterns in the data.) The numbers of

individuals in these two age groupings broken down by gender were: younger females (n�154); younger males (n�140); older females (n�180); and older males (n�106).

Materials

The second author became a speaker of the Japanese language and lived in Japan for lengthy

periods of time before the inception of this study. In order to develop materials that

reflected native Japanese views and cultural values, he spoke at length with lay people,

educators, and psychologists in Japan, and discussed with them his previous attempts at

examining Japanese coping (Kilburg, 1997). The items used in the study, then, were

generated after considerable consultation with these key informants and reflect Japanese

customs and Japanese language usage.

Each child received a booklet containing three groups of items that were designed to

assess stress, coping, and adjustment. The groups were independently translated into the

Japanese language by two Japanese-American females. The groups were subsequently

exchanged, back-translated, checked, and modified as necessary to ensure meaning was

consistent between the English and Japanese versions. A third bilingual was enlisted


independent of the original two (a middle-aged, male, Japanese professor, born and raised

in Japan) to ensure that the Japanese items were natural and fluid to the reader.

Stress. The Japanese version of the Everyday Life Events Scale for Children (J-ELESC) was

derived from the ELESC cited in Jose, Cafasso, and D’Anna (1994) and subsequently

modified by Kilburg (1997). In order to increase cultural relevance, additional items were

added to the original measure. Examples are: ‘‘you had after-school lessons or practice (e.g.,

juku, piano, English, etc.),’’ ‘‘you disagreed with most of the people in a group but did what

they wanted anyway,’’ and ‘‘you did not want to follow your school’s dress code.’’

The participants received a list of 43 items, and they were asked to make three decisions

in sequence to reflect the appraisal process described by Lazarus (1991). First, they were

asked ‘‘has this happened to you in the last month?’’. If they marked ‘‘yes,’’ then they were

asked to decide ‘‘was this a problem?’’ If it was judged to be a problem, then the respondent

rated the intensity of stressfulness on a three-point scale (1�a little; 2�some; and 3�a

lot). (Because causality is less linear in the Japanese language than in English, the Japanese

version of this question actually reads more like ‘‘if it was a problem, how much stress was

involved?’’.) According to Jose et al. (1998), the stressor intensity scores (i.e., the three-

point ratings) are the best indicator of overall stress level, so these scores were used in the

present study. In the present study, we wished to emphasize the impact of particular clusters

of stressful events so we investigated whether certain groupings of stressor items yielded

significant internal reliability (this is a similar method to that used by Jose et al., 1998).

Based on previous work in Japan cited above (Kilburg, 1997; Nagane, 1991; Ohsako,

1994), four clusters were identified: family discord; peer difficulties; appearance anxiety;

and school difficulties (see Table I). All yielded adequate internal reliability, and

intercorrelations showed that no pairing was highly correlated.

Coping. No pre-existing Japanese children’s coping scale was identified in the literature so

we attempted to create one, guided by existing American scales and the previous work of

Table I. Stressor clusters.

Family discord (a�.72) 1. You and a sibling disagreed.

2. You were disciplined by a parent.

3. A family member was very angry.

4. Mom and dad disagreed in front of you.

5. Parents talked about problems or worries.

6. You disagreed with your mom or dad.

7. A family member was drunk.

School difficulties (a�.60) 1. I thought about schoolwork.

2. I had after-school lessons or practice.

3. I got a low grade.

4. I didn’t want to follow school dress code.

Peer difficulties (a�.71) 1. You couldn’t talk about your feelings with others.

2. Kids teased or avoided you.

3. You were nice to someone you didn’t like.

4. You thought about your classmates’ opinions of you.

5. You went along with a group decision despite disagreement.

Appearance anxiety (a�.70) 1. You thought about the way you look.

2. You thought about your weight.


Kilburg that was based on Japanese data. The Jose et al. (1994, 1998) and Kilburg (1997)

coping measures contained between 22 and 32 items each, but were deemed to be too

culture-bound and/or restrictive for present purposes. In order to allow a more culturally

sensitive measure to be derived, we compiled a list of 65 items with the assistance of our

cultural informants, covering a wide range of possible coping strategies deemed appropriate

for Japanese youth. We presented the entire list of items to all participants with the goal of

empirically deriving a reliable and valid measure of Japanese youth coping. After the

individuals had completed the stress measure, they were asked to ‘‘indicate for each item,

how much have you used that approach in relation to the problems identified above.’’

Participants made use of a five-point scale to convey how much they engaged in the given

coping strategy: ‘‘None at all’’ (0), ‘‘A little’’ (1), ‘‘A moderate amount’’ (2), ‘‘Much’’ (3),

and ‘‘Very much’’ (4). After psychometric work (described in the Results section), the

resulting measure was called the Japanese Children’s Inventory of Coping (JCIC).

Adjustment. As a measure of adjustment, school performance, and person relationship items

were created to form a nine-item questionnaire entitled ‘‘School Performance and Well-

Being.’’ A school performance cluster was composed of three items (How good is your

attendance record for school? How good is your behavior record at school? How satisfied

are you with your school marks/grades?) that was expected to be related to the stressor

cluster termed ‘‘school difficulties.’’ Three satisfaction items that assessed family harmony

(How satisfied are you with how you get along with your sisters and brothers? Your mother?

Your father?) were expected to be associated with the stressor cluster named ‘‘family

discord.’’ One item assessing peer relations (How satisfied are you with how you get along

with other kids your age?) was expected to be associated with ‘‘peer difficulties,’’ and one

item termed appearance satisfaction (How satisfied are you about how you look?) was

expected to be associated with ‘‘appearance anxiety.’’

Procedure

Participants were asked to complete questionnaire packets during their regular class time,

scheduled at the convenience of the schools involved. Several Japanese undergraduate

assistants supervised in conjunction with the teachers of the respective classrooms. (Neither

American co-author was present.) They announced that they were conducting a research

project on the problems that children have and how they learn to solve them. They

explained that problems can be mental, emotional, or physical. They explained that

‘‘everyone has some problems’’ and ‘‘everyone has to learn how to have a healthy life.’’

The children were reassured that no one would be able to connect their name with their

answers because the questionnaires would be anonymous. In order that the children would

complete the questionnaires carefully and within a reasonable time frame, research

assistants were asked to read each item aloud. The children were instructed to listen

carefully, in silence. A short and regular pause allowed them to answer each question in a

paced fashion. In this way, all the children finished at about the same time. If the children

had any questions, they were encouraged to ask.

Results

The results section includes: (1) psychometric information about the delineation of the new

measure of Japanese adolescent coping; (2) mean group difference comparisons for gender


and age in this sample; and (3) moderation analyses to determine whether gender and age

affected the stressor to outcome relationship.

Psychometric characteristics of the coping measure

The coping scale was composed of a diverse group of items that were expected to group

together to form subscales. In order to determine the best measurement model for this

scale, the total sample of participants was first randomly divided into two equal groups: the

exploratory and confirmatory samples. The 65-item coping scale was then subjected to an

exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal components with varimax rotation on the

exploratory sample. The results of the scree plot suggested that between three and five

factors would be optimal. Thus, three EFAs were computed, one each for three, four, and

five factors. The five-factor model was examined first. The first four factors all resulted in

acceptable Cronbach’s as (�.70), but the fifth factor yielded a�.62. This solution was

rejected. The four-factor model was examined next. Fifty-seven percent of the item variance

was explained by this four-factor solution. An evaluation of internal reliability showed that

all obtained factors yielded Cronbach’s a�.70. Intercorrelation among the factors ranged

between null to moderate (.50), which suggested that no two factors should be collapsed

into a single factor.

To examine this model further, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was computed on

the exploratory data using LISREL 8.71 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 2004). Using the factor

loadings from the EFA (we specified l as 1 for loadings�.40 and 0 for loadingsB.40), a

four-factor measurement model was tested. The initial run yielded model fit indices that

were somewhat below what is considered acceptable. The x2/df ratio was 3.58, the root

mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was .074, the critical N was 176.7, the root

mean square residual (sRMR) was .096, and the goodness of fit index (GFI) was .82.

Model pruning was employed next to determine whether an acceptable fit could be

obtained for the four-factor model. Items with l loadings less than .60 were deleted, and the

subsequent CFA resulted in acceptable model fit indices: the x2/df ratio was 3.01, the

RMSEA was .059, the critical N was 223, the sRMR was .073, and the GFI was .91.

Computing an EFA and a CFA on a single sample results in findings that should only be

considered tentative and exploratory, so the four-factor model was replicated with the hold-

out confirmatory sample. The model fit indices were found to be better than those obtained

earlier: ratio�2.60; RMSEA�.053; critical N�284; sRMR�.053; and GFI�.93. The

resulting scale is listed in Table II along with the factor loadings obtained from an EFA

performed on the entire sample. We named the four factors externalization, problem-

solving, affiliation, and isolation.

The three-factor solution was examined in similar fashion, and although model fit indices

were slightly better than those obtained for the four-factor model, the decision was made to

use the four-factor solution because the three-factor model excluded the affiliation factor.

Given that the internal reliability was good for this potential fourth factor, and that the

overall measurement model fell within the acceptable range, it was decided to utilize the

four-factor model.

Mean group differences for gender and age

A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was computed using gender and age as

the two independent variables on the four stressor clusters, and significant multivariate

effects were obtained for both main effects and the interaction, Fs(4, 573)�4.19 to 29.01,


psB.001, h2s�.03 to .17 (means and standard deviations for all variables are presented in

Table III). Univariate results showed two significant results for gender (self-image: F(1,

576)�97.58, p B.001, h2�.15; and peer difficulties: F(1, 576)�17.29, p B.001, h2�.03), four significant effects for age (Fs(1, 576)�4.46 to 11.96, psB.05 to .001, h2s�.01

to .02), and one significant interaction (self-image: F(1, 576)�10.92, p B.001, h2�.02).

The gender differences were due to females reporting higher self-image and peer difficulties

than males. Younger adolescents reported higher difficulties with school, peers, and family

than older adolescents; however, older adolescents reported more self-image problems than

younger adolescents. The gender�age interaction for self-image showed that boys reported

equal levels of self-image problems across age, but girls increased steeply over age.

A MANOVA was similarly computed for the four coping strategies as the dependent

variables. A multivariate main effect was obtained for gender, F(4, 528)�8.29, p B.001,

partial h2�.06, and for age, F(4, 528)�2.09, p B.05, partial h2�.02. Univariate results

obtained for gender were: externalizing, problem-solving, and isolation, Fs(1, 531)�3.23

to 8.88, psB.01 to .001, partial h2s�.02. Males reported higher aggression, but females

reported higher problem-solving and isolation. The only univariate result obtained for age

Table II. Factor loadings for the items of the Japanese Children’s Inventory of Coping.

Item 1 2 3 4

Problem-Solving Factor (a�.86)

11. I thought about all the things I could possibly do to fix the problem. .80 �.01 .10 .06

15. I told myself to divide the problem and take it ‘‘one step at a time’’. .77 .06 .03 .16

34. I tried to think what would work best to fix the problem. .76 �.01 .17 .16

14. I tried to get more information about the problem. .73 .09 .05 .17

2. I thought about why the problem happened. .73 .10 .06 .10

26. I told myself to keep trying as hard as I could. .70 �.03 .06 .24

Externalizing Factor (a�.81)

27. I tried to directly hurt or do harm to someone’s body or someone’s stuff*to help fix

the problem.

.02 .81 .02 .01

19. I tried to directly hurt or do harm to someone’s body or someone’s stuff*so I

would feel better.

.05 .80 .00 �.12

37. I tried to hurt or do harm to someone’s feelings-without that person knowing I did

it*so I would feel better.

.00 .73 .17 .12

36. I said mean things directly to someone’s face*to help fix the problem. .02 .71 .19 .17

38. I told someone that the problem was his or her fault and/or told someone to say

sorry*so I would feel better.

.07 .66 .16 .15

Isolation Factor (a�.75)

64.I went off by myself to get away from other people � so I would feel better. .04 .09 .83 .03

60. I went off by myself to get away from other people � to help fix the problem. .09 .02 .82 .05

64. I cried (but no one saw me do thing) � so I would feel better. .21 .11 .66 .04

61. I pretended there was not a problem � so I would feel better. .05 .15 .57 .24

Affiliation Factor (a�.76)

29. I went to be with someone* so I would feel better. .14 .06 .15 .79

23. I went to be with someone*to help fix the problem. .16 .10 .05 .79

39. I told someone the problem was my fault and/or I said I was sorry*to help fix the

problem.

.38 .02 .10 .57

20. I tried to be cheerful or happy in front of someone or do nice things for someone*so I would feel better.

.39 .03 .15 .56

18. I talked to someone in order to feel better. .10 .31 .19 .55

Note. Values in bold are the factor loadings of the items chosen for specific factors.


Table III. Correlations among all variables and means and standard deviations for the variables.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 M SD

1. Family discord .49 .48 .22 .15 .22 .20 .18 �.37 �.14 �.18 �.06 .654 .54

2. School difficulties .51 .33 .17 .28 .27 .25 �.13 �.23 �.09 �.06 .950 .69

3. Peer difficulties .42 .17 .25 .35 .27 �.21 �.22 �.33 �.19 .845 .71

4. Appearance anxiety .11 .13 .27 .14 �.06 �.14 �.11 �.41 1.10 .98

5. Problem�solving .12 .26 .52 .08 .03 �.01 �.01 1.26 .98

6. Externalizing .32 .28 �.10 �.09 �.07 �.04 .423 .70

7. Isolation .37 �.05 �.11 �.11 �.16 .753 .82

8. Affiliation �.01 �.02 �.09 .04 .642 .71

9. Family harmony .22 .25 .17 2.40 .82

10. School performance .14 .25 1.71 .87

11. Peer relations .19 2.60 .93

12. Appearance satisfaction 1.68 .91

Stress

and

copin

g291

was isolation, F(1, 531)�4.38, p B.05, partial h2�.01. Older participants reported higher

isolation.

And finally, we examined the four outcome clusters in a MANOVA. Significant

multivariate results were obtained for both age and gender: Fs(4, 544)�7.87 to 13.76,

psB.001, partial h2s�.06 to .09. Univariate results obtained for gender were: family

harmony and appearance, Fs(1, 547)�9.17 to 35.71, psB.01 to .001, partial h2s�.02 to

.06. Males reported higher satisfaction with appearance, but females reported higher family

harmony. The two univariate results obtained for age were appearance and school, Fs(1,

547)�16.29 to 19.15, psB.001, partial h2s�.03: older participants reported lower

satisfaction with both.

Moderation of stressor clusters to outcomes by coping strategies

We intended to investigate moderation with hierarchical multiple regressions (see Aiken &

West, 1991; Cohen & Cohen, 1983), one for each of the four stressor�outcome

relationships, but we first had to determine whether the specific stressor clusters were

significantly associated with the predicted outcome variables. We correlated all stressor

clusters with all outcomes, and as expected, the four predicted relationships were the

strongest among the sixteen possible (ranging from �.23 to �.41, psB.001; see Table III

for all correlations; correlations between .09 and .11, p B.05; between .12 and .14, p B.01;

and greater than .15, p B.001). Since these results supported our proposed analytic plan,

rather than analyze moderation for all possible relationships, we focused on these four

strongest (and most meaningful) relationships. Predictors were entered in discrete steps.

First, for a particular outcome (e.g., family harmony), the particular relevant index of stress

(e.g., family discord) was entered. Second, dummy-coded variables representing the age of

the adolescents (0�5th and 8th graders; and 1�10th graders) and gender (0�males; 1�females) were entered. Third, the four coping strategies were entered. Fourth, the two-way

interactions were entered, and fifth, the three-way interactions were entered. Following the

suggestion of Aiken and West (1991), the independent and moderating variables were

centered before the product terms were generated to avoid multicollinearity. Significant

results were probed with ModGraph (Jose, 2003).

Family harmony predicted by family discord. As expected, the regression on the first step

showed that family discord stress significantly predicted the dependent variable of family

harmony, b��.37, p B.001, R2�.13. On the second step, it was noted that gender, b�.15, p B.001, and problem-solving, b�.12, p B.001, contributed 3.8% new variance. Girls

and youth who used problem-solving coping reported higher levels of family harmony. Two

two-way interactions were identified: family discord�gender, p B.05, and isolation�gender, p B.05, total R2 change�.05. Figure 1 displays the results from the first

interaction, and it shows that females showed a stronger relationship between family stress

and family harmony, i.e., girls seemed more attuned to the impact of stress on family

dynamics than boys. The second interaction revealed that girls showed a significant

relationship between isolation and family harmony, namely that they were more isolated in

situations of family conflict and more involved in situations of family harmony, whereas

boys showed no relationship between these variables.

Peer relations predicted by peer problems. The first step of the regression confirmed that peer

problems significantly predicted good peer relations, b��.35, p B.001, R2�.13. On the

second step, no main effects contributed new variance. Four two-way interactions were


identified: peer problems�gender, p B.05, peer problems�isolation, p B.05, affiliation�age, p B.05, and externalizing�gender, p B.05, total R2 change�.04. The first interaction

was probed and it yielded results similar to the pattern in Figure 1, namely that females

showed a stronger relationship between peer problems and peer relations. The second

interaction revealed that youth who employed more isolation under conditions of high peer

problems reported better peer relations, and this result suggests that isolation may buffer

peer problems under conditions of high peer conflict. The third interaction showed that

higher affiliation was associated with better peer relations for older youth than younger

youth. The fourth interaction (see Figure 2) shows that levels of externalizing for males was

unrelated to peer relations, but it was related to peer relations for females. Girls who

reported higher levels of externalizing also reported lower quality peer relationships.

School performance predicted by school difficulties. The cluster of school stressors significantly

predicted levels of school performance, b��.23, p B.001, R2�.05, and age was a main

effect predictor too, b��.20, p B.001, R2�.04. Younger children reported higher levels

of school performance than older youth. Two two-way interactions were identified: school

difficulties�age, p B.05, and age�isolation, p B.05, total R2 change�.05. The first

interaction showed that the relationship between school difficulties and school performance

was stronger for younger than older participants. The age� isolation interaction revealed

that isolation was a maladaptive coping approach for younger youth (i.e., associated with

lower school performance), whereas isolation was not associated with this outcome for older

youth.

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

low med highExternalizing coping

Go

od

pee

r re

lati

on

s

GenderFemalesMales

Figure 2. The moderation of externalising coping on good peer relations by gender.

2

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

low med highFamily Discord

Fam

ily H

arm

ony

GenderFemalesMales

Figure 1. The moderation of family discord stress on family harmony by gender.


Satisfaction with appearance predicted by appearance anxiety. As expected, the first step of the

regression showed that self-image problems significantly predicted satisfaction with

appearance, b��.39, p B.001, R2�.15. On the second step, four main effects

contributed new variance: gender, b��.11, p B.05; age, b��.10, p B.05; affiliation,

b�.12, p B.05; and isolation, b��.09, p B.05, total R2 change�.03. These results

indicate that female participants, older youth, and those who used isolation coping reported

lower appearance satisfaction, whereas those who used affiliation coping reported higher

satisfaction. A three-way interaction was obtained: self-image problems�gender�affilia-

tion, p B.05, R2 change�.02. Probing this interaction revealed that males did not show any

interaction between self-image problems and affiliation, but that females did, p B.05. The

females’ interaction was graphed and it is presented as Figure 3. The figure shows that

affiliation buffered the relationship between self-image problems and appearance satisfac-

tion, namely, under conditions of high self-image problems, those girls who used affiliation

coping also reported the highest appearance satisfaction.

Discussion

Very little literature on Japanese youth exists in English-language journals. Most studies in

Western journals are concerned with Japanese youth’s acculturation to Western society

(e.g., Miyamoto & Kuhlman, 2001; Yeh et al., 2003). A Japanese-language literature on

youth’s experiences with stress in Japan exists (e.g., Nagane, 1991; Shimada, Miura,

Sakano, & Agari, 1996; Togasaki, Okayasu, & Sakano, 1997), but it is difficult to access, its

findings are not generally known or cited in the Western literature, and these studies tend

not to use the stress and coping model popularized by Folkman and Lazarus. The present

study represents an attempt to form a rapprochement between Japanese and Western views

of adolescent stress and coping. A new measure of Japanese coping was created using

concepts and cultural views of Japanese researchers and lay people, and this measure was

used in an effort to determine whether predictable mean group differences and covariation

could be obtained in a large sample of Japanese youth.

The present study was not cross-cultural in the sense of comparing these Japanese youth’s

responses with those from another culture or country, so we examined differences by gender

and age to glean useful information about how teenagers and youth in Japan negotiate the

stress process. The mean group difference analyses revealed several findings that we should

compare with findings from previous studies involving Japanese and/or Western youth. Girls

in this study reported higher stress than boys, specifically for self-image and peer

1.30

1.40

1.50

1.60

1.70

1.80

1.90

2.00

2.10

2.20

low med highSelf-image problems

Sat

isfa

ctio

n w

ith

Ap

pea

ran

ce

Affiliationhighmedlow

Figure 3. The moderation of self-image problems on satisfaction with appearance by affiliation for girls.


difficulties. Yamamoto and Davis (1979), in contrast, found boys reporting greater stress,

but their data were collected more than 20 years ago. Nagane’s (1991) study of Japanese

youth and many studies of Western youth (e.g., Ge, Lorenz, Conger, Elder, & Simons,

1994; Jose & Ratcliffe, 2004) have found that girls report high stress levels. Boys in the

current study reported higher use of aggression. In support, Western studies generally

concur that boys use more externalizing and aggressive responses (e.g., Jose et al., 1994;

Tremblay, 2000). Girls in the current study reported greater use of isolation and problem-

solving coping. A meta-analysis by Tamres, Janicki, and Helgeson (2002) on gender

differences in coping behaviour in Western studies suggests that both problem-solving and

isolation are used more by females than males in Western samples. Crystal and his

colleagues (1994) conducted a cross-cultural comparison of American, Chinese, and

Japanese 11th grade students on measures of stress and aggression, and they found a gender

difference for aggression (males�females) but not for stress among Japanese youth. Thus,

the current results confirm one of these two findings.

The age results present an interesting picture. Younger Japanese youth in the current

study reported more stress in three domains (school, peers, and family), whereas older

youth reported more stress with regard to self-image. The finding for school stress seems to

disagree with previous Japanese research (i.e., Yamamoto & Davis, 1979), but an

examination of the age of research participants may offer an explanation. Yamamoto and

Davis studied 4th�6th grade children, but the present study included older individuals.

Still, these results were unexpected in that cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the

West show that youth report that their levels of stress and maladjustment tend to go up with

age (Ge et al., 1994). Isolation, as a coping technique, is more typical of older adolescents

in the West (Bowker, Bukowski, Hymel, & Sippola, 2000), and that result was obtained

here. Older youth here were found to be dissatisfied with school and appearance, which is

congruent with the results of Kilburg (1997) and Ge et al. (1994).

The moderational analyses conducted here were performed to determine how these

various constructs covaried with each other for the sample as a whole or by gender and age.

The first finding of note is that stress was significantly and negatively associated with

adjustment for each of the four targeted relationships (bs��.23 to �.39) One of the most

robust findings in the stress and coping literature is this association (Cohen, 1988). This

association tells us that adolescents who reported higher stress also reported lower

adjustment or satisfaction. Previous studies in Japan have shown a significant relationship

between stress and adjustment (Ohsako, 1994; Okayasu et al., 1992), confirming that this

basic relationship seems to generalize robustly to different groups of Japanese youth.

The moderational analysis results for each of the four stress-outcome relationships will be

described in turn. As expected, perception of family discord negatively predicted family

harmony, but there were several gender-related findings of note. Females reported a

stronger relationship between family discord and family harmony, suggesting that they were

more attentive or affected by emotional currents in the family system. Research in the West

has suggested that girls and women are more sensitive to family stressors (Werner &

Silbereisen, 2003), and the same phenomenon seems to be evident here. Further, girls

seemed to exhibit more isolation in situations of family discord and to be more involved in

situations of family harmony, indicative of an attunement lacking in boys.

The same attunement was evident in the results for peer relations: girls reported a

stronger relationship between peer difficulties and peer relations, congruent with Rose and

Rudolph’s (2006) observations about gender-typed peer relations in Western countries. For

both family and peer difficulties, Japanese youth who employed isolation reported generally


higher satisfaction. Although isolation was negatively associated with all four outcomes in

this study, the moderational results suggest that isolation in situations of high stress might

be adaptive. Japanese society seems to allow youth isolation more than other societies (for a

discussion on hikikomori , or extreme isolation, see Sakamoto, Martin, Kumano, Kuboki, &

Al-Adawi, 2005). Affiliation coping, which is similar to social support coping, was found to

be associated with better peer outcomes for 10th graders, but it did not seem to have a

positive effect for younger adolescents. Social support coping is found to have a greater

positive effect among older adolescents in Western samples (Compas, 1987), so this finding

is congruent with other research findings. And last, boys’ use of externalizing coping was

not found to be maladaptive for peer relations, but girls’ use was. This result suggests that

gender-typed aggressive techniques yield different results, as in the USA (Gaylord,

Kitzmann, & Lockwood, 2003; Killen, Crystal, & Watanabe, 2002).

The two chief interesting results for school satisfaction were that: (1) younger adolescents

(5th and 8th graders) showed a stronger relationship between school stress and

dissatisfaction than 10th graders; and (2) that isolation seemed to exacerbate the

relationship between school stress and dissatisfaction for younger adolescents, but it

seemed not to have an effect for older adolescents. Again, this finding suggests that isolation

for certain Japanese youth may be beneficial, or at least not counterproductive.

The findings for self-image problems strongly suggested that they concern girls much

more than boys in Japan, as they do in Western countries (O’Dea & Abraham, 1999). The

three-way interaction yielded the compelling finding that affiliation coping buffered the

relationship between self-image problems and appearance satisfaction for girls. This seems

to be an understudied issue in the Western literature, but there is some evidence (e.g.,

Presnell, Bearman, & Stice, 2004) that females may respond positively to emotional

support for body image problems.

Limitations and future directions

A stronger emic approach (see Niblo & Jackson, 2004) to deriving Japanese adolescent

themes of stress, coping, and adjustment may be a useful direction in the future. The

present approach may have overlooked or ignored important cultural appraisals, and may

have overrelied upon Western views of stress and coping. A longitudinal study of adolescent

stress, coping, and adjustment would be extremely helpful in determining whether the

relationships identified in the moderational analyses truly reflect causal and/or predictive

relationships in the directions proposed here (see Cole & Maxwell, 2000). All of the

measures were self-report measures, and they suffer from common method variance, i.e., all

data were generated from the same individuals (see Lindell & Whitney, 2001). Future work

may wish to obtain reports from multiple informants (e.g., parents, teachers, and children)

to more rigorously examine whether the obtained relationships are robust across

individuals.

Conclusions

The present report conveyed findings from a large sample of Japanese adolescents on

measures of stress, coping, and adjustment. One significant achievement was the creation of

a Japanese measure of adolescent coping, and researchers are encouraged to consider the

use of this measure in the future. The other significant achievement was the examination of

these three constructs in concert through the use of moderation analyses. Many findings

were found to be congruent with Western findings of similar-aged samples. We suggest that


more investigations of Japanese youth should be conducted and the results reported in

English language journals.

Acknowledgements

These data were collected with a grant awarded by the Japanese Ministry of Education to

the second author. A previous report of these data occurred at the Mie University

Educational Psychology Conference, Mie University, Japan. Special thanks to: Dr Kazuo

Nishikawa, Dr Kathryn Grant, Dr Linda Camras, Shouko Murakami, Kazuyo Fujii,

Makiko Hamamoto, Yuusuke Matsuura, Rikako Takatsu, Mikako Nakajima, Fuzoku

Elementary & Junior High Schools, Kyohoku Junior High School, and Tsu Higashi High

School.

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