Feeding involves communication between mothers and infants and requires precise synchrony in a special triadic relationship with the food. It is deeply related to their intersubjectivity. This study compared the development of mother-infant intersubjectivity through interactional synchrony in feeding between 11 Japanese and 10 Scottish mother-infant dyads, observed at 6 and 9 months by video. Japanese mothers were more deliberate in feeding at an earlier age, whereas Scottish mothers were significantly more coercive than Japanese mothers at an earlier age. Japanese mothers brought the spoon to infants with a pause to adjust the timing of insertion to match their infants' readiness, whereas this pause was not observed in Scottish mothers. Isomorphic mouth opening between mothers and infants was observed. This empathic maternal display is an important element of intersubjectivity in infant feeding that differed between Scottish and Japanese mothers. Scottish mothers' mouth opening always followed their infants' mouth opening, but about half of Japanese mothers preceded their infants. Further, the mouths of Scottish infants and mothers opened almost at the same time as spoon insertion. In contrast, Japanese mothers' mouth opening did not co-occur with the insertion but was close to spoon arrival, a subtle but important difference that allows for greater infant autonomy. The time structure of Scottish mother-infant interactions was simpler and more predictable at 9 months than in Japan, where the structure was more variable, likely due to a stronger regulation by Scottish mothers. In conclusion, Scottish mother-infant intersubjectivity is characterized as more maternally reactive and mother-centered, whereas Japanese mother-infant intersubjectivity is characterized as more maternally empathetic and infant-centered. Cultural differences in intersubjectivity during feeding between Japan and Scotland are further discussed in relation to triadic relationships and parenting styles.

Objectives: This study aimed to clarify the importance of dental support for eating problems of infants, young children and disabled children, based on a questionnaire survey administered to dentists and guardians. Materials and methods: The respondents consisted of 1001 dentists, pediatric dentistry administrators randomly selected by each prefectural or municipal dental association, and 1031 guardians of preschoolers who attended kindergartens or children's day-care centers. Answers were received from 712 dentists and 844 guardians. We compared answers to question No. 16 for dentists and questions No. 23 & 26 for guardians. Furthermore, we compared free comments to question No. 16 for dentists and answers to No. 27 for guardians. Question No. 27 for dentists and question No. 21 for guardians similarly asked about children's eating problems, and we thus next compared the tendencies noted in answers to these questions. In addition, a componential analysis was conducted for free text answers to question No. 31 for dentists and question No. 34 for guardians to qualitatively examine "free comments to children's eating problems". Free comments were statistically analyzed using a text-mining approach in IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys. Results: The results revealed that guardians had more concerns about the following issues (relative to dentists): "vegetables" (23-fold) and "picky eating/fad eating/biased eating" (eight-fold). Issues of more concern to dentists (relative to guardians) were "mastication/ chewing" (two-fold) and "dental caries/decay" (1.3-fold). Conclusions: This study suggested that guardian's anxieties regarding children's eating problems have variable background factors. (c) 2020 Japanese Society of Pediatric Dentistry. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study examined the development of mother–infant tickling interaction and the relationship between infants’ ticklishness and social behaviors including infants’ looking at mothers’ face, mothers’ narrative tickling, and mothers’ laughter. Twenty-two Japanese infants aged 5 months (n = 10, five girls) and 7 months (n = 12, four girls) and their mothers were videotaped. Results revealed that the mothers’ narrative tickling was more frequent at 7 than at 5 months and the infants’ strong ticklishness showed the same tendency. The infants’ strong ticklishness was linked with the occurrence of other social behaviors. In conclusion, infants’ ticklishness was heavily connected with social behaviors. The mode of the tickling interaction at 7 months was different from that at 5 months especially in the increase of mother's narrative tickling. A possible function of such mother's narrative tickling to facilitate infant active communication at a higher cognitive level including anticipation, was discussed.

東日本大震災に伴う福島第一原子力発電所事故により、2016年3月現在でも避難指定区域外の多くの住民が自主的に避難を続けている。自主避難者の中でも特に、子育て中の母親は経済的な負担や放射線被曝への心配に加え、子育て負担の増加や家族関係の変化、避難先での人間関係の希薄化等よるメンタルヘルスの悪化が指摘されている。本研究では、子どもを持ち自主的に避難を続ける20歳から49歳までの母親241名を対象とし、家族関係及びソーシャル・キャピタルとメンタルヘルスとの関連について明らかにすることを目的とした。同居家族の有無と母親の抑うつ状態(CES-D:26点以上)との関連について多重ロジスティックモデルによる分析を行ったところ、母子のみで生活する母親は家族と同居する母親に比べ2.502倍(95%CI:1.125-5.563)抑うつが疑われる状態にあることが明らかになった。また、近隣住民への信頼感が高い母親に比べ、低い母親は5.434倍(95%CI:1.384-21.339)、地域活動への参加頻度が高い母親に比べて、低い母親は3.244倍(95%CI:1.083-9.718)抑うつが疑われる状態にあることが明らかになった。今後、特に母子のみで避難する母親の支援においては、子育てサークル等の地域で行われるインフォーマルな組織への参加を通して、他者への信頼感や地域活動への参加度を高め、ソーシャル・キャピタルを醸成していくことが重要であると考えられる。(著者抄録)

<p>Background : As of March 2014, three years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, 58,624 residents were relocated to other regions within the Fukushima prefecture, and 47,683 residents were relocated to other prefectures. Attenuation of human relationships due to the disruption of regional ties nurtured in the past heightens stress. This highlights the need to create a new community focused on establishing ties with neighbors. Among evacuees, providing support for elderly adults suffering from a decline in physical functioning and a deteriorating mental health is necessary. Objective : This study investigated the relationship between individual social capital and mental health in elderly adults, specifically focusing on the role of social capital in reconstruction after the earthquake. Methods : A self-report questionnaire was conducted at Waseda University and Shinsai Shien Network, Saitama. Evacuees from Fukushima prefecture (n=3,599) who lived in Saitama prefecture and Tokyo were asked to complete the Stress Response Scale-18 comprising questions related to social capital with cognitive and structural indicators. There were 772 replies (response rate=21.5%) and 229 respondents were analyzed. In addition, a multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between social capital and mental health in elderly adults. Results : The group with low confidence in neighbors relative to the group with high confidence in neighbors had a 5.192 times higher chance of being in the high-stress group (95%CI=1.042-25.865). In addition, the group with lower confidence in acquiring their neighbors assistance if a disaster occurred again, had a 2.172 times higher chance of being in the high-stress group (95%CI=1.051-4.487). Furthermore, people who have never participated in regional activities (e.g., hobbies, sports, entertainment, etc.) had a 3.112 times higher chance of being high-stressed relative to the group who participated two or three times (95%CI=1.059-9.150). Finally, the group that never greeted neighbors had a 3.317 times higher chance of being high-stressed relative to the group that had five or more greeted neighbors (95%CI=1.177-9.346). Conclusion : Lower social-capital cognitive indicators such as "trusting one's neighbors" and "helping one's neighbors" were correlated with higher stress levels. Therefore, elderly adults can presumably maintain good mental health by developing a neighborhood relationship and building mutual trust. Furthermore, lower social-capital structural indicators such as "number of greeted neighbors" and "participation frequency in regional activities" were correlated with higher stress levels. It is important to encourage social participation of evacuees and provide them with support.</p>

<p>Backgrounds : This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in the households consisting of inhabitants of Fukushima Prefecture who have evacuated to Saitama Prefecture or Tokyo Metropolis at one and two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 has been expanded to the nuclear power plant disaster. Consequently, approximately 56,920 inhabitants of Fukushima evacuated to other prefectures as of March 2013. This consequence sets the 2011 earthquake apart from previous natural disasters. Method : This survey was conducted by "Earthquake and human sciences project" of Waseda University and Shinsai Shien Network Saitama. Psychological stress of the evacuees (2,011 households in 2012 ; 1,875 households in Saitama and 2,393 households in Tokyo in 2013) were examined one year and two years after the disaster respectively. The questionnaire also contained such items as severity of housing destruction, Tsunami affection, worries about livelihood sustainability etc. In this study, psychological stress was measured using the Stress Response Scale-18 (SRS-18). Results : The results revealed that the stress reaction level of the evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture living in other prefectures is still "somewhat higher" despite two years passed since the disaster. A chi-square test was used to determine psychosocial factors influencing stress reactions. Results of the survey in 2012 revealed that anxiety about living costs or joblessness influenced stress reactions in men, whereas damaged houses, personal relationships, and compensation problems related to the nuclear power plant influenced stress reactions in women. However, according to the results of the 2013 survey, difficult economic conditions, aggravated health conditions, negative labeling as an evacuee, and dissatisfaction with relationships with family and neighbors influenced stress reactions in both men and women. Conclusion : The results revealed that the psychological stress is strongly related to several social factors ; economic conditions, health status, family and community relationships, and dwelling environments. By the comparison between first year result and second year result, the causes of stressors have been changed from the damage of earthquake disaster itself into the circumstances of shelter life over time. Therefore, the work in cooperation among medicine, clinical psychology, social welfare, and legal support is necessary in order to obtain mental health recovery.</p>

Backgrounds : Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster occurred following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. It bears comparison with the incident in Chernobyl in 1986 in the degree of radiological contamination to the surrounding environment. 164,218 residents were displaced losing their home-land by this serious incident, of which 97,321 were relocated to other regions within the Fukushima prefecture, and 57,135 residents were relocated to other prefectures. The evacuees from Fukushima can be considered the largest number of 'internally displaced persons' or 'domestic refugees' in Japan after the world war two. Objective : This study investigated the scale of post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in the evacuees as of two years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. It also tried to identify the impact of bio-psycho-social factors related to PTS symptoms. Samples and methods : Questionnaire survey was conducted by Waseda University and Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). 2,425 households living at temporary housings within Fukushima prefecture were asked to answer the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the self-report questionnaires that we generated in order to evaluate the damage by the disaster in relation to several bio-psycho-social factors in refugee lives. There were 745 replies (the cooperation rate ; 30.7%), of which 661 were analyzed. Besides, multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine several bio-psycho-social factors as predictors for probable PTSD. Results : High level PTS symptoms were found. The mean score of IES-R was 34.20±20.56, and 62.56% were over 24/25 cut-off point determined as broadly defined PTSD which means high-risk presence of probable PTSD. The significant differences by chi-square test of high-risk subjects were found among economic difficulty (p=.000), concerns about compensation (p=.000), lost jobs (p=.023), unsatisfying housing (p=.025), unsatisfying environment around temporary housing (p=.000), having chronic disease (p=.003), aggravation of chronic disease (p=.000), affection of new disease (p=.000), lack of necessary information (p=.000), family split-up (p=.031), and lack of acquaintance support (p=.000). By the result of multiple logistic regression analysis, the significant predictors of probable PTSD were economic difficulty (OR : 2.34, 95%CI : 1.30-4.24), concerns about compensation (OR : 4.16, 95%CI 1.26-13.76), aggravation of chronic disease (OR : 2.94, 95%CI : 1.63-5.30), affection of new disease (OR : 2.20, 95%CI : 1.21-3.99), and lack of acquaintance support (OR : 1.92, 95%CI : 1.07-3.42). Conclusion : The findings revealed that there is a high-risk presence of probable PTSD strongly related to a number of bio-psycho-social factors due to the nuclear power plant disaster and its consequent evacuation. Our findings underscore the specific characteristics of the nuclear disaster as man-made disaster. Since the socio-economic problems such as compensation and reparation have not been solved, it is suggested that prolonged uncertainty regarding the insufficient salvation of the evacuees might account for the high-level PTS symptoms.

Both positivity and negativity are important components for the development of mother-offspring relationship. The "inter-body antagonism" is an important biological framework to promote offsprings independence from mothers. Weaning, an achievement of nutritional independence in offspring, is a typical situation in which mother-child negativity plays an important role. Human mother-child separation is also actualized by complex sociocultural allomothering systems consisting of objects, persons and institutes. Human triadic relationship in joint attention by mother and infant to object is a basic element of the systems. The relationship is preceded by "Proto-triadic relationship" in which particular body parts are used as targets in human inter-body interactions as in a case of tickling play.Not only object but also person could be a target of attention in triadic relation, and exchange of perspectives with the person is essential in the human infants cultural learning and establishment of social network. A special allomothering by a girl called Moriane in an island of Okinawa is an example of such allomothering.

This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied, and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and ten Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of the mothers' approach to their infants, as well as their infants' collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up, and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in the Scottish mothers' approach, but not in the Japanese mothers' approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick-up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of the torso than Scottish mothers, who bent at the waist with larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mothers' hands to their infants' heads revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by the Scottish mothers than by the Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers' body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at 6 months than at 9 months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. Thus, this paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of everyday interaction.

Group resilience is the competency of a group to recover from an accident and maintain its activity. It is captured by the sequence of behaviors of its members. In this study, group resilience was defined in terms of four key abilities, namely the ability to prevent undesirable incidents from happening, to keep undesirable incidents from worsening, to recover from an accident after it has already occurred, and to maintain group activity levels.The present study aimed at exploring whether these four abilities were exerted differently according to incidents of varying degrees of danger and frequency.The results of the study showed that moderately dangerous incidents occurring frequently were rarely remained unsolved. Ability to prevent undesirable incidents from happening and ability to keep undesirable incidents from worsening were also shown to be instrumental in solutions for less dangerous incidents that sometimes occurred, though such incidents were hardly ever settled by the group's ability to maintain its levels of activity. Frequent incidents that were a little dangerous were not settled by ability to prevent undesirable incidents.The ability to prevent undesirable incidents from occurring was not effective in such incidents. Furthermore, the study found that if group members did not have prior experience handling rare incidents that were dangerous, group resilience might not be exerted on such circumstances.

This article reports a case study on the development of mother-infant tickling play and ticklishness, with special reference to the intention reading of the infant. Naturalistic observations of mother-infant play were carried out for 3 months in the home of a 5 month-old infant. The results indicated that alternate looking between the tickling mother's hands and her face appeared at 6.5 months. The infant also showed an expectation of ticklishness before the actual touch. A triadic relationship was characterized by rapid alternation of the infant's visual orientation between a target object and the mother, a sign of understanding another person's intention. The situation observed here had a similar structure to that of a triadic relationship focusing on the same target and sharing intention. But it was also somewhat different because the target was not an external object. Based on narrative sharing, the mother and infant seemed to use the mothers' hands as a target of mutual intention two months before the appearance of a true triadic relationship. The present findings may be taken as an evidence of a 'proto-triadic relationship' (Negayama, 2011) which is interpreted as the precursor of a true mother-object-infant triadic relationship.

Allocare occurs when a child is raised by individuals other than a parent. This article focuses on the experiences of children living in child protection institutions and graduates of the child protection system, from the viewpoint of poverty in Japan. Residential care of children is equivalent to the institutional allocare systems provided by our society. The system has notable dysfunctions. However, some people with current or past experience receiving institutional care are working to improve their poor situation. There are strong norms in Japanese society dictating that the biological parent should also be the social parent, and these expectations could impede the promotion of allocare systems. This situation may improve in the future as people gradually become aware of the diversity of family styles, which becomes more and more apparent in light of the collapse of the contemporary nuclear family.

Background: Breastfeeding and weaning are strongly connected with infant-mother mutual autonomy, and hence are good touchstones to examine the characteristics of the mother-child relationship. Comparison of the weaning practice gives a framework to understand characteristics of the mother-infant relationship. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare three industrialised countries concerning the relationship between feeding and weaning practices and its reasons, mother's perception of child care, and of breast milk and formula. Methods: A questionnaire study on weaning practice was conducted for 310 Japanese, 756 French, and 222 American mothers with 4- to 20-month-old infants. Results: French mothers expected and had accomplished weaning at an earlier age of the infant, compared to Japanese and American mothers. Perceived insufficiency of breast milk was the leading reason for the termination of breastfeeding for Japanese mothers at the earlier stages, whereas back to work was the more important reason for French mothers. Japanese mothers were more negative in their image of themselves as mothers, whereas French mothers felt more burdened by child-care. Japanese mothers who terminated breastfeeding because of perceived breast milk insufficiency were also those who were less motivated to breastfeed. Conclusion: Weaning is a significant framework to interpret cultural differences in mother-infant relationship. The perceived insufficiency is interpreted as a solution of conflict between the social pressure to breastfeed and its burden.

The mother-offspring relationship has components of both positivity and negativity. Kowakare is a new concept introduced to explain an adaptive function of the negativity in the early mother-offspring relationship. Kowakare is the psycho-somatic development of the relationship as the process of accumulation in the otherness of offspring. Early human Kowakare has two frameworks, biological inter-body antagonism and socio-cultural allomothering compensating the antagonism. Some features of feeding/weaning, parental aversion to offspring's bodily products, and transition from dyad to triad relationship (proto-triad relationship) in tactile play are discussed. Early human Kowakare is promoted by allomothering with the nested systems of objects/persons/institutions as interfaces between mother and offspring. Kowakare makes mother-offspring relationship a mutually autonomous and cooperative companionship.

This research analyzed the immediate reactions of 315 children (176 boys, 136 girls; 166 first-born) aged 0-16 years (mean=6.1, SD=2.4) to a major earthquake in January 1995 that killed more than 6,400 people. It examined children's ability to avoid hazards from sudden natural disasters. The earthquake onset was at 5:46 AM; 75.2% of the children were reportedly asleep in the same room with their parent(s) at the moment and 10.5% were alone. Parents were surprised by the earthquake, but many children's reactions were much weaker. About 30% of them reported little or no surprise, and even slept through the moment. Younger children had less of a reaction, and a frightened reaction was more notable after 7 years of age. Parents' typical reaction was to make bodily contact by embracing or lying over their children, and many grasped the hands of older children. The reactions of the children and parents were interpreted as developmental indicators of children's autonomous coping and Kowakare (mother-offspring mutual autonomy).

Background: It is clear that early social interaction follows from mother-infant interaction after pregnancy. Many researchers have illuminated this interaction in the first years of life. Most common mother-infant interaction is the attachment behavior of an infant. The Japan Children&apos;s Study (JCS) development psychology group hypothesis is that the early mother-infant interaction will predict later social behaviors. But the method applied to evaluate this interaction mainly comes from the evaluation of the whole observation situation and is dependent upon the coder. We applied a new observational method that checked the on/off status of behavior and recorded sequentially.
Methods: Using a semi-structured observation setting as our method, we analyzed the developmental change of mother-infant interaction within a toy situation.
Results: The result indicated that mother-infant interaction with a toy altered at around 9-months and is salient to the usual developmental change of joint attention. Additionally cluster analysis suggested that the developmental pattern is divided into two clusters. This is the first report on a developmental pattern of joint attention.
Conclusions: These results indicated that the developmental trend of gaze direction and vocalization is one candidate of measure for evaluating the mother infant social interaction from the point of joint attention.

The holding of 465 Japanese infants by their mothers was longitudinally observed at 4 and 9 months with several checkups and questionnaires of physical and psychological development and child-care attitude in a larger longitudinal study of mother-child relationships. A left side bias in holding was significant for the 4-month-old infants. The infants&apos; increased autonomy in their ability to adopt a posture at 9 months weakened the holding bias. The mothers&apos; handedness was related to different right/left hand contact patterns, but it was significant only for holding on the left side. The infants&apos; reflexes relating to posture did not correlate with the holding bias at 4 months. The meaning and possible determinants of holding laterality are discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to describe the gender differences of the Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) as an evidence-based practical index of children&apos;s social skills and parenting.
Methods: The participants in our study, which was conducted as part of a Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) cohort study project, were 370 dyads of children with their caregivers were followed up and surveyed at aged 18, 30, and 42 month. The participants completed the five minute interaction session and were observed using the IRS.
Results: The results indicated the gender differences of IRS scores. Girls got rather high score at all ages. IRS can measure children&apos;s social skill development and parenting with high validity. Along with the qualitative differences of interaction between boys and girls, the IRS is effective in describing features of social skill development and parenting.
Conclusion: The IRS provides further evidence of the fact that in order to study children&apos;s social skill development, it is important to evaluate various features of the caregiver-child interaction as a predictor of social skills. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study investigated developmental changes in infant responses to maternal still-face (SF) situations. Infants (21 males and 25 females) of Japanese mothers were observed in a face-to-face SF paradigm, comprising four phases. (normal/SF/normal/SF), at two infant ages (4 and 9 months). The infants' facial expression, gaze direction, and vocalization were coded in both SF and normal interaction conditions. The results indicated that infants at both ages showed a decrease in displaying positive facial expression and gazing at their mothers during SF conditions. The 4-month-old displayed emotional expression and directed their gaze toward their mothers more frequently than the 9-month-old. However, the 9-month-old vocalized more often in SF situations, attempting to elicit responses from their mothers. The "carry-over" effect was observed only in 9-month-old. The results were discussed in the context of developmental changes in infants' social skills to cope with an emotionally stressful situation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the development of cruising, which had seldom been the focus of research on motor development. Naturalistic longitudinal observations were carried out in the homes of four infants, from the perspective of ecological psychology. Cruising was observed in different forms, depending on the environment. So locomotor development should be examined from a perspective of ecological psychology. Cruising behaviors were examined in terms of manual contact with objects, body direction, and duration and frequency of hand/foot motion. The results revealed a transition from quadrupedal to bipedal locomotion types in manual contact with objects. A relation between body direction and exploration behavior was found. Moreover, a bias in laterality was seen in the direction of cruising. It was suggested that the coordination of arms and lower limbs played an important role in the development of proficiency in cruising.

Previous research has focused only on the aspects of toddlers' excretion independence time and diaper performance. However, such research has paid little attention to communication between toddlers and caretakers while children's diapers are being changed. This research analyzed the actual activity of changing diapers at nursery school and at home using videos to examine and identify different types of communication between child and caretaker. Caretakers at home checked diapers by directly touching toddlers more frequently than caretakers at nursery school. When changing diapers, toddlers resisted their caretakers at home more than at nursery school. The caretakers at home were also using more various ways to change diapers. Toddlers were using the time during diaper changing to attract their parents' attention and to exert some control over them. It was concluded that toddlers easily distinguish between their parents and nursery school caretakers, and change their attitudes accordingly and to their advantage.

This study investigates conditions surrounding infants' crying at day nurseries, and aims to examine the quality of daycare. In the day nurseries, 570 babies were observed. For each subject, the state of each period of crying, as well as its cause and the adult's techniques used to calm the child, were recorded during one day by his/her nursery teacher. The results show: 1. As a whole, the frequency of crying was highest in the morning and then declined; 2. The causes of crying were interpreted by the adults as mostly physical, though social causes increased with age in months; 3. Crying interpreted as having a physical origin was nevertheless dealt with by applying social techniques like holding; 4. The duration and the strength of a baby's crying were related significantly to the length of professional experience of his/her practitioner.

Wielding an object makes it possible to perceive many physical properties of the object without visualizing it. The purpose of this study was to examine developmental changes of haptic exploration, which is called 'dynamic touch' and is based on Perceptual Systems Theory (Gibson, 1966). The particular focus was on variability in grip patterns and swinging patterns, because the variability associated with skill mastery within and across individuals indicated that the system was moving toward greater stability. Participants in the experiment, 21 elementary school children and 14 college students, reported their perceptions of rod length by dynamic touch. The results indicated that the children explored grip patterns, and college students explored ways to wield the rod. Implications for future research on dynamic touch were also discussed.

Fetal movement is the only experience through which pregnant women can directly feel their own unborn children. The present study examined how pregnant women (N=33) described fetal movement, in order to consider women's perceptions of and relationships with their fetuses. Participants kept a pregnancy diary, giving particular attention to their thoughts and feelings about fetal movement. Analysis of the 882 diary entries identified two major times when women's perceptions of fetal movement were particularly notable. In 29^<th>-30^<th> weeks of pregnancy, women began to mention the fetal leg. which suggests that they perceived the fetus as human at that point. The other significant change in descriptions came in the 33^<rd>-34^<th> week, when women reported that other people felt tetal movement as the third party entered into the mother-fetus relationship. Finally, this paper discussed changes in the meaning of the spontaneous fetal movements in terms of interactions between pregnant women and fetus.

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of children's ability to avoid obstacles in their environment. In Experiment I, 3- to 7-year olds were observed walking over or under a horizontal bar at 10-70% of their height. The older children were more successful at the task. The task was most difficult when the bar was at 40-50% of their height, because of the conflict between passing under and stepping over the bar. 5-year olds were moderately successful at the task, passing through slowly and with few failures, and at this age girls were more cautious than boys. In Experiment II, active avoidance by passing under the still bar and passive avoidance by ducking under the moving bar were observed in 4- to 6-year olds. Passive avoidance produced a wider gap between the bar and the head than did active avoidance. For boys exhibiting active avoidance, the head/bar gap correlated negatively with accident-proneness, suggesting a stronger risk-taking tendency when avoidance was active. The results are relevant to the development of affordance and of children's ability to cope with their environment.

This is a naturalistic study focusing on developmental changes in the immediate reactions of 183 Japanese children under 7 years old and their mothers to pain caused by inoculation of the children. Under the age of 5 crying was a typical child behaviour, whereas 5- and 6-year-olds showed facial expressions instead. Their mothers were generally empathetic to the children's distress on inoculation, but the empathetic reactions tended to decrease as the children grew older. However, children's crying per se did not necessarily cause the reactions, and the mothers of the older children tended to react to the children's pain with a smile. A greater proportion of 3-year-old females cried than males of the same age, but despite this their mothers had a stronger tendency to respond with a smile in comparison with the mothers of male children. The results were discussed with respect to development of emotional independence and competence of social manipulation by children.

Anesthesia was used to reduce filial cues to maternal behavior in Macaca fascicularis, and changes thereby in the mothers' behaviors toward their own and alien infants were observed. Effects of infants' general anesthesia on the mothers were obvious in increses in their grooming and sniffing toward younger infants aged 60 days or less, and in decreases in their contact and embrace toward older infants aged 61 days or more. Anesthetized younger infants of the mothers' own were directed contact and grooming more frequently by the mothers than were alien anesthetized younger infants. Aggression was not observed toward the anesthetized infants. Thus, loss of movement in the infants revealed an active role of the mothers of the younger infants to maintain relationships with their offspring, but this active role decreased in the mothers of the older infants. In the second part of the study, an odor of generally anesthetized infants was reduced by hypoesthesia of mothers' olfaction. As a result of this, sniffing decreased toward the younger alien infants and so did grooming toward the younger own infants. The effect of olfactory hypoesthesia in the mothers was thus seen only toward the younger infants, which indicates an active role of young infants' odor in arousing the mothers' positive attention to them.

A mother, her adult son, four adult males and six adult females from a free-ranging group at Katsuyama were paired in a cage in the sexual seasons from 1976 to 1980. The paired subjects were classified into the following three types: mother and son, familiar pairs and unfamiliar pairs. The familiar pairs consisted of monkeys who had been in the Katsuyama group until about six months before the experiment. The unfamiliar pairs consisted of monkeys who had not met each other at all or who had not met each other for more than eight years before the experiment. Serial mounts which terminated with ejaculation occurred in nine of ten unfamiliar pairs, four of five familiar pairs, but there were none between the son and mother. The son and mother did not appear to be sexually aroused between themselves, although they were sexually active to other partners. However, on rare occasions, the son mounted singly on the mother, and on one occasion he ejaculated. Their interaction did not change essentially during the three years. The son rarely mounted serially on a female who had a close relationship with his mother. © 1981 Japan Monkey Centre.