Independence is an important developmental task in adolescence and has been claimed to consist of multiple factors such as “subjective independence,” “collaborative interpersonal relationships,” and “life management.” We hypothesized that cooking experiences in childhood would help foster independence in adolescence. An original questionnaire survey was administered to 178 university students (53 men and 125 women). Cluster analysis was conducted to classify eating environments of participants and their involvement in cooking during childhood. Scores for independence in adolescence were compared among these clusters using ANOVA. The cluster analysis yielded five clusters. Among them, two groups with high scores for involvement in cooking during childhood had high scores for “cooperative interpersonal relationships” and “life management” in adolescence. These results suggest that involvement in cooking in childhood has a positive influence on two factors of independence in adolescence, thus supporting the hypothesis.

看護師は、病気について子どもや保護者に説明することをどの程度重視しているのだろうか。また、子どもが病気についてどの程度の理解力をもつと考えているのだろうか。本研究では、これらの考えが看護経験によって異なるかどうか、質問紙調査により検討した。調査対象者は、看護経験が5年以上あり主に小児看護に従事する看護師110人(小児群)と、主に成人看護に従事する看護師85人(成人群)である。子どもへの説明を重視する度合いについては群差が認められず、どちらの群でも子どもより保護者への説明を重視していた。病気の原因・経過・種類等に関する子どもの理解については、小児群の方が幼児期後半および児童期前半の子どもの能力をより高く評価していた。以上より、小児看護を専門とする看護師は、実践の中で病気理解に関する子どもの有能性を認めるようになることが示唆された。(著者抄録)

This study examined young children's information-seeking behavior for illness or injury by (1) identifying primary informants and (2) determining whether children's evaluations of trusted informants change with development. Studies 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d showed that 3- and 4-year-old children preferred to ask adults, including experts, as well as familiar and unfamiliar adults, for illnesses and injuries, but did not prefer to ask other children and stuffed animals. It was also shown that 3- and 4-year-olds' previous experiences of medical examination were not related with their preferences of informants and that they valued doctors' information about specialized knowledge more than mothers' resources. Studies 2a and 2b examined whether evaluations of trusted informants changed with age. Adults tended to differentiate between informants for contagious and allergic illnesses. However, this differentiation was not observed in 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old children. Adults preferred to seek help from doctors rather than mothers for contagious illnesses and injuries, whereas for allergies they preferred mothers to doctors. However, their reliance on mothers was limited. Preferences for mothers were not observed for nonallergic illnesses, such as headache, toothache, and cancer.
Highlights
Three- and four-year-old preschoolers preferred to ask adults, including experts as well as familiar and unfamiliar adults, for help with illnesses and injuries, rather than other children and stuffed animals. Three- and four-year-olds valued doctors' information about medication and causes of illness more than mothers' resources, though such preferences were not observed for daily advice, such as dietary and rest for sick individuals. With development, evaluations of trusted informants in the domain of illness changed. Adults tended to differentiate between informants for contagious and allergic illnesses; however, this differentiation was not observed for 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old children.

The present study examined Japanese children's and adults' awareness of the effects of psychological taste experiences on biological processes such as growth and illness. Studies 1 and 2 showed the following: (1) preschoolers tended to assume that good-tasting experiences would make one grow taller and gain more weight, while adults seldom accepted such ideas. Concerning illness, participants in all age groups were reluctant to accept the effects of taste experiences. (2) Process-dependent awareness (i.e., effects of psychological factors were assumed to depend on biological processes) was observed not only among young children, but also in older children and adults. Compared with younger children, adults' responses were more process sensitive. (3) When adults explained why they assumed that different taste experiences would lead to different bodily states, they often relied on vitalistic causality. The use of vitalistic concepts was uncommon among children. Finally, (4) Japanese participants seem to be more likely than Americans to assume that bad-tasting experiences would make them non-resistant to a cold.

The present study examined (1) whether children notice different causes for contagious illnesses, non-contagious illnesses, and injuries and (2) what information adults provide to children and to what extent this information is related to children's causal awareness. Studies 1 and 2 explored preschool teachers' and mothers' explanations of illnesses and injuries, and Studies 3 and 4 examined children's understanding of causality. The teachers and mothers frequently offered various kinds of information about illnesses and injuries to children. Explanations based on behaviour and life habits were most common. When explaining contagious illnesses, they tended to refer to contagion, while when explaining non-contagious illnesses, they sometimes mentioned inherited constitution. But mention of heredity was never observed for contagious illnesses and injuries. In Studies 3 and 4, 5-11-year-old children consistently denied a belief in immanent justice. For contagious illnesses, they appeared to notice that physical contact with contaminants make us sick. Older children's awareness appeared to become more differentiated and sophisticated. From middle childhood, they come to notice that inherited constitution plays some role in susceptibility to non-contagious illnesses.

Undergraduate students (n = 367), who were born in the 1990s, and the generation who were born in the 1960s and have undergraduate-aged children (n = 300), completed questionnaires describing the most memorable meals and good fare from their childhood. The results were summed up as follows. First, among the 1960's, meals at home with their families were mainly (about 80%) cited as their most memorable meal in childhood, whereas among the undergraduates, in addition to these, those with friends were also often reported (about fifty-fifty). Second, the undergraduates frequently responded that their most memorable meals were special meals, for example, a New Year party, at home with their parents and grandparents. On the other hand, the 1960's often responded that theirs were everyday mealtimes at home. Third, the 1960's frequently nominated specific foods as their most memorable meal and good fare, for example, "suki-yaki" and "sushi," while the undergraduates nominated annual events such as Christmas and New Year parties more often. These results suggest that over the last few decades, people have gradually placed less importance on daily mealtimes at home, and also on family life itself. The results also appear to reflect the shift in the nature of consumption, that is, from "goods" to "service" or "experience".

This study, comprising three sub-studies, aims to examine how child-rearing practices vary according to different social circumstances in Japan. By comparing teacher-child interaction at mealtimes in day care centres both on an isolated small island located in Okinawa prefecture, Tarama, and in a large industrialised city, Tokyo, the following was shown. In Tarama, teachers, children, and their families were familiar with each other before the children's enrolment, while in Tokyo, it was typical that they first met when the children entered the centre. Such differences in social relationships were reflected in teacher-child interactions at mealtimes. First, in Tarama, ownership distinctions at the table were not so rigorous compared to those in Tokyo, implying that the teacher-child lunchtime in Tarama was similar to a home-like private situation. Second, in both Tarama and Tokyo, teachers encouraged children's eating by giving various kinds of assistance, but their approaches were different. Teachers in Tokyo paid much attention to improve children's eating skills, while in Tarama, teachers placed more weight on ensuring primary functions of mealtimes. The results indicated that child care practices were deeply rooted in social communities.

Research Findings: Preschools have many norms and rules children are supposed to follow. Among them, behavioral norms associated with mealtime are of great consequence because eating is an essential life function. The present study examined young Japanese children's understanding of hygiene norms and rules at mealtime from the standpoint of their awareness of contamination. Previous studies on contamination sensitivity have mainly focused on children's knowledge itself and have paid little attention to the origins of such knowledge. However, the present study examined how adults talk to children about contamination as 1 possible source of children's knowledge. Practice or Policy: Study 1 involved 32 days of observations during lunchtime at 3 Tokyo preschools. The teachers frequently told children to adhere to hygiene habits such as washing their hands. Although preschool teachers attached much weight to hygiene, their explanations were not precise. They often used 1-word or 1-phrase directions (e.g., Dirty) or just input-output explanations such as Please wash your hands, or you'll get sick. Explanations of why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness were seldom offered to children. In Study 2, 26 children age 3 (M age = 3.7) and 22 children age 5 (M age = 5.7) were asked to explain why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness. In contrast with teachers' simple expressions in Study 1, even 3-year-old children frequently generated contamination mechanism explanations (e.g., referring to germs and disgust transmission spontaneously).

During the weaning period, infants are not skilled at self-feeding and caregivers play a prominent role in feeding. Solid feeding is therefore an inherently collaborative and interactive process between infants and caregivers. The present study examined how caregivers and infants coordinate their solid feeding interactions, based on naturalistic longitudinal observations of three Japanese mother-infant dyads. The main results were as follows. Four or five months after weaning (about 10-11 months of age), children's mouth movements and mothers' arm movements became more synchronized, and the success or failure of coordinated feeding became independent on children's gaze behavior. During this same period, both mothers' and children's body movements accelerated. Specifically, children's food-intake motions and mothers' food-carrying movements became faster together, although before 10-11 months fluctuations of these motions were not as correlated. Finally, at 9-11 months of age rhythmic body movements became frequent. From the first day of weaning, all three mothers swayed their bodies rhythmically while feeding, and about 2-3 months later their children also began to sway as they ate, at first infectiously but later spontaneously. These observations indicate how specific behavioral development contributes to mother-infant coordination in feeding. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

During the weaning period, infants are not skilled at self-feeding and caregivers play a prominent role in feeding. Therefore, solid feeding is an inherently collaborative and interactive process between caregivers and infants. The present study examined how caregivers and infants coordinate to construct solid feeding interactions, as an analysis of naturalistic longitudinal observations of three Japanese mother-infant dyads. The main results were as follows. After 2 or 3 months post-weaning, mothers' arm movements became non-fluid while feeding children. This non-fluidity was associated with rapid changes in the movement patterns of the mother's arms and the child's mouth. Compared to the development of children's mouth movements, mothers' arm movements developed quickly. This imbalance in the pace of change may have been one cause of non-fluency. While feeding, even though mothers did not eat the children's food, they frequently moved their mouths as if they were eating. The frequency of this maternal behavior differed according to their feeding styles, and mothers' movement patterns corresponded well with their babies' mouth movements. These findings clarify the importance of mothers' eating-like mouth movements for the weaning process. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In Experiment 1, 4-, 5-, 8- and 11-year-old Japanese children (n=69) and adults (n=21) explained their reasons for bodily induced reactions (e.g. overeating leads to vomiting) and psychogenic bodily reactions (bodily outcomes originating in the mind, e.g. frustration leads to vomiting). Children gave vitalistic explanations, that is, explaining causal connections by referring to a vital force, in responses concerning bodily induced reactions, whereas adults typically gave these explanations in responses concerning psychogenic bodily reactions. In Experiment 2, 5-, 8- and 11-year-old children (n=96) and adults (n=24) explained bodily induced and psychogenic bodily reactions, and psychological behaviour, for example, that frustration leads to nail biting. As in Experiment 1, vitalistic explanations tended to be found for psychogenic tasks but were seldom found in either children's or adults' explanations of psychological behaviour. The findings suggest that with age vitalistic causality obtains cross mind-body implications. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Four experiments were conducted with Japanese children and adult participants to assess their awareness of the effectiveness of biological and psychological treatments for psychogenic bodily reactions. Study 1 had 116 participants, composed of 4-year-olds (17), 5-year-olds (20), 7-year-olds (24), 10-year-olds (20), and college students (35). The preschoolers tended to respond that only biological cures were effective in treating psychogenic bodily reactions, whereas adults typically responded that only psychological cures were effective. In Studies 2-4, by modifying the wording of the questions, adults' and young children's awareness was reexamined. As a result, in Studies 2 and 3, Japanese adults frequently acknowledged the effectiveness of biological treatments, and, in Study 4 (32 five-year-olds and 34 seven-year-olds), about 70% of the 5-year-old preschoolers who were aware of psychogenic bodily reactions tended to respond that psychological cures were effective in treating these psychogenic reactions. The results were discussed in terms of the developmental course in cross-domain awareness (i.e., reasoning about phenomena that cross ontological domains) and cultural differences in biological understanding.

This paper examined through questionnaire surveys, the judgments of undergraduate students (n=246) with respect to conflicts between various human rights and common welfare issues. None of the participants had majored in law. They were presented with four cases that contained conflicts between several human rights. The participants who were presented with the 'moral' version of the questionnaire (n=141) were asked for their opinion on the preferable course of action, while the others were presented with the 'legal' version (n=105) and were asked: 'If you were a citizen judge, what would your thoughts be on this matter?' The participants' judgments did not differ greatly by gender, current major, high school electives in the social sciences, knowledge of legal terminologies, and self-declared experience with respect to human rights. There were no clear differences between the results obtained from the responses to the legal and moral versions. Several heuristics of the 'disregard for due process', 'undue focus on personalities', 'unilateral respects of gains', and 'labelling possibilities without any proof' were observed.

<p>This study investigates whether cultivation practices in nursery schools affect preschoolers' awareness of the processes of food production. The target preschool, nursery school A, was located in the Tama area in Tokyo. Children from school A participated in various cultivation and food processing activities such as growing rice and vegetables and pickling ume. In Study 1, five-and six-year-olds from school A (n=39) and in the other school (n=40) were individually asked to explain why we must eat various types of food, chew food well, say 'Itadakimasu', and not leave food on plates. The answers given by the children did not differ between the two schools. The children from school A gave more detailed answers to questions regarding the processes of food production. In Study 2, 21, mealtime interaction between four-year-olds in school A were observed. While eating, the preschoolers frequently chatted about cultivation and food processing activities. Finally, the implications of cultivating activities in schools were discussed in view of the results.</p>

In Experiment 1, Japanese children (4-, 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds (n = 78)) and adults (n = 36), answered questions about the possibility of psychogenic bodily reactions, i.e., bodily outcomes with origins in the mind. The 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers typically denied that bodily conditions could originate in mental states. Developmentally, recognition of psychogenic bodily reactions appeared between ages 8 and 11. Experiment 2 showed that these findings did not depend on whether reactions were positive or negative. The preschoolers had some difficulty in assuming not only negative but also positive psychogenic bodily reactions. In Experiment 3, 5-, 6-, 8-, and 11-year-old children (n = 70) and adults (n = 18) were asked to explain why physical/psychological states would lead to bodily outcomes. Adults relied on mechanical causation for physically induced bodily reactions, while for psychogenic reactions they often referred to vitalistic concepts. In contrast, young children sometimes referred to vitalistic concepts for physically induced reactions, but seldom did so for psychogenic reactions. Vitalistic causality appears to change from causality based on only the body, to a framework that applies not only bodily but also to mental phenomena.

The present study investigated whether a preschool's practice of growing vegetables would affect the school's students' awareness of biology, plants, and procedures of cultivation. In Study 1, individual interviews were conducted with 18 six-year-olds at a school where the children regularly participated in raising vegetables, and 16 at another school where the children had little experience raising vegetables. The children with experience growing vegetables tended to view vegetables as living things, based on biological reasons, and to know more about cultivation methods for those vegetables that they were familiar with than the children in the other school did. When the children were asked about fruit that they had had no experience raising, no differences were found between the children at the 2 schools. Study 2 found that the 6-year-old children (n=16) at the school that grew vegetables were more likely to see grass and trees as living things than were the 6-year-olds (n=19) at the other school. Also, when asked about the effects of over-watering and lack of sunlight, the children who grew vegetables generated more biological inferences about edible plants, whereas no differences between the children at the 2 schools were found when the children were asked those same questions about non-edible plants.

First- and second-graders in Tokyo (M=7 : 4, range=6 : 5-8 : 3, 20 girls, 18 boys) and their mothers participated in this study. The children did not fully accept the possibility of psychogenic bodily reactions such as tension-related stomach pains. The children's performance concerning psychogenic items was correlated with self-reported personal experiences of psychogenic bodily reactions, but not with maternal reports about the children's previous experiences. The children who reported about their previous experiences of psychogenic bodily reactions were more likely to refer to vitalistic or mechanic explanations when explaining how mental states could cause bodily reactions. Even when the mothers suggested mental problems, such as anxiety, worry, fear, or shyness, as causes for the children's previous bodily reactions, the children seldom considered psychological causes, but rather hypothesized bodily causes, such as having a cold. These results seem to suggest that many first- and second-graders do not possess a framework that allows them to contemplate psychological causes for bodily reactions.

Three experiments examined children's awareness of rights to privacy and the right to know. In Experiment 1, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders, and undergraduate students, judged whether three types of individual information should be disclosed in a classroom newspaper. The 4th graders, like the older children and college students, distinguished between public vs. personal matters. That is, public matters like school activities were not assumed to be private, whereas personal items such as a diary and petty cashbook were assumed to be kept from the public view. In Experiment 2, the same four age groups evaluated whether a student should show his "good" or "bad" personal diary to a teacher, and whether a salesclerk should reveal her customer's telephone number to a "good" or "bad" person. Elementary school children tended to respond that the "good" diary could be shown, and that the telephone number could be given to a "good" person. In Experiment 3, 4th graders and the older participants all showed awareness that even "bad" personal matters should be disclosed if such disclosure is recognized as being in the public interest.

We sometimes drop food at mealtimes. Once dropped, the food becomes dirty or inedible not only in a physical but also in a social sense. Even without physical contact with contaminants, we may not eat fallen food in same social contexts, e.g., a high-quality restaurant. Such thinking is referred here as "socially mediated rejection." In Study 1, Japanese children were observed during mealtimes at home and at school. Even 2-year-olds reacted to fallen food differently between at school and home. In Study 2, 4- and 6-year-olds and adults were presented several stories in an experiment, and were asked to predict the story character's bodily and emotional reactions to eating fallen food. Preschoolers noticed that physically contaminated food would cause bodily harm more than socially rejected food. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

A series of five experiments evaluated whether young children are aware of biological transformations associated with eating and breathing. In Experiment 1, children aged 4, 5, 7, and 8 years predicted that biological damage results from lack of eating and breathing. Children also recognised that food changes inside the body, but seldom referred spontaneously to biological transformation. In Experiments 2 and 2A, children were presented with several alternative explanations of what food and air would be like inside the human body. Both preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren assumed that air would acquire warmth and colour inside the body. The older children consistently understood biological transformation of food. Preschoolers accepted the idea that food undergoes a transformation necessary for health and growth, but did not think so when the transformation was expressed in a material sense. In Experiments 3 and 3A, some preschoolers predicted the transformation of resources inside familiar and unfamiliar living things, but not inside nonliving things. In addition, some 4- and 5-year-olds recognised the sun&apos;s contribution to "digestive" processes for plants, but not for mammals. Finally, the question of whether early understanding of digestion can be termed "theory-like" was discussed.

Three experiments evaluated the basis of associational contamination thinking among Japanese college students and 4- and 7-year-old children. "Associational contamination thinking" is the belief that mere proximity between a contaminant and a substance will render the substance noxious even without direct contact between contaminants and substances. In Experiment 1, 7-year-olds and adults engaged in associational contamination thinking more often for disgusting (feces and roaches) and dangerous (poison and O-157) contaminants than for taste contaminants (salt and sugar). However, 4-year-olds&apos; predictions were not different among the three types of contaminants. In Experiment 2, when contaminants were assumed to have some biological properties, both adults and 7-year-olds were somewhat more likely to engage in associational contamination thinking; however, such a relation was not found in 4-year-olds. Younger children&apos;s similar thinking with related to all contaminants was not attributable to ignorance of the necessity of physical contact. Instead, it appeared to be due in part to overreliance on perceptual cues, as was suggested in Experiment 3.

This study observed 2- and 4-year-olds during school lunchtime, and examined their seating preferences. Four-year-olds were more likely to express a favored seating position than were 2-year-olds. Both age groups preferred-side-by-side or right-angled orientations over face-to-face seating. Among the younger children, freqnency of peer interaction was associated with seating arrangement. These children were more likely to interact with peers when seated side-by-side or at right angles than when face-to-face. The 2-year-olds were also more likely to initiate interaction through touching or joint attention. This behavior was more freqnently observe in side-by-side or right-angled orientations than face-to-face. It is apparent that younger children's seating preferences are related to their social interactions.

This study examined whether voluntary participation in animal care activities in school was associated with 6-year-old children's (N = 41) understanding of animal care procedures. Children who often participated in such activities had better understanding of animal care procedures, based on physical characteristics specific to target animals. But levels of participation were not associated with understanding of procedures which are common to both animals and humans. The results of this study suggest that voluntary participation in animal care activities, reflection on animal care procedures, and other factors all are related to young children's understanding of animal care procedures at school.

We eat and dine everyday. Then how the concept of "dining" is perceived by people? The purpose of this study is to find out the process of acquiring the concept about "dining" through questionnaires concerning "a typical image of dining scene," "a typical image of dining script," and their reasons. The sample consisted of 188 second-, 211 fourth-, 201 sixth-, and 154 eighth grade children, 293 college students, and 246 parents whose children are elementary school pupils. The results are as follows: (1) The typical image commonly shared by the adult sample was to eat nutrious and delicious foods, chatting with their family or intimate friends in the evening at home. (2) Second grade children were found to attach much importance to the physiological function of "dining," sixth and eighth grade children to the function of ''dining," to the family life, college students to the more general social function of "dining," and parents to both physiological and social functions. In other words, the concept of dining develops from the physiological function through the familial to the social functions with ages. (3) Females attached much importance to all functions of ''dining" than makes.

Many Japanese girls seem to continue to play make-believe using commercial dolls after their early childhood. The kinds of developmental changes that happen to these girls, however, has not been investigated. In this study we observed 27 groups (9 groups at each of three elementary school grades, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6) each of which was composed of 2 to 6 girls. Their playing with commercial dolls was audiotaped. We found that everyday script-based activities in home-and school-life were played more often than non-everyday activities such as a wedding, but that older graders tended to engage in non-everyday activities more often than younger Often played script-based activities were "getting-up", "dining", and "going-to-bed". Among these only in the going-to-bed script the children's utterances per slot increased with age. The number of different meanings acted out in each script increased with age. One type of meta-narratives, i.e., upsetting the play frame itself, also increased with age. These last two trends were considered to be unique to higher graders.