Temporal distancing during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Letter writing with future self can mitigate negative affect

未来への手紙がネガティブ感情を軽減させることの効果を検証 --パンデミック下における実験データから--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-03-02.[ETHICAL STATEMENTS] All study participants provided informed consent, and the study design was approved by the ethics review board in Kyoto University (Ref. 30-P-24).Novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well‐being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter‐writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post‐COVID‐19 future selves. We conducted an online experiment with 738 Japanese participants recruited from two common survey platforms. They were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter‐to‐future) condition, send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter‐from‐future) condition, or a control condition. Participants in both letter‐writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID‐19 pandemic

友人関係における"キャラ"の受け止め方と心理的適応:—中学生と大学生の比較—

　本研究では, 現代青年に顕著なキャラを介した友人関係について, 中学生と大学生の比較から検討が行われた。本研究の目的は, キャラの有無による心理的適応の相違に加えて, キャラの受け止め方とキャラ行動が心理的適応に及ぼす影響を明らかにすることであった。中学生396名と大学生244名に質問紙調査を行った。分析の結果, 大学生は中学生よりもキャラがある者の割合が多く, キャラがない者よりも自己有用感が高いことが示された。因子分析の結果, キャラの受け止め方は, "積極的受容", "拒否", "無関心", "消極的受容"の4つが得られた。得点とパス係数の比較を行った結果, 学校段階で違いが見られた。中学生では, 友人から付与されたキャラを受容しにくく, キャラに合わせて振る舞うことが, 心理的不適応と関連することが明らかになった。一方で, 大学生ではキャラ行動と適応には有意な関連が見られず, 付与されたキャラを消極的にでも受け容れることが, 居場所感の高さと関連していた。以上の結果から, 中学生におけるキャラを介した友人関係の危うさについて議論された。  Most contemporary adolescents communicate with their friends by using kyara, which is a shortened form of the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "character".  The purpose of the present study was to clarify relations between acceptance of kyara in friendship and psychological adjustment by comparing junior high and university students.  Junior high school students (n=396) and university students (n=244) completed a questionnaire.  The results suggested that the university students had a higher percentage than the junior high school students of use of kyara in friendship, and higher scores on sense of self-usefulness, compared to those who did not have a kyara.  Factor analysis identified 4 factors in acceptance of kyara: active acceptance, rejection, indifference, and passive acceptance.  The results of comparisons of scores and paths revealed differences correlated to educational level.  The junior high school students tended not to accept their kyara, and performing with their kyara was related negatively to psychological adjustment.  On the other hand, the university students\u27 performing with their kyara was not significantly related to any of the measures, and passive acceptance of kyara was related positively to the students\u27 sense of interpersonal rootedness

Supportive Evidence for the State Self-Compassion Scale Using Japanese Samples

Self-compassion is a trait of having a compassionate attitude toward oneself when experiencing a difficult situation. Recent studies focused on its temporal fluctuation; moreover, Neff et al. (2021) developed a scale to assess the state level of self-compassion. Although its psychometric reliability and validity were confirmed, it was unclear whether it could be adopted in diverse samples. Therefore, we aimed to provide additional evidence using Japanese samples that are recognized as having a high propensity for self-criticism. Study 1 (pre-registered) and Study 2 compared several factor models of the scale and demonstrated that the bifactor model using exploratory structural equation modeling was the best solution. Moreover, the state scale performed better in predicting affect than the trait self-compassion, supporting the incremental validity. Most of the correlations with the trait self-compassion and the positive/negative affect were nearly as expected. In Study 3, an experimental induction of self-compassion indicated that those in the self-compassion condition experienced an improved state self-compassion after the writing tasks, whereas those in the control condition did not. Study 4 replicated these results and revealed that state self-compassion was more easily improved by the writing manipulation than trait self-compassion. Most of the previous research’s results were replicated; furthermore, additional supportive evidence was established across the four studies. We suggest the utility of the state self-compassion scale and discuss some different findings obtained from the Western samples from a cultural perspective

Interest consistency can buffer the effect of COVID-19 fear on psychological distress

In the context of a recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the present study investigated the buffering effect of grit on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and psychological distress. The data were collected from 224 Japanese participants (98 females; mean age = 46.56, SD = 13.41) in July 2020. The measures used in this study included the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), Short Grit Scale, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale 21 (DASS). The results of mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of consistency of interest, a major component of grit, on psychological distress; we also found non-significant indirect effects of perseverance of effort, another major component of grit, on psychological distress. These results suggest that consistency of interest buffers the psychological distress induced by fear of COVID-19. Based on these results, it can be concluded that individuals with higher consistency of interest are less likely to experience worsening of their mental health, even if they experience fear of COVID-19 during the pandemic

Temporal Distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter Writing with Future Self can Mitigate Negative Affect

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well-being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter-writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post-COVID-19 future selves. Participants were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter-to-future), send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter-from-future), or a control condition. Participants in both letter-writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter-writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID-19 pandemic

Temporal Distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter Writing with Future Self can Mitigate Negative Affect

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well-being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter-writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post-COVID-19 future selves. Participants were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter-to-future), send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter-from-future), or a control condition. Participants in both letter-writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter-writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID-19 pandemic