Causes and consequences of stress generation : Longitudinal associations of negative events, aggressive behaviors, rumination, and depressive symptoms

The present study examined the causes and consequences of stress generation in university students in Japan. A two-wave longitudinal study with an 8- or 9-week interval was conducted in the fall of 2020. Undergraduate and graduate students at four universities in Japan (N = 201) completed self-report measures assessing experiences of negative interpersonal dependent events, negative non-interpersonal events, and negative independent events at two times. At the same time, they also responded to measures of aggressive behaviors, trait rumination, and depressive symptoms. Path analyses revealed that baseline aggressive behaviors were positively associated with an increase in subsequent negative interpersonal dependent events, even after controlling for the influences of negative interpersonal dependent events, rumination, and depressive symptoms at baseline. However, aggressive behaviors were not significantly associated with subsequent negative non-interpersonal dependent events or negative independent events. These findings suggest that aggressive behaviors may have been a factor leading to interpersonal stress generation. Furthermore, all categories of negative event experiences predicted an increase in subsequent depressive symptoms, but not subsequent rumination, and rumination was not significantly associated with subsequent depressive symptoms. This research extends previous studies on the causes and consequences of stress generation conducted in the US by using specific measures of aggressive behaviors and including a non-restricted sample of university students in Japan

Development and preliminary validation of a self-report measure of negative independent and dependent events in Japanese university students

We developed a self-report measure for assessing experiences of negative interpersonal dependent events, negative non-interpersonal dependent events, and negative independent events in Japanese university students, which was named the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale. We selected items having sufficient content validity in each negative events category. Undergraduate students (N = 247) responded to the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale and self-reported measures of depressive symptoms, reassurance-seeking behaviors, inattention, and lack of perseverance. Consistent with our prediction, all the negative events subscales had moderate positive correlations with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale showed a moderate positive correlation with reassurance-seeking behaviors, and the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale showed a strong positive correlation with inattention. Moreover, the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale was more strongly correlated with inattention than the other two negative events subscales. In contrast, the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale was more strongly correlated with reassurance-seeking behaviors than with the negative independent events subscale but not more strongly than with the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale. These findings indicated the acceptable construct validity of the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale. However, further research is necessary to establish the discriminant validity of the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale and the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale

Causes and consequences of stress generation: Longitudinal associations of negative events, aggressive behaviors, rumination, and depressive symptoms

The present study examined the causes and consequences of stress generation in university students in Japan. A two-wave longitudinal study with an 8- or 9-week interval was conducted in the fall of 2020. Undergraduate and graduate students at four universities in Japan (N = 201) completed self-report measures assessing experiences of negative interpersonal dependent events, negative non-interpersonal events, and negative independent events at two times. At the same time, they also responded to measures of aggressive behaviors, trait rumination, and depressive symptoms. Path analyses revealed that baseline aggressive behaviors were positively associated with an increase in subsequent negative interpersonal dependent events, even after controlling for the influences of negative interpersonal dependent events, rumination, and depressive symptoms at baseline. However, aggressive behaviors were not significantly associated with subsequent negative non-interpersonal dependent events or negative independent events. These findings suggest that aggressive behaviors may have been a factor leading to interpersonal stress generation. Furthermore, all categories of negative event experiences predicted an increase in subsequent depressive symptoms, but not subsequent rumination, and rumination was not significantly associated with subsequent depressive symptoms. The present research extends previous examinations of the causes and consequences of stress generation conducted in Western countries by using specific measures of aggressive behaviors and by including a non-restricted sample of university students in Japan

Body talk and body dissatisfaction in Japanese university students: Longitudinal study using the Japanese Body Talk Scale

This study assessed the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Body Talk Scale (BTS), which consists of three subscales assessing negative fat talk, negative muscle talk, and positive body talk. Additionally, the study investigated whether each category of body talk was longitudinally associated with body dissatisfaction. We conducted two separate studies among university students in Japan. Separate confirmatory factor analysis conducted for women and men consistently revealed that the Japanese BTS maintained the same three-factor structure as the original scale. Results demonstrated that the Japanese BTS exhibited good construct validity and acceptable to adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The longitudinal study showed that negative fat talk among women predicted increased discrepancy between the thin ideal body image and the actual body image four weeks later. Conversely, positive body talk among women was associated with decreased body dissatisfaction and body image discrepancy. There were no such significant associations in men. The Japanese BTS can serve as a valuable tool for future research to explore the diverse effects of negative fat talk, negative muscle talk, and positive body talk, encompassing intrapersonal influences, such as body image, eating disorder symptoms, depression, and interpersonal influences