Trajectories and latent classes of school enjoyment in adolescence: Associations with peer victimization and mental health.

School enjoyment, as a measure of how much adolescents enjoy or value their school experience, has been extensively studied in Western cultures. However, our knowledge of school enjoyment, and particularly its changes and trajectories among adolescents living in non-Western cultures, is limited. The present study used 3-year longitudinal data to examine changes and trajectories in school enjoyment and their associations with social and relational factors, such as mental health problems and peer victimization, among Japanese middle school students. Participants were 281 Japanese students from two public middle schools (Time 1 Mage = 12.72, SD = .45, 50% female). Data included five time points at 6-month intervals (Grades 7-9). The growth curve model showed quadratic changes in school enjoyment overall; the mean of school enjoyment was relatively stable in Grades 7 and 8 but increased rapidly in Grade 9. In terms of individual differences in trajectories of school enjoyment, growth mixture modeling identified three distinct groups (i.e., groups of 44.8% increasing, 9.8% decreasing, and 45.4% stable). Compared to students in the other groups, students in the increasing group initially reported lower levels of mental health problems and experienced less relational and overt victimization. In contrast, the decreasing group reported higher levels of mental health problems and experienced more relational and overt victimization than the increasing group. The results inform us about the most adaptive group, which continued to show high levels of school enjoyment, and the most maladaptive group, which initially had lower levels of school enjoyment and decreased their levels over time. The latter group of students is at risk and requires immediate intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Longitudinal Study of Forms of Peer Victimization and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence.

The present study examined developmental changes in forms of peer victimization and longitudinal associations between forms of peer victimization and internalizing problems among Japanese adolescents. Participants were 271 students (Time 1 M age = 12.72, SD = 0.45, 50% girls) from 9 classrooms and 2 public middle schools in Japan. Data were collected at five time points from 7th to 9th grade. Growth curve modeling (GCM) of mean changes indicated that relational victimization and internalizing problems decreased over three school years. Overt victimization first decreased and then remained relatively constant toward the end of the assessment. In addition, the results of the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) indicated that the random intercept of relational victimization was positively and strongly correlated with that of internalizing problems. Although the random intercept of overt victimization was positively correlated with that of internalizing problems, the effect size was small to moderate. In general, there were no significant within-person changes between relational and overt victimization and internalizing problems. However, some exceptions were noted towards the end of middle school, such that higher relational victimization was associated with increases in internalizing problems, which in turn led to more relational victimization. There were no gender differences in the above trajectories or in the transactional models. The findings regarding at-risk youth who are vulnerable to relational and overt victimization are discussed from clinical, cultural, and developmental perspectives.

Altered actin dynamics is possibly implicated in the inhibition of mechanical stimulation-induced dermal fibroblast differentiation into myofibroblasts.

The formation of hypertrophic scars and keloids is strongly associated with mechanical stimulation, and myofibroblasts are known to play a major role in abnormal scar formation. Wounds in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) become inconspicuous and lack the tendency to form abnormal scars. We hypothesized that there would be a unique response to mechanical stimulation and subsequent scar formation in NF1. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of differentiation into myofibroblasts in NF1-derived fibroblasts and neurofibromin-depleted fibroblasts and examined actin dynamics, which is involved in fibroblast differentiation, with a focus on the pathway linking LIMK2/cofilin to actin dynamics. In normal fibroblasts, expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), a marker of myofibroblasts, significantly increased after mechanical stimulation, whereas in NF1-derived and neurofibromin-depleted fibroblasts, α-SMA expression did not change. Phosphorylation of cofilin and subsequent actin polymerization did not increase in NF1-derived and neurofibromin-depleted fibroblasts after mechanical stimulation. Finally, in normal fibroblasts treated with Jasplakinolide, an actin stabilizer, α-SMA expression did not change after mechanical stimulation. Therefore, when neurofibromin was dysfunctional or depleted, subsequent actin polymerization did not occur in response to mechanical stimulation, which may have led to the unchanged expression of α-SMA. We believe this molecular pathway can be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of abnormal scars.

Moderating Effects of Relational Interdependence on the Association Between Peer Victimization and Depressive Symptoms.

This short-term longitudinal study examined the association between relational and physical victimization and subsequent depressive symptoms together with the roles of social cognitive processes (i.e., relational interdependence) and gender in this association. A total of 580 Japanese adolescents in the seventh and eighth grades (52 % girls; age range 12-14) participated in this study across an academic year. Results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that relational and physical victimization, which was assessed via self- and teacher- reports, was concurrently associated with greater depressive symptoms, regardless of the gender of the youth and the level of relational interdependence. Furthermore, after controlling for the stability and co-occurrence between each construct, relational victimization (not physical victimization) was predictive of elevated depressive symptoms only for boys who exhibited relatively higher relational interdependence. The findings are discussed from developmental, gender, and cultural perspectives.