Published papers

Certain participants are insincere when responding to questionnaires. Two current approaches for detecting unmotivated or dishonest respondents, the instructional manipulation check (IMC), and the seriousness check, were examined. We also attempted to improve the quality of survey responses by asking respondents to take an oath that they would be serious before they started answering the questionnaire (TO). The respondents in two Web surveys were randomly assigned to one of four versions of the questionnaire. The main results indicated that (a) response quality tended to improve when respondents who did not follow instructions were excluded from the sample; and (b) respondents that who took an oath to answer seriously chose fewer “don’t know” options, straight line responses, and midpoint responses than the control group, suggesting that respondents behaved consistently with their initial commitment. The results indicate that although IMC is superior for improving data quality, techniques for deterring less serious responses including TO were desirable in that they did not reduce the sample size.

小児集中治療室(PICU)に子どもが入室した両親に生じる心理的問題の状況を明らかにするために，不安，抑うつ，PTSDの既存尺度を用いた質問紙調査を行った。調査は，子どもが入室中と退室から3か月後の2時点で実施，日本国内12施設のPICUと6施設の小児が入室する成人ICUで，第1回目(入室中)の質問紙に237人，第2回目(退室後3ヶ月)の質問紙に142人の両親から回答を得た。その結果，子どもがPICUおよび成人ICUに入室した両親のうち，入室中の時点で25.4%～34.3%の両親に，退室後3か月の時点で11.6%～20.4%の両親に，不安，抑うつ，PTSDが生じており，子どもがPICUに入室した両親は，子どもが成人ICUに入室した両親よりも心理的問題が生じる度合が高かった。本邦においても，欧米の先行研究結果と同様に，PICU入室児の両親に心理的問題が生じており，今後，その影響因子の検討が必要である。また，入室中の不安，抑うつ，PTSD得点がカットオフ値以上であった両親の方が，カットオフ値未満の両親よりも，退室後3か月の同尺度得点がカットオフ値以上であるリスクが高い一方で，退室後3か月に不安，抑うつ，PTSD得点がカットオフ値以上の両親には，入室中の同尺度得点がカットオフ値未満であった両親が17.9%～50.0%含まれていたことから，入室中の時点で，一見問題がなさそうに見える両親であっても，退室後に心理的問題が生じる可能性が示唆された。

集中治療室に入室している子どもの親を対象にした調査で得られた，最も不安に感じたことについての自由記述を，テキストマイニングによって分析した。その結果，最も頻出していたのは「手術後」で，次に「医師」，「手術」，「急変」であった。これらの語はクラスター分析で13カテゴリに分類された。こうしたカテゴリをもとに，親の不安について，「悪化予期」，「将来不安」，「医師説明」，「看護師所作」，「不明性」などの17のトピックを抽出した。トピックの出現頻度は，親が捉えた子どもの容態の深刻度や，入院の仕方の違いで異なっていた。

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the golden standard for the assessment of burnout. But,the MBI comprises three subscales(exhaustion,cynicism,professional efficacy), so interpretation can be difficult. There is no generally accepted classification of burnout. We aimed at classifying scores on the MBI-General Survey according to the exhaustion+1 criterion and applying neural test theory to the classification of results. We obtained data from a mental health examination we had performed in 2008 targeting on 1553 employees of a computer industry firm. The valid data for 1042 employees (669 men,373women) were used in the present analysis. The results suggested five classifications. Those meeting the exhaustion+1 criterion (a high score for exhaustion and a high score for cynicism, or a low score for professional efficacy) were judged as experiencing burnout, and those who additionally have both a high score for cynicism and a low score for professional efficacy were considered as experiencing severe burnout. Those with only a high exhaustion score were simply classified as being very exhausted. We also suggested increased attention those without exhaustion but with high cynicism scores as they were at risk of depression. Those falling under none of the above were considered healthy.

社会福祉士養成校の学生が、現場実習で行われている指導内容が、学生の実習満足度や心理的ストレスなどといかなる関係があるかについて、アンケート調査を行い、計量的な分析を行った。(共同研究につき、本人担当部分抽出不可能)

ホームヘルパーのサービス行動の低下の原因の一つは、バーンアウト(燃えつき)現象にある。本研究では燃えつきの原因となるストレス要因を４種類同定し、それぞれについて有効な緩和要因を明らかにした。例えば、業務遂行能力に自信をもっているヘルパーには、コーディネーターや主任が業務について十分理解していないことによって生じるストレスに対して、業務の自律性を高くすることがバーンアウトに有効であることが示された。

AIM: Japanese nurses have increasingly experienced "burnout" in the past several years. Studies on Japanese nurses are required in order to explore how to prevent nursing burnout. The objectives of this report were to: (i) introduce the concept, definition, and measurement of burnout; (ii) look at an overview of the prevalence, possible causes, and consequences of burnout among Japanese nurses; and (iii) explore how to prevent burnout among nurses. METHODS: The authors and co-researchers have been studying burnout among Japanese workers for more than 15 years. Therefore, previously performed studies were reviewed and summarized. RESULTS: In Japan, approximately 36% of human services professionals, such as nurses, were burned out compared to 18% of civil servants, and 12% of company employees. It was quite obvious that nurses are prone to burnout. The possible causes and consequences of burnout among Japanese nurses were reviewed. Excessive workloads and interpersonal conflict in the workplace were possible causes of burnout among Japanese nurses. The consequences of nurse burnout are potentially very serious, including medical accidents/errors. Issues to prevent nursing burnout were then reviewed. Enhancement of cognitive coping skills for female nurses and problem-solving skills for male nurses could contribute to prevention of burnout in nurses. CONCLUSION: The authors' previous study revealed that the new model of the organizational context of burnout developed by Leiter and Maslach could be applied to Japanese. Further examination is needed. This report supports the call to scale up burnout prevention strategy for Japanese nurses.

バーンアウトを測定する尺度であるMBI-GS (Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey）の理論的、測定論的背景について論じるとともに、日本語版の開発の経緯や尺度としての特徴について解説した。

バーンアウトを測定するための新しい尺度であるMBI-GS (Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey）の日本語版を作成し、デマンドコントロールモデルの観点から、妥当性があることを確認した。

Internet surveys are currently used in many academic and marketing research fields. However, the results for these surveys occasionally show traces of response bias. In our study, we analyzed how response bias appears in lengthy preference judgments. 1042 respondents participated in lengthy sequential preference judgments. Three stimuli series were used: scene pictures, Attneave nonsense shapes, and point-symmetric figures. One hundred stimuli were selected for each series and individually displayed on a computer screen, with presentation order randomized for each respondent. Respondents were then asked to rate their degree of preference for each stimulus. Mean preference scores increased over the first 10–20 trials, then, gradually decreased from the middle to the last trial. Furthermore, participants tended to produce the maximum and minimum score during early trials. These results demonstrated that response bias can be a function of presentation order.

Some studies have shown low proportions of Japanese people rating their lives as happy. However, most surveys in Japan revealed that response distributions for subjective well-being items indicated excessive blips in middle categories. In this study, participants responded to four items that were designed to detect careless or unmotivated respondents; these items instructed respondents to choose a certain response category. Of the study’s respondents, about 40% failed to follow instructions for at least one of the four items. Besides, they often chose middle categories for well-being items. When those who did not follow instructions were excluded from the complete sample, middle categories showed low or no blips, and the proportion of respondents with high rating scores increased. Thus, this study suggested that one reason for reportedly low proportions of happy people in Japan was respondents who were not diligent in reading items.

バーンアウト（燃え尽き）研究において、世界的に使用されているMBIが近年改訂された。また高齢社会の進展に伴い、わが国でも医療・福祉業務従事者のバーンアウト（燃え尽き）に関する研究が増大してきた。本論文ではこうしたMBIを用いた最近の研究の事情について概観し、我が国におけるこの領域の今後の研究についての提言を行った。