Sources of self-esteem SSS among Japanese university students were investigated and a scale to assess contingency and contentment of SSS was developed. Japanese university students N 923 participated in a questionnaire survey. In Study 1, which consisted of a free-description survey, 17 sources of self-esteem were identi ed and arranged into a trilaminar hierarchy. en, the SSS Scale designed to assesses contingency and contentment was developed. e reliability of the scale was examined using its internal consistency and test-retest correlation. In Study 2, the construct validity of the SSS scale was demonstrated by its correlations with the Big Five Scale, Self-Consciousness Scale, and Time Perspective Scale. Possible applications of the SSS scale in research and clinical practice are discussed.

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This study examined the relationship between online class environments and the economic burden and mental health among university students at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey participants were 909 undergraduate students, and graduate students in Hokkaido who responded to the first wave of the two-wave panel survey. The survey was conducted from July to September 2020. This study used K6 and GAD-7 as indicators of mental health. The results showed that students with both a high economic burden and a high burden of on-demand online classes after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had a high probability of exceeding the cutoff points (indicating severe depression and anxiety) for K6 (above 13 points) and GAD-7 (above 10 points). The number of live online classes predicted lower depression. The discussion focused on the characteristics of online classes and discussed why they were associated with mental health and how to reduce the sense of burden in classes. In addition, we pointed out the importance of economic support for university students, since economic burdens were related to mental health.

Previous research and theory (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Kernis, 2003) suggests that adaptive self-esteem stems from just being oneself, and is characterized by a sense of authenticity (SOA). Maladaptive self-esteem is derived from meeting external standards and social comparisons, and is characterized by a sense of superiority (SOS). Thus, the qualitative difference between SOA and SOS depends on the sources of self-esteem. We hypothesized that SOA is related to internal sources of self-esteem, while SOS is related to external sources. In order to control for covariance, global self-esteem was also examined in a questionnaire survey of self-esteem that was administered to 273 university students. The results of a partial correlation analysis showed that SOA was positively correlated with internal sources of self-esteem such as committed activities and efforts for self-development. In contrast, SOS was positively correlated with external sources of self-esteem such as approval from others and appearance. These results mainly support our hypotheses.

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