Abstract

Objective: Today, mental health problems among adolescents have increased with the advancement of digital technology and Social Network Sites (SNSes). In this age, special additional care is needed to ensure the psychological well-being of students at correspondence high schools in Japan, since most exhibit futoko - school non-attendance or hikikomori - social withdrawal and are susceptible to psychological distress. The objective of this study is to investigate this relationship in order to identify the possibilities, if any, of building the psychological well-being of such students in the future.

Methods: In this study, we investigated the factors affecting these students’ psychological well-being such as their strengths use, strengths knowledge, psychological distress, sleep duration, and screen time - including duration of exposure to SNSes, gaming, and videos - in a cross-sectional manner in order to identify the possibilities for improving their mental health. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the association between scores on the Flourishing Scale (FS), Strengths Use Scale (SUS), Strengths Knowledge Scale (SKS) and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale 6-item (K6) as well as other factors.

Results: A total of 80 individuals (82% of all students) participated in this study; their mean age was 16.91 ± 1.08 (range: 14-20) years. The K6 score indicated that participants’ psychological distress was critically high. The simple regression analysis revealed that sex, SKS, SUS, and K6 were significantly associated with FS. To determine the most significant factor related to the FS score, we conducted multiple regression analyses using sex, SKS, SUS, and K6 as independent variables. Findings showed that SUS was the most significant factor affecting FS (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Although correspondence high school students experienced relatively higher psychological distress, their psychological well-being was significantly associated with their strengths use, which might function as a buffering effect on their psychological distress. Integrating strengths development into school curricula may have a positive impact on students’ psychological well-being at correspondence high schools.

Keywords: Positive psychology • Strengths use • Strengths knowledge • Psychological well-being • Adolescence • Psychological distress