Abstract
Japanese women are often described as heavily invested in the role of mother, yet young women in contemporary Japan are increasingly likely to postpone or opt out of marriage and child rearing. To understand the psychological dynamics of parenting among Japanese women who have chosen to become mothers, we examined the relation of maternal role salience beliefs, personal maternal role commitment, and parenting self-efficacy to life satisfaction, number of children, and employment status. Survey data were obtained from 116 urban Japanese women with children in the 2nd grade. Mothers with more children expressed greater personal role commitment. Those who had sought employment were less likely to hold strong maternal role salience beliefs. Life satisfaction was predicted by having more children, feeling efficacious as a parent, and being employed. These findings suggest that even in a society characterized by strong normative expectations for women, women's life satisfaction and choices about family life and employment are related to individual beliefs, attitudes, and judgments about their role.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Allison, A. (1991). Japanese mothers and obentos: The lunch-box as ideological state apparatus. Anthropological Quarterly, 64, 195–208.
Allison, A. (1996). Producing mothers. In A. E. Imamura (Ed.), Re-imaging Japanese women (pp. 135–155). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ardelt, M., & Eccles, J. S. (2001). Effects of mothers' parental efficacy beliefs and promotive parenting strategies on inner-city youth. Journal of Family Issues, 22, 944–972.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman Press.
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67, 1206–1222.
Benesse Educational Research Institute. (2000). Basic survey on child rearing: I. Retrieved February 15, 2005, from http://www.childresearch.net/cybrary.edata.rearing1/data02.htm.
Bornstein, M. H., Haynes, O. M., Azuma, H., Galperin, C., Maital, S., Ogino, M., et al. (1998). A cross-national study of self-evaluations and attributions in parenting: Argentina, Belgium, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Developmental Psychology, 34, 662–676.
Brinton, M. C. (1993). Women and the economic miracle: Gender and work in postwar Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cabinet Office. (1998, December). Heisei 10 nendo kokumin seikatsu hakusho [1998 White paper on the national lifestyle]. Retrieved January 7, 2004, from http://www5.cao.go.jp/98/c/19981204wp-seikatu.html.
Cutrona, C. E., & Troutman, B. R. (1986). Social support, infant temperament, and parenting self-efficacy: A mediational model of postpartum depression. Child Development, 57, 1507–1518.
DeVos, G. A. (1996). Psychocultural continuities in Japanese social motivation. In D. W. Shwalb & B. J. Shwalb (Eds.), Japanese childrearing: Two generations of scholarship (pp. 44–84). New York: Guilford Press.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.
Diener, E., & Larsen, R. J. (1993). The experience of emotional well-being. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 404–415). New York: Guilford Press.
Frederick, J. (2003, July 28). Severe acute ridiculousness syndrome: Japan's lawmakers suffer an outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease. Time Asia. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030728-465836,00.html.
Froman, R. D., & Owen, S. V. (1989). Infant care self-efficacy. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice, 3, 199–211.
Fujita, M. (1989). “It's all mother's fault”: Childcare and the socialization of working mothers in Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies, 15, 67–91.
Halverson, C. F., & Duke, H. P. (2001). Parent satisfaction scale. In J. Touliatos, B. F. Perlmutter, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), Handbook of family measurement techniques (Vol. 2, pp. 169–170). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Harkness, S., & Super, C. (1995). Culture and parenting. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 2. Biology and ecology of parenting (pp. 211–234). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hendry, J. (1981). Marriage in changing Japan: Community and society. Rutland, VT: Tuttle.
Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Jr., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Holloway, S. D. (2000a). Accentuating the negative: Views of preschool staff about mothers in Japan. Early Education and Development, 11(5), 618–632.
Holloway, S. D. (2000b). Contested childhood: Diversity and change in Japanese preschools. New York: Routledge.
Holloway, S. D., & Behrens, K. Y. (2002). Parenting self-efficacy among Japanese mothers: Qualitative and quantitative perspectives on its association with childhood memories of family relations. In J. Bempechat & J. G. Elliot (Eds.), Learning in culture and context: Approaching the complexities of achievement motivation in student learning (pp. 27–43). New Directions for Child Development, No. 96. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Holloway, S. D., Fuller, B., Rambaud, M., & Eggers-Piérola, C. (1997). Through my own eyes: Single mothers and the cultures of poverty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Inoue, T., & Ehara, Y. (Eds.). (1999). Jyosei no deta bukku: Sei, karada kara seiji sanka made (dai 3 han). [Women's data book (3rd ed.)]. Tokyo: Yuhikaku.
Ishii-Kuntz, M., Makino, K., Kato, K., & Tsuchiya, M. (2004). Japanese fathers of preschoolers and their involvement in child care. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 66, 779–791.
Iwai, H., & Manabe, R. (2000). Emu ji gata shuro patan no teichaku to sono imi [The meaning of the stabilizing M-shape labor pattern]. In K. Seiyama (Ed.), Nihon no kaiso shisutemu 4: Jenda, shijyo, kazoku [Social stratification in Japan: Gender, market, and family] (pp. 67–91). Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
Iwao, S. (1993). The Japanese woman: Traditional image and changing reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jackson, A. P. (2000). Maternal self-efficacy and children's influence on stress and parenting among single Black mothers in poverty. Journal of Family Issues, 21, 3–16.
Jackson, P. B. (1992). Specifying the buffering hypothesis: Support, strain, and depression. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55, 363–378.
Kashiwagi, K. (1998). Life-span developmental and socio-cultural approach toward Japanese women/mothers: Conceptions and realities of Japanese women/mothers. Annual Report of Educational Psychology in Japan, 37, 191–200.
Kazui, M. (1997). The influence of cultural expectations on mother–child relationships in Japan. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 18, 485–496.
Kimura, K. (2000). Roudou shijyou no kouzou to yuu haiguusha jyosei no ishiki [Labor market structure and the beliefs of married women]. In K. Seiyama (Ed.), Nihon no kaiso shisutemu 4: Jenda, shijyo, kazoku [Social stratification in Japan: Gender, market, and family] (pp. 177–192). Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
Lee, K. J., Um, C. C., & Kim, S. (2004). Multiple roles of married Korean women: Effects on depression. Sex Roles, 51, 469–478.
LeVine, R. A., Dixon, S., Levine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C., et al. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lock, M. (1996). Centering the household: The remaking of female maturity in Japan. In A. E. Imamura (Ed.), Re-imaging Japanese women (pp. 73–103). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Machida, S., Taylor, A. R., & Kim, J. (2002). The role of maternal beliefs in predicting home learning activities in Head Start families. Family Relations, 51, 176–184.
McCall, C. J., & Simmons, J. L. (1978). Identities and interactions: An examination of human associations in everyday life. New York: Free Press.
Miller, R. L. (2003). The quiet revolution: Japanese women working around the law. Harvard Women's Law Journal, 26, 163–215.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. (2002). Gakko kyoiku sokatsu [School education report]. Retrieved February 21, 2005, from http://www.mext.go.jp/english/statist/xls/013.xls.
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (1998). Heisei 10 nenban kosei hakusho: Shoshika shakai wo kangaeru [1998 White paper on decreasing birthrate]. Retrieved July 17, 2003, from http://wwwhakusyo.mhlw.go.jp/mhlw/.
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (2002a). Heisei 13 nenban hataraku jyosei no jitsujyo [White paper on women's employment]. Retrieved July 20, 2002, from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/wp/hakusyo/josei/01/point.html.
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (2002b). Heisei 13 nenban hataraku josei no jitujou [The actualities of working women, 2001]. Retrieved February 22, 2005, from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/houdou/2002/04/h0403-3.html.
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (2003). Heisei 15 nendo jinko dotai tokei no gaiyo [A report of population movement, 2003]. Retrieved February 21, 2005, from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/kakutei03/index.html.
Morley, P. (1999). The mountain is moving: Japanese women's lives. New York: New York University Press.
Nakai, M., & Akachi, M. (2000). Shijyo sanka, shakai sanka: Kyaria patan no tayosei to sono haikei [Participation in the market and society: Diversifying career patterns and its backgrounds]. In K. Seiyama (Ed.), Nihon no kaiso shisutemu 4: Jenda, shijyo, kazoku [Social stratification in Japan: Gender, market, and family] (pp. 111–131). Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
National Institute for Population and Social Security Research. (1997). Dai 11 kai shussei doukou kihon chousa: Kekkon to shussan ni kansuru zenkoku chousa [The eleventh basic survey on birthrate trends: A national survey of marriage and child-bearing]. Retrieved February 22, 2005, from http://www.ipss.go.jp/ps-doukou/j/doukou11/doukou11.pdf.
Nuttbrock, L., & Freudiger, P. (1991). Identity salience and motherhood: A test of Stryker's theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 146–157.
Ogasawara, Y. (2001). Women's solidarity: Company policies and Japanese office ladies. In M. Brinton (Ed.), Women's working lives in east Asia (pp. 151–179). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Olioff, M., & Aboud, F. E. (1991). Predicting postpartum dysphoria in primiparous mothers: Roles of perceived parenting self-efficacy and self-esteem. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 5, 3–14.
Reid, A. (2004). Gender and sources of subjective well-being. Sex Roles, 51, 617–629.
Research Institute for Hi-Life. (2001). Shoushika jidai no kekkon kan ni kansuru kenkyu [Research concerning marital beliefs during a time of fewer children]. Retrieved May 10, 2003, from http://www.hilife.or.jp/20013/20013.htm.
Schooler, C., & Smith, K. C. (1978). “⃛ and a Japanese wife”: Social structural antecedents of women's role values in Japan. Sex Roles, 4, 23–41.
Shore, B. (1996). Culture in mind: Cognition, culture, and the problem of meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shoushika taisaku kodomo sannin ijyoude yuutai kaado Ishikawa chiji hyoumei [Providing a voucher for a family with more than two children to deal with decreasing numbers of children, Ishikawa governor announced]. (2004, January 5). Asahi Newspaper. Retrieved January 6, 2004, from http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0105/002.html.
Shwalb, D. W., Kawai, H., Shoji, J., & Tsunetsugu, K. (1995). The place of advice: Japanese parents' sources of information about childrearing and child health. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 629–644.
Shwalb, D. W., Kawai, H., Shoji, J., & Tsunetsugu, K. (1997). The middle class Japanese father: A survey of parents of preschoolers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 18, 497–511.
Silver, E. J., Bauman, L. J., & Ireys, H. T. (1995). Relationships of self-esteem and efficacy to psychological distress in mothers of children with chronic physical illness. Health Psychology, 14, 333–340.
Simon, R. W. (1992). Parental role strains, salience of parental identity, and gender differences in psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33, 25–35.
Simon, R. W. (1997). The meanings individuals attach to role identities and their implications for mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 256–274.
Smith, K. C., & Schooler, C. (1978). Women as mothers in Japan: The effects of social structure and culture on values and behavior. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 40, 613–620.
Statistics Bureau. (2001). Statistical handbook of Japan 2001. Tokyo: Japan Statistical Association.
Stryker, S. (1968). Identity salience and role performance: The relevance of symbolic interaction theory for family research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 30, 558–564.
Stryker, S. (1987). Identity theory: Developments and extensions. In K. Yardley & T. Honess (Eds.), Self and identity: Psychosocial perspectives (pp. 89–103). New York: Wiley.
Stryker, S., & Serpe, R. T. (1982). Commitment, identity salience, and role behavior: Theory and research example. In W. Ickes & E. S. Knowles (Eds.), Personality, roles, and social behavior (pp. 199–218). New York: Springer Verlag.
Suh, E., Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Triandis, H. C. (1998). The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 482–493.
Thoits, P. A. (1983). Multiple identities and psychological well-being: A reformulation and test of the social isolation hypothesis. American Sociological Review, 48, 174–187.
Thoits, P. A. (1986). Multiple identities: Examining gender and marital status differences in distress. American Sociological Review, 51, 259–272.
Thoits, P. A. (1987). Negotiating roles. In F. J. Crosby (Ed.), Spouse, parent, worker: On gender and multiple roles (pp. 11–22). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Thoits, P. A. (1991). On merging identity theory and stress research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 101–112.
Thoits, P. A. (1992). Identity structures and psychological well-being: Gender and marital status comparisons. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55, 235–256.
Thoits, P. A. (1999). Self, identity, stress, and mental health. In C. S. Aneshensel & J. C. Phelan (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 345–368). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
Ujiie, T. (1997). How do Japanese mothers treat children's negativism? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 18, 467–483.
Uno, K. S. (1991). Japan. In J. M. Hawes & N. R. Hiner (Eds.), Children in historical and comparative perspective: An international handbook and research guide (pp. 389–419). New York: Greenwood.
Vogel, S. H. (1978). The professional housewife. Japan Interpreter, 12, 16–43.
Vogel, S. H. (1996). Urban middle-class Japanese family life, 1958–1996: A personal and evolving perspective. In D. W. Shwalb & B. J. Shwalb (Eds.), Japanese childrearing: Two generations of scholarship (pp. 177–200). New York: Guilford Press.
White, M. (1996). Renewing the new middle class Japan's next families. In D. W. Shwalb & B. J. Shwalb (Eds.), Japanese child-rearing: Two generations of scholarship (pp. 208–219). New York: Guilford Press.
White, M. I. (2002). Perfectly Japanese: Making families in an era of upheaval. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Williams, T. M., Joy, L. A., Travis, L., Gotowier, A., Blum-Steele, M., Aiken, L. S., et al. (1987). Transition to motherhood: A longitudinal study. Infant Mental Health Journal, 8, 251–265.
Yamamoto, Y. (2001). The duality of socialization and education: The impact of formal schooling on childrearing in Japan. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 5, 24–31.
Yoshizumi, K. (1995). Marriage and family: Past and present. In K. Fujimura-Fanselow & A. Kameda (Eds.), Japanese women: New feminist perspectives on the past, present, and future (pp. 183–197). New York: Feminist Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Holloway, S.D., Suzuki, S., Yamamoto, Y. et al. Relation of Maternal Role Concepts to Parenting, Employment Choices, and Life Satisfaction Among Japanese Women. Sex Roles 54, 235–249 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9341-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9341-3