<研究ノート>「核家族化と子ども中心主義」再考 : 30人の家族史の事例から

Abstract

Due to industrialization the values and norms of traditional families, regardless of cultures and societies, underwent sweeping changes bringing about new features of the family. These changes are generally called the modernization of the family. Numerous family researchers have made enormous efforts to describe the characteristic features of the modern family, efforts which have not been as simple as they may seem to be. These features have been examined from various aspects such as family structure (type and size), relationships between family members (internal aspects), as well as connections between family and society (external aspects). So far these features have mainly been studied separately, paying little attention to possible relations between them. However, according to a survey of thirty people, carried out by the author in 2001 in Kyoto city, such relations are possible. Though the original aim of the survey was not to explore possible relations, it was found that there is a reversed relationship between nuclearization of the family and growing 'parental love' towards children in the ideal family pattern. That is to say, while the interviewees mainly prefered the two-generation nuclear family type for their own happiness, they chose the three-generation family type as an ideal model for socialization of their children. There is a contradiction here. If one admits both nuclearization and growing 'parental love' towards children undergoing simultanously as features of the modern family, then it is surprising to see such a reversed relationship between them in the ideal family pattern. If the nuclear family type is a generally accepted ideal form, then it should refer to each of the family members. However, the interviewees regard it as an ideal merely for their own happiness, but not for the socialization of their children. Though there is no full explanation for this phenomenon yet, it must be taken into account that the present survey was carried out in 2001, a time when the modern Japanese family had already been swinging since the late 1970's, slowly entering a post-modern period. Thus, one should reconsider the (possibly changing) meaning of 'parental love' in a changing society, while examining if the result of this survey merely refers to the Kyoto area, or if it is a much more general phenomenon.