日本の育児をめぐる現状と課題解決に向けた展望 --発達科学の観点から--

Abstract

日本では，少子化や虐待件数の増加など，育児を取り巻く諸問題が深刻化している。特に，養育者の過度な育児負担は少子化の一因であり，近年の研究によってその厳しい現状が報告されている。その背景にあるのは，核家族化の加速により，共同養育が難しくなった状況である。子育て世帯が孤立し，家族や地域社会から支援を受けることが難しい今，社会全体が親と子どもに関わっていく必要がある。本稿では，ヒトの共同養育形態に関する知見を踏まえた上で，社会全体による共同養育の重要性を論じる。さらに，その実現に向け，非血縁者による共同養育と，今後の育児支援の方向性について，それぞれ展望する。非血縁者による共同養育については，保育士や里親・養親に着目する。今後の育児支援の方向性については，養育者が育児に喜びを感じ，自身の成長を実感できる育児支援と，養育者と子どもの個人差を踏まえた「個別型」の育児支援の必要性を述べる。

In Japan, various problems surrounding parenting are becoming more serious, such as the declining birthrate and the increasing number of cases of abuse. The excessive parenting burden on caregivers is one ofthe causes of the declining birth rate, and recent studies have reported its severity. Behind this is thesituation where alloparenting has become difficult due to the accelerated shift to the nuclear family. Nowthat parenting families are isolated and have difficulty receiving support from their families and localcommunities, it is necessary for society as a whole to become involved with parents and children. Thispaper discusses the importance of alloparenting by society as a whole, based on the knowledge obtainedfrom prior research regarding alloparenting in humans. Furthermore, toward its implementation, wediscuss alloparenting by non-blood relatives and the future direction of parenting support. Foralloparenting by non-blood relatives, we focus on child-care workers and foster/adoptive parents. For thefuture direction of parenting support, we describe the need for parenting support that enables caregiversto feel pleasure in parenting and realize their own growth in the process, as well as “personalized”parenting support that takes into account the individual differences in both caregivers and children.