田中 笑子

Aim. This paper is a report of a longitudinal study of the relationship of working mothers' parenting style to their children's social competence and vocabulary/motor/intellectual development. Background. With an increasing number of women choosing to remain in the workforce after starting a family, there has been a concomitant increase in use of non-parental childcare facilities to help look after the child while the mother is at work. This increase in non-parental care has led to a dramatic change in the traditional child-rearing environment. Methods. Long-term investigations were conducted over a period of 2 years in 41 Japanese government-licensed childcare facilities. Child development was evaluated by childcare professionals and parenting style was assessed by questionnaire. A total of 504 children and their mothers participated in the study. Data collection was carried out in 2004 and 2006. Findings. We found that the changes in parenting style were statistically significantly related to children's development after 2 years. For instance, changes in the parent-child playing routine contributed to the child's social competence (odds ratio = 11·088). Variation in working mothers' disciplinary practices was also associated with children's vocabulary development after 2 years (odds ratio = 2·246). Conclusion. Working mothers should increase interactions with their children in their free time to reduce the risk of developmental delay. Daily childcare support provided by family members or social organizations for long-term working mothers is helpful in mediating the negative relationship of mothers' working with children's development. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

目的:本研究は、子どもの社会能力を構造的に評価する「かかわり指標」を用いて、18ヵ月児の応答性に関連する4ヵ月時の養育環境の特徴を明らかにすることを目的とした。方法:対象は、JSTプロジェクトに登録された子どもとその養育者のうち、データに欠損を含まない163名である。生後4ヵ月時に養育者に対する記名自記式質問紙、18ヵ月時に「かかわり指標」を用いた子どもと養育者に対する観察評価を実施した。4ヵ月時の調査内容は、子どもの性別、きょうだいの有無、家族構成、経済状況、両親の年齢、教育レベル、職業、育児意識(夫婦間の育児協力、育児ストレス)、18ヵ月時の観察内容は、子どもの応答性と養育者のかかわりの特徴である。結果:18ヵ月時の「かかわり指標」の応答性領域得点と4ヵ月時の養育環境について、対象属性と養育者側要因を調整して関連を検討した。その結果、18ヵ月時の子どもの応答性と、4ヵ月時における母親の「夫の育児参加に満足している」との有意な関連がみられた。結論:配偶者の育児サポートへの満足度が、18ヵ月児の社会能力に影響する一要因である可能性が示唆された。(著者抄録)