Relationship Between Culture of Sharing Used Items and Social Capital for Mothers Raising Children

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between “culture of sharing used items” and social capital for mothers raising children. In our study,“culture of sharing used items” was defined as giving and receiving used children’s clothes and nursery items. An anonymously conducted self-recording questionnaire survey was distributed to 1,244 mothers of 2 to 3-year-old infants attending certified nursery schools, kindergartens, or certified daycare centers in 3 regions of Japan with different social capitals, i.e., Shimane-Pref., Ishikawa-Pref., and central Tokyo (inside the 23 wards of Tokyo). Among 624 respondents (collection rate: 50.2%) (Sept. 2016 to Mar. 2017), 609 effective answers (effective answer rate: 49.0%) were analyzed by classifying them into two groups, based on experience of having received or given used items. Relationships of indices of cognitive social capital and structural social capital were assessed by Mann-Whitney’s U test and the chi-square test. Results showed that regions with high social capital, as defined in the survey by the Japanese Cabinet Office in 2002, showed correlation between cognitive social capital and receiving used items, and between structural social capital and giving used items. In regions with low social capital, correlation was noted between structural social capital and receiving used items. Our results suggest that the “culture of sharing used items” is possibly related with social capital for mothers raising children, and that “culture of sharing used items” is considered to be related with the degree of social capital in each local community.