The process by which homework is done in a German-Japanese family

－With a focus on adjustment by the parents and child－

Abstract

This paper focuses on the process by which a German-Japanese boy did homework assigned by the boy’s school and by a Japanese supplemental school from fourth to seventh grade. Data consisting primarily of about 4 years of diary entries by the boy’s mother were qualitatively analyzed within the framework of a modified “ecological systems” model. Analysis focused on changes in the adjustment processes by the parents and the boy, and results yielded three findings. First, the boy’s German father assisted him with homework from his local school, and his Japanese mother assisted him with his homework from the Japanese supplementary school during all of the grades studied. Second, this division of homework assistance was a basic component of parent-child adjustment with regard to the boy’s homework. The father and son were smoothly adjusting to homework from the local school, but the mother and son frequently had conflicts when adjusting to homework from the supplementary school.Third, the boy made adjustments with his parents and he changed his own behavior based on his understanding of his environment when problems arose between him and his activities (doing his homework). The boy’s adjustment seemed to be based on three axes — “role expectations,” “time perspectives,” and “goal structures.”