Consciousness and difficulty of child care by mothers of infants : Comparative study on factors causing declining birth rate in Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido

Abstract

The objective of this study was to elucidate the factors causing the current declining birth rate and regional difference in birth rates in Japan in order to obtain data that will be useful for establishing appropriate childcare support services for communities. Questionnaires that included items on living conditions of the family, situation of the mother, situation of the father, and opinions on child-raising were sent to the administrators of day nurseries and kindergartens in Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido to be given to 2800 mothers of children attending the day nurseries and kindergartens (400 mothers in Hokkaido and 2400 mothers in Hokkaido). Responses were received from 2287 of the 2800 mothers (from 341 of the mothers in Aomori and from 1946 of the mothers in Hokkaido) (response rate : 81.7%), and data from these questionnaires were used for analysis. The results of analysis revealed that the factors causing regional difference in birth rates are difference in family composition, difference in housing situations, increase in number of late marriages, differences in relationships between blood relatives and between residents of communities, difference in childcare support services, and difference in levels of consciousness of childcare. Since the decline in birth rate is accelerating with the increase in magnitude of regional difference in birth rates, efforts should be made to improve child-raising support services that are appropriate for each community. Local governments must take measures to establish easy-to-use chilcare support services in order to increase the birth rate.