Abstract
Aim : The purpose of this study was to describe the process in which lonely primiparae developed community-based interpersonal relationships with neighbors. Methods : The subjects were eight primiparae who were raising children of less than three years of old. They were asked by semi-structured interview about the child-rearing situation, the situation, ideas and feelings about interpersonal relationship from the time of childbirth to the present. The results were analyzed by using the inductive approach. Results : The process in which lonely primiparae developed interpersonal relationships with neighbors was divided into four stages. The first stage was, "Loss of raison d'etre by painful parenting and social isolation". Three to four months after childbirth, primiparae entered the second stage, "Impulse to get social relationships and growing interest in fellow mothers". After primiparae made friends with fellow mothers, they entered the third stage, "Extension of the world to participate and longing for true friends". Then they entered the fourth stage, "Stability of mind by true friends and expansion of consciousness of human relations surrounding parenting". Discussions : It was shown that the process in which lonely primiparae developed interpersonal relationships with neighbors is accompanied by a large conversion of sense of values. That is, they came to attach greater importance to the interpersonal relationships in the neighborhood than to family and conventional friends, as a place of the life in which to bring up a child.
