2000 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 61-74
The purpose of this study was to examine the meanings of mother-child separation ; ＜sending a child to day-care center＞, and the relationships between the meanings of child separation and traditional views on mother roles in the mothers having preschool children. Two groups of mothers were compared ; the mothers having full-time job and sending their children to day-care center (namely having the experience of mother-child separation), and the mothers who were primarily (concerned with child-care without job and also experience of mother-child separation.
4 factors, 2 positive and 2 negative, were identified as emotional/ cognitive dimensions of mother-child separation. The mothers who have job and send their children to day-care center were found to recognize the positive meanings fo mother-child separation both for children and mothers compared to the mothers who took care of their children by themselves without experience of mother-child separation. On the contrary, negative attitude and emotion on the mother-child separation were significantly strong among the mothers who had no experiences of mother-child separation. Conflict between positive and negative attitude toward mother-child separation were strongly observed among the highly educated mothers who had no experience of mother-child separation. Traditional views on mother roles were observed significantly strong among the mothers without job and also experienes of mother-child separation, and deeply connected with the attitudes and emotion toward mother-child eparation. The findings were discussed from socio-cultural and women's developmental viewpoints.
