Considerations on Motherless Family

Abstract

　Recently the number of one-parent families, mainly due to the divorce of the parents, has been increasing, and the welfare aids towards such families are much demanded. The assisting measures for motherless families are much behind those for fatherless families, and how to cope with the problems of motherless families should be a primary task for us to tackle.

　In this connection a research by questionnaire method was made to survey the actual conditions of motherless families in Akita Prefecture, 1,790 in all, and, based on the 1,461 answers to the questionnaires, we obtained the following data in main:

　1. Distinctive differences between the rural and the urban areas: (1) Mother­less families in the rural area can get help from others more easily than those in the urban area in terms of housework, care of children, and economic problems. (2) Most of the fathers in motherless families in the urban area are uneasy about his living and are under heavier burdens than those in the rural area.

　2. Distinctive differences of the father’s problems by the way he has separated from his wife: (1) The fathers who divorced or parted from their wife for some reason or other are mainly worried about his housing or his job. (2) The father who lost their wife by death are anxious about housework or their own private troubles. (3) Consequently, the formers need economic help, and the latters need help concerning housework or bringing up the children.

　3. Distinctive features between extended and nuclear families: (1) Fathers in extended families can reduce their economic, mental or physical burdens to some extent by the help from others. (2) On the contrary, fathers in nuclear families have many problems about economic stability, housework and bringing up their children and so on, and welfare aids are much needed.

　From the above data we can affirm that in the urban area motherless families caused by the divorce of the wife have many problems, and when the families are nuclear ones, the problems are the more serious. And so, the welfare aids towards those motherless families to reduce the burdens of housework and of bringing up the children are highly necessary.

　We should recognize the importance of coping with the problems of motherless family by means of welfare aids both from the administrative side and from the personal side―help from the relatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Much of our efforts should be done in this direction.