How Do Children See Their Relations with Their Families?:

Focus on Differences in Recognition between Children and Their Mothers

Abstract

  Children develop in their family life through human relations, especially interactions with family members. This study examined how children see their relations with their family members. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 329 mothers of children, and 64 five-year old children were interviewed to ask about happy and unhappy situations in their family life and the children's concern for their families. The results of the study indicated that the mothers knew the situations that their children considered happy but also that the mothers' recognition of the situations that the children considered unhappy differed from the children's recognition. The children who were concerned about their family and had a strong relationship with their family tended to feel that they were in a happy situation when their parents played with them or listened to them and in an unhappy situation when the family fought.