This study examines the personal networks of working mothers and the support they receive thereof in child care. This research uses data obtained from a survey made in the year 2000 on 278 working mothers in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The findings indicate that mothers rely on instrumental support more from their relatives living with or near them than from their friends. My investigation on emotional support, on the other hand, shows that they seem to rely on the relatives on their side rather than their husbands' side, and that, so far as emotional support goes, they do not seem to count on their husbands' relatives so much as on their friends whose children go to same nursery or elementary school. The degree of instrumental support they receive is related to the residential distance from relatives, while the degree of emotional support is related more to the strength of emotional ties than mere distance. The network size affects both the instrumental and the emotional support statistics. Larger support is likely to be offered to mothers in large networks than those in small networks.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the size of network of friends is related to the mothers' attributes and characteristics such as the number of children, the age of the eldest child, the number of friends their children have, and how mothers view companionship.
