2008 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 2_20-2_33
This study aimed to examine the following two hypotheses which have predicted the changes of parents-children relationships and kinship in postwar Japan, and to clarify the structure of parents-children relationships and the trend of the changes by comparing different birth cohorts' parents-children relationships. The hypotheses, based on the abolition of the stem family system and the fact that parents therefore have become less likely to live with their first-born son, were: (a) Supports from parents are equally shared among children and (b) Supports between married daughters and their parents have become more active. The data used is “NFRJ-S01”(National Family Research of Japan 2001 Special). The major findings were: that (1) First-born sons tended to live with their parents even though co-residency with husband's parents has declined, and that (2) Existing supports from the wife's parents have become more active after the 1950 birth cohort. These results indicate a possibility that the stem family system and shinrui are co-existing even today, offering evidence against hypothesis (a) and requesting modification of hypothesis (b).
