What Are the Problems of Bipolarization in Parenting?

Abstract

The reports suggest that the polarization of households with children into rich and poor, caused by changes in the economic fabric and by the diversifying of the norms and forms of the family, intensified in the latter half of the 1990's. This gives rise to the following three questions. First, it appears that, in metropolitan areas, children's chances for educational promotion are correlated with the level of their household income and their mothers' educational background. What are the consequences of these correlations? Second, in metropolitan areas, parents are divided into two groups in terms of their preferences in parenting. One prefers that their children enter a private elementary and/or junior high school: they would like to buy a better education for their children and avoid what they regard as a useless education in a public school. The other prefers a more inexpensive public school to a private school. The groups are divided not only into different strata, but also into different communities in the same area. Is such a division also found in the countryside? Lastly, single-mother families are isolated in current Japanese society and the issue of their poverty is sidelined, although it is a major issue. Consequently, we consider the intergenerational reproduction of poverty in single-mother families. How could we solve this problem? At the very least, reports signify that it is a burning issue to investigate how the polarization of families promotes social inequalities among children.