Poverty and Children’s Mental Health in Japan

Abstract

The effect of poverty on children’s mental health in Japan is still not well understood. This study examined the relationship between relative poverty, defined by equivalent household annual income, and psychological distress in junior high school students through a quantitative analysis of two-parent families in Japan. The analysis was based on survey data from the “Survey on Life Attitudes of Parents and Children, 2011,” conducted by the Japanese Government Cabinet Office. The results were as follows: 1) boys from poor households did not show high psychological distress, but girls with the same background did; 2) this tendency among girls was mediated by poor relationships with their parents and by chronic strain experienced within the family, including “parental matters (problems the parents faced)” and “money.” These results suggest that there is gender discrimination among poor and low-income families, and that girls tend to recognize and be more sensitive to family problems compared with boys. It is imperative to disentangle the processes that generate these differences.