母による親子自他殺の動機とその背景要因に関する研究

抄録

Causes of child-murders/parent-suicides in Japan have been changed along with the socio-economic transitions in modern Japan. Objective of the study was to clarify the actual situations and causes of child-murders/mother-suicides, namely concrete ideas to be based when public services for maternal and child well-being is examined.
Four hundred fifty eight incidents of child-murders/suicides by parent (s) or grandparent (s) extracted from newspaper articles during 1998 to 2007, and child-murders/mother-suicides were analysed mainly. Out of total 458 incidents, 300 incidents (65.5%) were child-murders/mother-suicides. The average age of the mothers in 2007 (36.5 years old) was older than that in 1998 (33.4). Main causes of mothers were anxieties of child-care, economic problems, and troubles in family. Anxieties of child-care had the highest rate. Relatively less economic problems and more anxieties of child-care were found among mothers' causes than those of fathers.
Evidently, anxieties of child-care, continuously increased during the latter half of 1900s, became a main cause of recent child-murders/mother-suicides, while the causes differed by age and more diversified in older age groups. Effective supports of child-care have to respond to various needs of mothers.