Childcare Networks and the Well-Being of Mothers

Abstract

The purpose of this analysis is to examine the effects of childcare network structure on the psychological well-being of mothers measured against “satisfaction of everyday life” and “child-rearing anxiety”. Childcare network in this analysis refers to a network that involves the father, kin, and non-kin. Using a representative sample of women with children of pre-school age in Japan, this study explores how the structure of childcare network affects the psychological well-being of mothers by using multiple linear-regression models. Findings indicate that the level of the mother' s well-being is highest when (i) the father' s participation in childcare is highly active, (ii) the childcare network outside the household is large, and (iii) the childcare network includes a good mixture of both kin and non-kin. As regards the childcare network involving extra-household actors, the composition and density of the network exhibit the characteristic of a U-shape curve in relation to the level of well-being : well-being is lowest in level when kin proportion and network density are either too low or too high. In other words, the level of well-being is high when kin proportion and network density are around mid level. In conclusion, this paper finds that active participation by fathers in childcare, together with a large childcare network structure that is mixed in composition and of mid-level density, are conditions most favorable in achieving a high level of psychological well-being in child-rearing mothers.