Abstract
The developmental process of a young child can be regarded as the one in which he grows into not only an “independent self”, but also a “social being” through experiencing social and physical environments and controlling them. Privacy seeking behavior in ownership of space and choice of actions, in this regard, is also related to the attainment of children's independence. Therefore it can be assumed that physical environment as children's private space has a profound influence on their attainment of independence. This study is a preliminary study on how the child's room as a private space is related to his attainment of independence and his family life. It is postulated that by doing comparative re-searches in Japan and the U.S.A., the underlying universal process of the effect of space can be clarified. We describe how child's rooms are in each country in terms of the child, the parents (family), and the space: degree of ownership of the space, physical settings of entrance to the space, control of the door, existence of separation device, and control of the key to the door. Further we go on to describe the relationships between the parents' attitude toward child rearing and the children's family lives such as how they sleep, how they communicate with the parents, and how they share family chores. Based on the descriptions of these the children's socialization in terms of psychological, self-care, and economical independence can be analyzed from many angles. Some findings are as follows: The degree of ownership of child's rooms as their milieu has an influence on qualitative content of children's activities. It also is closely related to some items on the three aspects of independence mentioned above as well as overall psychological independence. Underlying these relationships, the parents' control over their children is observed to be an important factor in both countries. It is related to the parents' rearing attitude as well as the degree of encroachment on the child's rooms. Especially in Japan the independence factor is found to be closely related to whether the children share family chores. The communication factor between parents and children, although it is considered to be important in showing parent's encouragement of role sharing by children and their interests in children, is found to be insufficient indicator of parents' autonomy granting since in itself it cannot indicate the content of their interests in child rearing. Based on these analyses we are planning to further elucidate the relationships between children's attainment of independence and the management of child's rooms.
