2023 Volume 20 Pages 173-194
The norms concerning caring for older parents have been changing rapidly in Japan with the transformation of the family and an increasing number of insti- tutions and care services for older people. What are adult children’s perceptions regarding future caregiving to their parents? The aim of this article is to elucidate children’s expectations regarding the ex- tent to which they will be engaged in the act of caregiving to their parents in the future. Firstly, the distribution of the expectations related to providing care for each parent were examined. Binary logistic regression estimations were then conducted with particular attention to two essential factors of caring for older parents: the parent-child relationship and the child’s perception of norms. Our findings suggest that these two factors coexist, and both influence the ex- pectations regarding caregiving for older parents. Distribution of the expecta- tions demonstrated that significantly more women expect to provide care by themselves than men, with respect to all parents. That could imply the exis- tence of gender norms of women as caregivers. Binary logistic regression analy- sis estimated that women’s expectations regarding their father are influenced by their relationships, while men’s expectations regarding both parents are influ- enced by relationships and filial norms. With respect to caregiving expectations related to their in-laws, good relationships appear to be an important factor for caregiving. Nonetheless, the results also demonstrate that eldest sons’ wives are more likely to expect to give care to their parents-in-law. These results indicate that in contemporary Japanese society, relationships are an important factor in- fluencing caregiving expectations of adult children for their parents, but tradi- tional norms may still be in force to a certain degree.
