In this research, in order to examine what the father image of the son with “Hikikomori” (social withdrawal) is, the investigation concerning the father image was executed for 213 male university students and 31 males who experienced Hikikomori. It became clear that the Hikikomori group put their fathers high in respect of “strict/non flexible”, while low in respect of “intimacy”, “respect and trust”, “feelings of understanding”, “loved feelings” and “attitude to face his son” compared with general students group as a result of analysis.

　　Moreover, after examining the variable which has influence on the period of Hikikomori, the relations among “strict/non flexible”, “intimacy” and “attitude to face his son” was suggested.

　　Next, comparing the group of 32 fathers of Hikikomori with the group of 36 fathers of ordinary sons, it was shown that the group of fathers of Hikikomori put their relationships with their sons lower in respect of “intimacy” and “attitude to face his son” than the other group.

　　Furthermore, Hikikomori group and father of Hikikomori group, general student group and general father group were compared. Consequently the following several points were observed.

1. Both in ordinary homes and Hikikomori homes, sons don’t consider them being loved and understood by fathers so much as fathers assume.

2. As a feature of ordinary homes, sons respect and trust their fathers more than the fathers expect them to do.

3. As a feature of Hikikomori homes, both fathers and sons feel that “attitude to face his son” and “intimacy” are lesser than ordinary homes.

　　The purpose of this article was study to linkage with social power and communications in the parent-adolescent relationship, and the father-mother relationship from adolescent's view. Social power based on referent power, expert power, legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, and attraction power. The subjects were 103 male and 64 female university students, and they completed questionnaire. The results conformed that (1) the parent-adolescent communications was positive when high scores that referent-expert power of adolescent from parents and high scores that fathermother trust from adolescent's view, and (2) the parent-adolescent communications was negative when high scores that reward-coercive power of adolescent from parents and high scores that father-mother rift from adolescent's view. We discussed these results from the theory of structural family therapy, balance theory and system theory.

　　The purpose of this study was to define “Parenting Skills” as action for constructing and maintaining a good relationship between mothers and children, and was to investigate how often mothers use “Parenting Skills” in their daily lives and how a relationship between “Parenting Skills” and self-esteem for children exists. Firstly, in order to construct “Parenting Skills Scale”, skill items were collected from skill descriptions provided by 98 mothers. A 30-item: every 10-item of morality skills, understanding–interest skills, and self-esteem skills, was selected by KJ-method. 9 graduate students and 1 psychologist examined the validity of content, and preliminary study was conducted by 19 mothers to select the items included in the scale. As a result, a 30-item Parenting Skills Scale was developed.

　　Then, a questionnaire of the 30 chosen items was answered by 2239 pairs of mothers and children. Factor analysis produces 3 subscales: a 9-item of morality skills, a 8-item of self-esteem skills, and a 6-item of understanding–interest skills. Mothers used Parenting Skills and self-esteem skills for 1 grade more than 2 grade, and understanding–interest skills for 1 grade more than 2 grade and 3 grade. As regards self-esteem for children, 1 grade more than 2 grade and 3 grade showed high points of selfesteem scale. Mothers with high self-esteem had high Parenting Skills. As regards the relationship between mothers' parenting skills of junior high school students and self-esteem of children, mothers with high Parenting Skills had children having high self-esteem: especially, this relationship showed high points among 1 grade rather than 2 grade and 3 grade.

　　This study examined relationship between families' responses to their preschoolers' utterances and the preschoolers' positive emotions. Participants were 6 of 28 families with one 4- or 5- years old child and two parents and were videotaped at dinner table on two occasions with all members present. 3 families of the participants were higher preschoolers' positive emotions (HP families) and 3 families were lower (LP families) in 28 families. It was found that to the utterances of the preschoolers with a high necessity of the response, as for the HP families, the affirmative responses were more abundant, and the negative responses were less than the LP families. And to the utterances of the preschoolers with a low necessity of the response, as for the HP families, the irregular successions were more abundant, and the regular successions were less than the LP families. In addition, as for the HP families, how it responded according to the level of the response necessity of the preschoolers was changed, and it was not in the LP families such a change. Therefore, one condition for the preschoolers to enjoy oneself over meal with their family is for the family member to pay attention at the response necessity level of the utterance of the preschoolers, and to do an appropriate response to the level.

　　This paper examines causal relationships between depressive symptoms and marital intimacy during transition to parenthood. A series of questionnaire survey was conducted, and 228 couples at pregnancy, 155 couples at 6 month postpartum and 142 couples at 1 year postpartum provided data regarding marital intimacy and depressive symptoms. Result showed that both wives and husbands exhibited depression throughout ante- and postnatal. Also, throughout the survey, decline of intimacy was evident in both husbands and wives. On the causal relationships, it was shown for both husbands and wives, that their own intimacy toward their partners at 6 month postpartum affected their own depression at 1 year postpartum. However, from pregnancy to 6 month postpartum, the causal relations differed. For wives, causal paths emerged from their depressive symptoms during pregnancy to their marital intimacy toward husbands at 6 month postpartum, whereas for husbands, wives' depression during pregnancy affected their depression at 6 month after child birth. Also, wives' intimacy toward husbands showed significant effect on husbands' intimacy toward wives at any time point. This suggested a causal direction within couples: wives' depression during pregnancy affects their intimacy toward husbands subsequently, and which decreases husbands' intimacy toward wives.