Previous studies using the Family System Test (FAST) in Japan indicated that a majority of the Japanese families were categorized as “Unbalanced” type, which is characterized with low cohesion and/or low hierarchy, and considered as an unhealthy family. Therefore, the FAST is not considered as suitable for measuring Japanese family structure. The FAST procedure includes a semi-structured interview, however; few studies in Japan have examined the response to the interview. In the present study, we analyzed the response to the interview and administered the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) in order to examine the validity of the FAST categorization in Japan. Participants were 78 university students. According to the original categorization system, the participants were categorized into “Balanced,” “Liable-balanced,” and “Unbalance” types. Originally, each type consisted of 3 groups, but since there was no high hierarchy group, each type consisted of 2 groups in the present study. The analysis of the interview responses and the scores of the GHQ indicated that one group of the “Unbalanced” type with high cohesion and low hierarchy was very similar to the “Balanced” type. Two groups of “Liable-balanced” showed different characteristics from each other, but they were different from the “Balanced” type. Based on the above results, we arranged the original 3 types into 2 types: a “Balanced” type, which consisted of the original balanced type and one group of the unbalanced type, and an “Unbalanced” type, which consisted of the original liable-balanced type and one group of the unbalanced type. With this new categorization system, a significant difference in the GHQ scores between two types was found.

　　It seems that since cohesion of the family is very explicit and hierarchy in the family is very implicit for Japanese university students, hierarch is not important as long as cohesion is high. Therefore, there were so many “Unbalanced” typed families in Japan according to the original FAST categorization system. From the results of the present study, we suggest a new categorization of the FAST derived from the original categorization, which consists of “Balanced” and “Unbalanced” types for assessing Japanese families.

　　The relationships between young-adult daughters and their mothers were investigated from the perspective of Mother-Daughter System. Data were gathered from a survey of 867 daughters (range 23-35 yrs.) who had graduated from the same college, and had a surviving mother. Two major elements of Mother-Daughter System: ‘mother-daughter bond’ and ‘reciprocal support’ were investigated. Factor analyses identified four factors for each element respectively: Gratitude, Model for life, Dependency and Equality of the mother-daughter bond; and Daily, Emergency, Psychological, and Courtesy for reciprocal support. Results indicated that communication between the mother and the daughter plays an important role in maintaining Mother-Daughter System. Moreover communication included 2 types of interactions: (1)face-to-face communication with ‘family’ members and (2)non face-to-face communication with ‘friends’. It is suggested that the communication style between mother and daughter should be changed from ‘family’ to ‘friends’ when their relationship changes from dependency to independency.

　　Victims of sex crime at puberty and adolescence exhibit physical and psychological discomforts from the trauma, and their families, mainly mothers, also become emotionally unstable. In many cases, the above-mentioned conditions interfere with those children's resilience from the trauma. An effect of an early crisis intervention will be discussed through two cases, in which a counselor at a police department worked together with police officers and staff as a team, collaborated with school of those children, and arranged counseling all at an early phase.

　　As a part of the early intervention, counseling was provided individually for children and their mothers to support “the resilience of family” as a whole and communication was encouraged among family members. Consequently, as families became more stable, children became more stable emotionally, as well.

　　Supposedly, the early resilience of these children was brought by two main factors: a crisis of sex crime was considered to be a crisis of the family at large and to be an opportunity of a sexual education, and also the counselor facilitated coordination with school and a local community at the same time.

　　The followings are themes for future to be considered: development of family support system to take an early intervention effectively and development of a preventive psychological education for children with sex crime should be coped appropriately at a critical time.