Only a few qualitative studies have examined couples therapy in Japan. This article describes a study that explored the experiences of clients and the therapist during the first session of couples therapy. The interpersonal process recall method was used to identify pivotal moments in clients' perceptions and experiences. A team of five researchers met regularly to analyze data in an approach known as consensual qualitative research. Collectively, the researchers suggested 4 points that the therapist should be mindful of during the first session of couples therapy: 1) The importance of one partner supporting the other when they have different needs and motivations, 2) Exploring topics that bring out a couple's good side, 3) Repeatedly helping one partner to understand the other's remarks, and 4) Identifying a couple's unspoken feelings.

　　Forms of marital commitment in couples with children were investigated. Whether having children functions as a deterrent to divorce was also examined. Study participants were individuals with a spouse and elementary school-aged children (N=746). Participants were asked about marital commitment, the marital relationship, and involvement in the family. Results indicated that personal commitment, resigned and instrumental commitment, and normative commitment were accompanied by a commitment to children, and this trend was the same as that found in middle-aged and elderly couples. During child-rearing, personal commitment was highly correlated with one’s relationship with one's spouse, which included love, and the existence or lack of personal commitment influenced a couple's intention to divorce. Commitment to children and the intention to divorce were not correlated in men while they were correlated in women. Having children deterred couples from divorcing to some extent, but having children did not stop couples from divorcing. One's relationship with one's spouse is crucial during child-rearing.

　　A natural observational study was conducted to examine interactions between parents and their children in a suburban shopping mall, with a focus on the child's age and family composition. Three-hundred and eleven family groups that included at least a mother and one child (0 to 7 years old) were observed in a total of 13 sessions over 8 weekdays: mother and child dyads (n=155), mother, child, and father triads (n=54), mother, child, and grandparent triads/tetrads (n=24), mother, child, and other adult triads (n=27), and combinations of mother and child dyads (n=51). Regardless of the group composition, children were less likely to interact with other group members when they were older. In groups that included the father or either/both of the grandparents, mothers were less likely to interact with their children than other members were. Child carriers (e.g. a child sling, stroller, or shopping cart) were less likely to be used by mother, child, and father triads than by mother and child dyads, especially when the child was younger than one year old. This suggests that mothers use human and material resources in a complementary way. Groups that included infants younger than one year used their own stroller, while groups that included 1- to 3-year-old children used a shopping cart, although a stroller was used quite often by mother, child, and father triads even when the children were over 1 year old. One explanation for this is that as children become able to toddle around, a stroller would increasingly encumber the group‘s activities because a stroller cannot be left behind. However, parents in mother, child, and father triads could presumably react accordingly, with one pushing a stroller while the other carried the child in his/her arms. These findings reveal that mothers with preschool children may use human and material resources in accordance with different conditions and their child's age.

　　There is very little published research related to family identity in Japan. The purposes of this study were to specify concepts underlying family identity and to develop a Family Identity Scale for Youth (FIS-Y). Based on previous studies, the current study specified four concepts as underlying family identity (a sense of belonging to a family, continuity as a member of a family, assessment of the family dynamic, and family acceptance). Participants were undergraduate and graduate students (N=209) consisting of 92 males, 116 females, and 1 person with insufficient data. Participants completed a questionnaire that included the FIS-Y, the Family Identity Scale (FIS) of Hayashi et al. (2005), and the Stress Response Scale (SRS-18). Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the FIS-Y had a two-factor structure. Cronbach's alpha was high for both of those factors (“a sense of family solidarity” and “family acceptance”). The total score on the FISY and scores on two subscales of the FIS-Y correlated with the score on the FIS. The total score on the FIS-Y and the score on the “family acceptance” subscale were inversely correlated with the score on the SRS-18. The reliability and validity of the FIS-Y were examined based on those findings. Two factors were identified in the FIS-Y in this study, and the factor “family acceptance” in particular was found to be a key factor. This study concluded that “family acceptance” is critical to forming a family identity in adolescence.

　　When child A was 4 years and 3 months old, her adoptive mother told her that she was adopted. Based on an analysis of episodes of exchanges between the mother and child A over the next 6 years, this paper examined the process of rebuilding that parent-child relationship.

　　Questions from and remarks by child A were analyzed using the “psychosocial model of adoption adjustment” (Brodzinsky et al., 1993).

　　The attitudes of the adoptive mother were categorized and analyzed using the KJ method.

　　Child A’s questions and remarks and responses by the adoptive mother were grouped, revealing that:

(1) “An understanding of the adoption system” developed from “an understanding of the parentchild relationship” of other families. That understanding of adoption then gradually led to “an understanding of the adopted child-parent relationship” and finally to “rebuilding the parent-child relationship based on an understanding of the adopted child-parent relationship.” The adoptive mother mainly provided information about the parent-child relationship and adoption as needed so that child A could understand their parent-child relationship.

(2) The adoptive mother consulted with child A’s homeroom teacher about ways to deal with child A's origins in class and the adoptive mother instructed child A to limit the sharing of information about her adoption so that child A would avoid the stigma of being adopted. In addition, the adoptive mother frequently used positive wording when addressing child A so that she would have a high level of self-affirmation, and the mother instilled in child A “the strength to cope with being stigmatized.” When child A was distressed, the adoptive mother treated her feelings with empathy as a parent. Presumably, “the parent-child relationship was rebuilt via the adopted child’s psychological state.”

(3) As child A grew, she completed various adoption adjustment tasks and the parent-child relationship was rebuilt with 2 aspects. This may have resulted in a process that incorporated “rebuilding of the non-biological parent-child relationship.”