The purpose of the current study was to reveal the attitude structure of Japanese mothers who are raising children with non-Japanese partners. Attitudes of four Japanese mothers who were raising young children with an American, British, or French husband were examined via a personal attitude construct (PAC) analysis. Participants were presented with a dendrogram (a tree diagram) based on a cluster analysis of the distance matrix derived from the participants' perception of the degree of similarity among associated items as well as a distance model of multidimensional scaling. PAC analysis indicated that attitudes varied among the participants despite some similarities. A major common factor was that participants all placed their children at the center of their lives and they all perceived raising bi-racial children in a positive light. However, three main types of contexts were found to contribute to participants' current attitudes: social contexts, family contexts, and individual contexts. Social contexts include pressure from outside the family or from Japanese society, which can be perceived as exclusionary against individuals with different characteristics. Family contexts refer to the bi-cultural environment at home, family cohesiveness, and economic circumstances. Examples of individual contexts include the influence of one's parents, one's personality, and unfulfilled desires. When assistance is provided to multicultural families, the multiple layers of context within which family members operate need to be discerned while being open and sensitive to factors pertinent to their multicultural environment along with factors that are common to all families.

　　The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in factors governing workfamily conflict (WFC) and the relationship between WFC and the quality of work and family roles. A questionnaire was administered to 148 male and 182 female full-time employees with an infant.

　Multiple-group analysis was performed, and results suggested the following:

　　1.　For both men and women, the average number of hours worked per day was related to WFC.

　　2.　For men, WFC was inversely related to the quality of work and family roles.

　　3.　For women, WFC was inversely related to the quality of work roles. However, WFC was not significantly related to the quality of family roles.

　The above results indicated that the average number of hours worked per day was a factor governing WFC for both men and women. For men, a WFC diminished the quality of work and family roles. In contrast, a WFC only diminished the quality of work roles for women. Gender differences in the effect of a WFC on the quality of work and family roles were noted. In the future, working conditions and male and female roles need to be discussed further from the perspective of a work-life balance.

　　This study examined changes in levels of marital satisfaction from the perspective of wives and it discussed these changes in terms of family developmental stages. Participants were 6 mothers of adolescent children. Participants were asked to create a timeline as they recalled events from when they were married to the present. Participants' narratives were analyzed with a focus on changes in the level of marital satisfaction. Key findings were as follows.

　　When wives reflected on when they raised their children, “collaboration by and support from one's husband” affected the wife's level of marital satisfaction in every life stage after childbirth. Forms of collaboration and support differed depending on the wife's life stage. While caring for an infant, wives wanted collaboration from their husbands so that they did not feel like they were raising their children alone. As the child grew, wives wanted to be viewed as individuals by their husbands. Wives then wanted their husbands to collaborate by being “present,” i.e. cheering on a child during a game or dropping the child off or picking the child up from activities.

　　In addition, matters such as “increased involvement in a child’s life by one's husband” and “being able to discuss shared topics with one's husband” increased the marital satisfaction of wives. In such instances, the ability of wives and children to directly influence husbands/fathers was a key factor for marital satisfaction.

　　In order to identify the risk factors for school non-attendance (SNA), conversations between 52 high school students who had experienced SNA and school counselors were qualitatively analyzed to reveal speech patterns.

　　The Kawakita Jiro (KJ) method yielded 513 items from the students' expressions. These items were grouped into 114 secondary subcategories, 24 primary subcategories, and 3 categories. Seven symbols were used to group primary subcategories. Categories were named “Me,” “My Home ＆ Family,” and “Events at School.”

　　Primary subcategories and categories were arranged spatially, primary subcategories were marked with the seven symbols, and relationships between categories were discussed. “Family Relationships” were directly linked to “Family Functioning,” and the former also affected a student’s “Mental and Physical Condition” and the “Characteristics of One's Thinking and Behavior.” “Attitudes towards Others” readily caused “Problems with Interpersonal Relationships” and were likely to increase the risk of SNA. Attachment theory suggests that attitudes towards others are linked to one’s attachment style via an internal working model. Attitudes towards others were influenced by insecure attachment. Therefore, insecure attachment may be a risk factor for SNA.

　　The father-child relationship has not been examined in adolescence as often as it has in childhood. The purposes of this study were to classify adolescents' paternal images and to examine the characteristics of each type of image by comparing “attitudes towards one’s father” and the “views of one’s father in comparison to the ideal.” Participants were 291 university students (97 males and 194 females with a mean age of 19.33 years). Cluster analysis was performed by sex using the following three factors that comprise the Paternal Image Scale (Konno, 2012): provision of a sense of security, authority, and selfishness. Results revealed four types of images. Three types of images were common to both sexes: a “genial” father providing a strong sense of security and exercising little authority, an “august” father providing a strong sense of security and exercising considerable authority, and an “indistinct” father with no notable characteristics. In contrast, characteristics of a father who was highly selfish and who provided little sense of security differed by sex. Male participants regarded such fathers as “wanton” individuals who exercised an average amount of authority while female participants regarded them as “dictatorial” individuals who exercised considerable authority. This result suggests that there are different paternal images with many variations. Attitudes towards and views of fathers were compared based on the classification mentioned earlier. Results revealed that fathers who were highly selfish and who provided little sense of security (i.e. wanton fathers according to male participants and dictatorial fathers according to female participants) were less likely to be perceived as reliable than other types of fathers. Moreover, those fathers were viewed as far from ideal. However, fathers that are perceived as reliable and that are close to the ideal may not be limited to one specific type.