The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that help women's adaptation to their elderly mothers' care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven female caregivers. Interviewees chronologically recounted memorable events in their caring experience including their feelings, behaviors, mental and physical conditions on each situation. They also described their relationship with their mothers and the people around them. Information obtained from the interviews was used to create flow charts to analyze similarities and differences between the interviewees. The results showed that female caregivers' ill feelings toward their mothers caused their mental fatigue. These ill feelings originated in their early childhood and adolescence burst to the surface with the stress of the caregivers in the later years when they had to take care of their mothers. On the other hand, female caregivers' own principles guiding their lives and close cooperation with their siblings have made their adaptation possible. Women who have already established their own guiding principles for their lives could actively care in their own ways using various social supports. It was indicated that women who have an overly-close relationship with their mothers would miss an opportunity to relieve their ill feelings toward their mothers. It was suggested that respect for their individual lives as well as their mothers' could encourage their adaptation to their nursing care.

　　In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted for young people who routinely take care of other family members in their homes called “Young carer (hereinafter referred to as YC).” The purpose was to clarify the relationship between YC's family relationship and the psychological experience associated with YC’s involvement in family care and “care burden.” An Internet survey was conducted through a survey company, and 173 YCs at the time of research received responses. As a result of the analysis, for YC's “care burden,” excessive care burden on YC individuals such as “escape feeling,” “practical burden”, “excessive care role,” seriousness of care needs such as “severity of care level,” and “family equity,” which is considered to express the balance of power relationships among families, was affected. Although previous studies on adolescent mental health have shown that power balance of family's functions positively in psychological adjustment by increasing autonomy and self-determination in adolescents, The results showed that “family equity,” which shows the balance of power among family members, is related to YC's “care burden,” and there was a difference from previous studies. YC has family members who need care, and the family needs to deal with the care. In such a situation, it was considered that autonomy and self-determination promoted by balance of power encouraged voluntary cooperation in care and related to YC's care burden. From these, support to families that suppress the care burden of YC while maintaining family power balance that promotes autonomy and selfdetermination that are expected to have positive impact on adolescent adjustment was also considered necessary.

　　Toddlers show more prosocial behaviors and empathic responses toward their mothers in distress situations as their autonomy and self-other distinction develop. The purpose of this study was to examine children's age-related changes of their actions and empathic responses toward their mothers in negative situations. Twenty toddlers and their mothers participated in this study when the child was one year old and again at age two. We observed the children's responses in two situations: one was with clear clues in which mothers pretended to feel pain, and another was with unclear clues, in which the mothers suddenly became indifferent to their children. The result showed that children took more appropriate coping behaviors for both situations, detected mothers' change more sensitively, and positively responded more quickly even in the situation with unclear clues when they were two years old. Children showed more empathic responses in the situation with clear clues than did in the situation with unclear clues, but age-related changes of empathic responses were common in both situations; other-oriented responses such as hypothesistesting and concern increased and self-oriented responses such as self-distress decreased with age. There were some gender differences in each situation. The implications and the future research directions are discussed.

　　The purpose of this study is to explore how couples' conflict over religious cultural practice changes the relationship of the intercultural marriage couple. Multiple in-depth interviews were conducted to three Japanese wives who converted to new Christianity in Japan and moved to the United States, where they married an American husband. All of them were exploring divorce from their husband after 15―20 years of marriage. The interview data were analyzed using a qualitative analytical method (Nochi, 2010). The results are:

　　1） Japanese wives perceived that their religious practice, as new converts, was more sincere than the practice of their husbands, who were born into the religion, in areas such as altruism and prosocial behavior.

　　2） It is difficult for the Japanese spouse to leave the marriage when the Japanese spouse has devoted all her time and energy to the marriage and could not pursue the education and career development that would have made it easier for her to support herself independent of her husband.

　　3） It is difficult for the Japanese spouse to leave the marriage when leaving the marriage means leaving the only community that she knows in her adopted country.