To characterize the effects of decreasing births, we conducted a survey on “recognition of family” by elementary school children. In the previous study in 1978, we reported developmental changes of the family recognition by the second, fourth and sixth graders (males : 291, females : 266). Seventeen years later, we are in a “decreasing birth” time. To find out what change had taken place over the 17 years, we had the children of the same grades (males : 123, famales : 122) answer the same questionnaire as in 1978, i.e., asking about : 1) knowledge of their families, 2) image of their family members, 3) their share in household tasks, and 4) what they wanted their parents to do for them.
The results are as follows : 1) The percentage of children who knew their parents' age significantly increased, while that of boys who knew their parents' occupation remained almost the same. 2) In having children freely associate from the words of father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, and baby respectively, the rate of children who described their relationship to the given family members increased significantly except to the word, mother. 3) Children's share in household tasks qualitatively changed. Cooking and cleaning their own room increased while other tasks decreased. 4) The number of items children wanted of their parents was decreased.

View full abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to clarify facts of the education of social welfare, and search into its problems in the aged society as well as the relation between the home economics and the social welfare education.
This paper aims to point out the facts of and the problems involved with the education of social welfare.
A questionnaire was sent to and collected from 315 schools in Yokohama City and Tochigi Prefecture (elementary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools) in which social welfare was taught from 1989 to 1992. The main findings may be summarized as follows :
1) The education of social welfare is believed to be effective when what is taught is experienced and practised in “Special Activities.” It is, however, important not to fall into the type of “experiencism” that is not intellectually guided. In other words, there is much hoped for the way social welfare is taught in class.
2) There is a need to give more importance on the fundamental human rights (enough emphasis is given on the spiritual side of the social welfare education).
3) Social welfare has been increasingly taught in the home economics class or as one of the subjects of the home economics class. The relation between the social welfare education and the home economics will be dealt with in a separate paper.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

The purpose of this 11-year study is to clarify the anxieties and the needs of middle-aged women toward their old age in the rural area. The data were based on the panel studies conducted in 1982 and 1993 respectively in Asahina-district of Okabe-cho, a mountain village in Shizuoka Prefecture. Forty hundred and thirty-nine married women between 30 and 59 years of age were interviewed in the first survey, and of the 439, 324 were interviewed in the second survey.
The findings are summarized as follows :
1) During the period 1982-1993, in spite of their aging, all cohorts were free from such traditional attitudes as living with the first son's family and being taken care of by the daughter-in-law when they became frail.
2) In 1993 the 51-60 age cohort were free from the traditional attitudes in four items and the 61-70 age cohort were free from the traditional attitudes in five items. On the contrary, the 41-50 age cohort were free from the traditional attitudes in eight items.
3) In 1993 all cohorts strongly kept traditional attitudes in two items, that is, to co-reside with their married child when they become widowed, and to be taken care of by their married child when become too frail to live by themselves.
4) Especially noteworthy is the fact that all cohorts were free from traditional attitudes of sharing living expenses. In other words, they managed their own living expenses separate from the account of their married child.

View full abstract

The cooking effects of an advanced ceramic plate on the external color, internal temperature, penetration of heat and texture of both white bread and round beef were examined after baking.
Samples were heated by the three plates having different emissivity characteristics under the same radiated heat (6, 500 kcal/ (m²·h)), excluding the effect of convection.
The baked external color of white bread and round beef was no different when comparing the effect of the advanced ceramic plate with the other plates.
The internal temperature, heat penetration and hardness of the heated round beef were significantly different between the advanced ceramic plate and the other plates.
These results suggest that the advanced ceramic plate with far higher infrared emissivity than the other non-ceramic plates had better cooking effects.

View full abstract

The physical properties of squid muscle cooked under reduced pressure were estimated by observing firmness, cooking loss, cohesiveness, and the proton relaxation behavior in relation to the sensory evaluation.
The firmness of squid muscle cooked at 60°C was the lowest, while it increased after cooking at above or below this temperature. The cohesiveness matched well with the change in firmness, while cooking loss and water content were not followed by these changes of firmness and cohesiveness, but retained to increase with temperature. The cooking loss of squid in vacuum cooking was larger than in normal (-temperature) cooking but remained nearly the same over prolonged cooking time (20-50 min). In the sensory evaluation, the squid meat cooked at 70°C indicated a superior evaluation in relation to its chewyness. This sensory evaluation may be related to the proton relaxation behavior which reflects those of water, as assessed from the longest relaxation time at 70°C.
In conclusion, it was found that the most favorable conditions for the vacuum cooking of squid muscle is a temperature of 70°C and a cooking time of 30 min.

View full abstract

An questionnaire survey was made on children from 6 to 12 years of age (452 males and 414 females) so as to elucidate the tendency of the preference for sweetness, sourness, saltiness and bitterness comparing with that of persons aged from 3 to 79 (991 males and 1, 027 females). Recognition thresholds for sweetness, sourness and saltiness were measured by using aqueous solutions of sucrose, citric acid and sodium chloride, respectively. The mean values of taste preference and threshold (recognition) were assesed by using Hayashi's quantification method III and Duncan's multiple range test. There was little difference of taste preference in children according to age and sex groupes. The pattern of taste preference on children was similar to that of children-preschool and young-aged persons, but was different from that of middle-aged and aged persons. Children had a tendency to prefer sweet, sour and salty foods such as icecream, the grapefruit, potato chips. Children perceived 0.2-0.8% of sucrose, 0.02-0.08% of citric acid and 0.04-0.16% of sodium chloride in taste threshold. Taste sensitivity of children was slightly lower than that of 20-year-old females, and was similar to that of children-preschool.

View full abstract

Body surface reliefs of ten young Japanese women in standing and squatting positions were measured using the Grating Projection System for Profiling (GRASP method) and analyzed. The body area investigated was the back right half of the torso from the bottom of the bust to the thigh, on which five vertical and ten horizontal lines were marked as references. The body area was divided into six parts as determined by surface deformations which accompanied changes from standing to squatting positions. The medial parts from the scapular line around waist and abdomen line expanded about 50% in vertical length and nearly 100% around the gluteal fold. The vertical length of lateral part around the hip line contracted about 25%. The body area showed little change in horizontal length. Based on the results of this study, eases were added to the slacks pattern. The slacks were then tested on two women. The added eases were found to be large enough and appropriate in location to allow free movements of the hip joints in both standing and squatting positions.

View full abstract