A questionnaire survey was carried out in Okayama, Japan, to examine the relationships between the subjective care burdens of working family caregivers and their subjective evaluation of various life domains (e. g., households, leisure activities, community activities and work). The analyses revealed that the subjective evaluation of all the life domains significantly correlated with subjective care burdens. For example, the subjective evaluation of housework positively correlated with subjective care burdens. This suggested that the obligation to perform housework in addition to nursing, working, and so on, could increase subjective care burdens. Furthermore, based upon the results of the analyses, a support system for working family caregivers was also discussed (e. g., care insurance system and a nursing leave system).

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In the field of social welfare, social work is regarded as one of the most important skills that are closely associated with the development of interpersonal abilities. In this research, I continued with my study based on preceding studies in order to find out how interpersonal abilities are developed in the field of welfare of elderly people, particularly in training courses for care workers, who are playing central roles in our industry, by clarifying the degree to which the subjects designed for the mastery of social work have been emphasized and the way in which these subjects have changed in the courses. As a result of the research, I have found out that the subjects concerning social work have been systematically arranged for the purpose of the development of interpersonal abilities since the very beginning of the establishment of the Care Worker Training Program. As for the revised curriculum of the Secondary Care Worker Training, however, evidently there is much left to be desired for further development of such abilities.

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In Japan, non-attendance at school has traditionally been regarded as children's intra-psychic matter. But according the statistics, it is impossible to deny the sociological aspects of non-attendance at school. This paper aims at describing those aspects using NAGAOKA Toshisada's theory on long-term absence at school. In Japan, non-attendance at school increases especially at the beginning of 1960's (so-called "the high economic growth period") and in the middle of 1970's. According to NAGAOKA, in the former period people began to think it as a matter of course for children to attend school every day. Until that time, it had been regarded as a matter of fact for children to be absent from school when they had to help their parents or attend religious events. In the latter period, the rate of entering high school exceeded 90%. Therefore, non-attendance at school is regarded not as a result of children's personal abnormality, but as a reaction to the social pressure that compels children to go to school. Hence, it would be no use to cope with non-attendance at school by school-counselling, for it is not a matter of psychology but a matter of sociology. We have to admit that a certain number of students are constantly absent from school, and, therefore, give the opportunities for alternative education outside the school.

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