About half of children from children's homes are dissuaded from going on to a high school and begin to work under the pretext of "independence". But in socioeconomic conditions of these days, it is obvious that they have to face a world of severe facts in their future. This paper examines the characteristics of their social lives, mainly their employment, in order to investigate the way after care with them should be. In its process, the followings are made clear : 1. The rate of employment of middle-school graduates has tended to go down and now it is about 50%, which is much lower than its highest period by 15%. 2. For these ten years, the most popular industry of their first employment has been manufacturing, but recently children who apply for it have tended to decrease. In contrast, the employment in selling industry has tended io increase and now it is second in popularity, casting even the service one behind. 3. The rate of change of employment is very high. 15% of them changes employment in three months, 25% in half a year, and 40% in one year. After all, the rate of those who have continued to work for five years is only 20%. 4. As a working person, retired employees, males, those enrolled longer in children's homes, and those employed shorter are evaluated lower, in general, in their work sites. 5. In their daily lives, retired employees, females, those enrolled longer in children's homes, and those employed shorter are generally evaluated lower in their work sites. 6. They are evaluated very severely as members of society, but many of their work sites, making allowances for their poor social conditions, do not deny them their employment in the future. Children from children's homes encounter the very severe situations in society and many of them retire from their employment, thus often losing their social independence. The fact that the rate of change of employment of high-school graduates is much lower than that of middle-school graduates, proves that entrance into full-time high school is one way of preventing them from changing employment, and of promoting their competence of social adjustment. It, however, can be hardly said that this is a fundamental solution. In any case, the study and practice in these domains has been still on the way to development, I expect, therefore, that as many people as possible will take more and more interest in these problems. (The data on this paper are originated in those of the Osaka Child Welfare Work Agency.)
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