Child Care in Aging Society: Assessing People's Attitudes Towards Socialization of Care in Japan

• In Event: 3523 - Family Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 1: Intergenerational Caregiving

Abstract

Aging population is rapidly increasing in many developed nations including especially Japan. Providing care for the elderly is one of the major social problems facing Japanese society. Exacerbating the demographic problem of the aging population, Japanese family structure has shifted from a traditional multigenerational household to the modern nuclear household. This change significantly impacts caregiving for both the elderly and children. To accommodate the aging population Japanese government agencies have developed elderly care policies. These policies cover a wide variety of needs of the elderly ranging from medical care to daily living. However, policies have not been adequately developed to address the rising economic costs and social burden of raising children in the context of nuclear families in modern Japan. I use Japanese General Social Survey data from 2002 and 2012 to analyze people’s attitudes towards elderly and child care. Four outcomes are investigated including attitudes towards the dependent variables are used; responsibilities of livelihood security for elderly, elderly care, education, and child care. The answers range from 1, individuals and families, to 5, governments. Current study finds that the effect of age and presence of a child has no effect on people’s attitude’s towards elderly care in all gender and age group. For some female groups, presence of a child is found to be a significant factor of believing government’s responsibility on child care. In addition, the analyses find that financial dissatisfaction to be a significant factor of support for socialization of care, whereas view on gender role and satisfaction with family life significantly affect people’s attitudes towards responsibility of child care.

Author

• Megumi Tanabe, Texas A&M