Abstract
We examined infant sleeping arrangements and cultural values of Japanese mothers in 2008 and 2009. Based on Greenfield's theory of social change and human development, we predicted that social change in Japan over the last decades (higher economic and education level, urbanization, complex technology, more women in the work force) would lead to a decline in mother-infant co-sleeping, compared with published findings concerning Japanese sleeping arrangements in the 1960s and 1980s. We also predicted that the practice of having babies sleep in their own beds and/or own rooms would be supported by ethnotheories stressing infant independence and other values adaptive in an urban, technologically sophisticated, relatively wealthy, and highly educated populace. Fifty-one Japanese mothers' comments posted on Internet parenting forums were analyzed. Contrary to our hypothesis, co-sleeping was as frequent among Japanese mothers in 2008-2009 as it had been in the 1960s and 1980s. However, analysis of the values of co-sleeping mothers revealed frequent discrepancies between values and practices. In contrast, the minority of mothers whose babies slept alone in a separate room all expressed consonant values. Our qualitative analysis indicates that it is not always easy for Japanese mothers to construct values for child rearing and gender roles that integrate traditional infant care practices with current sociodemographic conditions.
Highlights
Japan is thought to emphasize collectivism, interdependence, and solidarity, whereas the United States (US) is thought to value individualism, independence, and autonomy (Hofstede, 1980; Markus and Kitayama, 1991)
We asked: (1) Would parenting values and gender roles in Japan move away from roles ascribed by birth toward roles based on choice and individual differences? (2) Would parental ethnotheories switch from favoring infant-parent co-sleeping to favoring independent infant sleeping? (3) Would infant sleeping arrangements concomitantly shift from co-sleeping to sleeping apart? Most importantly, we investigated whether Japanese mothers would experience conflict in regards to any of the potential changes explored in questions 1–3
Co-sleeping was as frequent among Japanese mothers in 2008-2009 as it had been in the 1960s and 1980s
Summary
Japan is thought to emphasize collectivism, interdependence, and solidarity, whereas the United States (US) is thought to value individualism, independence, and autonomy (Hofstede, 1980; Markus and Kitayama, 1991). Mothers valuing interdependence anticipate babies’ needs through continuous nursing and staying in physical proximity with babies throughout the night (Brazelton et al, 1969) Such infant caregiving practices provide continuous hydration or the warmth of another human being for temperature regulation, in line with the notion of Gemeinschaft environment adaptations. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS AND PARENTAL ETHNOTHEORIES IN JAPAN Despite these sociodemographic changes that dramatically shifted women’s roles and family structures, research on Japanese childrearing values heretofore has focused on the interdependence model, ignoring the way in which sociodemographic changes may be shifting cultural values and socialization practices. THE PRESENT STUDY Given the continuing sociodemographic change in Japan in the Gesellschaft direction, we predicted a decrease in co-sleeping among contemporary Japanese mothers, comparing current practices with data from studies of the 1960s and 1980s. In addition to a study of individual mothers, we considered this to be a study of cultural environment accessible to other mothers/people in Japan
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