A longitudinal analysis of the impact of family support on the morale of older parents in Japan: does the parent's normative belief in filial responsibilities make a difference?

Abstract

Japan presents a unique social laboratory in which to examine how family support impacts on older adults’ psychological wellbeing. This is because of its cultural climate where distinctively different expectations of old-age independence and the traditional norm of filial piety coexist. This study investigated how structural and functional dimensions of the family support of older Japanese parents influence their psychological morale, and whether the impacts of family support on parents’ morale vary depending on the parents’ belief in the traditional cultural norm of filial piety. Four waves of data from the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA) collected in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2006 were analysed. Combining the two- or three-year span of longitudinal data between each wave (N=3,882), an ordered logistic regression analysis was undertaken. The results reveal that although parents who were widowed or received emotional support from a child tended to report a lower level of morale, the negative influences of such support tended to be mitigated if the parent agreed with the traditional cultural norm of filial responsibilities. These results imply that the meaning and benefit of family support may differ depending on the degree to which Japanese older parents support the traditional norm of filial responsibilities.

An Analysis of the Impact of Cell Phone Use on Depressive Symptoms among Japanese Elders

“…In the end, data from each interval were pooled for analysis. Previous studies have used interval observations of NUJLSOA data to analyze Japanese elders' physical [29] as well as psychological health status [30]. This work pursues the same analytical approach and investigates how cell phone usage is associated with late-life depressive symptoms over the 8-year period.…”

“…Although the number of children in each family has gradually decreased in recent decades, filial relationships remain a source of support for older people in Japan [25,30,33], and familial contacts constitute a major part of older persons' mobile phone-based interactions [32]. The quantity of intergenerational relationships was operationalized via the frequency of contact between parents and children, both face to face and by phone.…”

Predictors of Senior Center Attendance in Korea: Findings From a National Analysis

“…Filial piety, a deep-rooted family value in East Asian nations (i.e., China, Japan, and Korea), is a moral ideal that indicates that older parents should be respected and supported by their adult children, as they had sacrificed themselves in raising their children and supporting their family (Sung, 1995;Takagi & Saito, 2013). Though the family-centered filial piety still remains influential and its practice is widespread throughout the nation, the unidirectional relationships under filial piety have rapidly shifted toward reciprocal relationships featuring mutual help and respect between both sides (Sung, 1990(Sung, , 1995, wherein the dominant flow of care and support goes from adult children to older parents.…”

Older Parents Enjoy Better Filial Piety and Care From Daughters Than Sons in China

“…A comparative study of 5 Western countries – Norway, England, Germany, Spain and Israel-- found that close emotional relationships and a stronger sense of filial responsibility were associated with increased support for older parents (Lowenstein and Daatland 2006). In Japan, another society influenced by Confucianism, researchers found some evidence that older parents in families with more traditional attitudes towards filial piety received more emotional support from their children than did those with lower expectations for filial piety (Takagi and Saito 2013). …”