Social isolation among mothers caring for Infants in Japan: findings from the Nationwide Survey of healthy parents and children 21

Abstract

Background Child-rearing isolation may increase the risk of child abuse and negatively affect child development owing to increased urbanization and a decline in family and community support systems. Purpose This study aimed to identify the prevalence of child-rearing isolation and the related sociodemographic factors among mothers in Japan using data from the Final Survey of Healthy Parents and Children 21. Participants Mothers of young children attending their health checkups. Methods Multivariate logistic regression models assessed the association between child-rearing isolation and socio-demographic variables. Data from 69,337 women were analyzed. Results Mothers who experienced child-rearing isolation comprised 0.2% of all participants. Mothers who were 35 to 39 years old at childbirth (OR = 1.6, CI[1.0, 2.4], p = .036), were unemployed (OR = 1.7, CI[1.3, 2.4], p = .001), had experienced financial difficulty (OR = 1.8, CI[1.3, 2.5], p < .001), had husbands with limited participation in child-rearing (OR = 5.7, CI[4.2, 7.9], p < .001), lived in special wards in the Tokyo Metropolis (OR = 4.2, CI[2.2, 8.3], p < .001), had child abuse concerns (OR = 2.1, CI [1.5, 2.9], p < .001), and had no time to relax with their child (OR = 4.5, CI [3.1–6.7], p < .001) exhibited higher odds ratios for child-rearing isolation, compared to mothers who did not exhibit these characteristics. Conclusions Findings showed the impact of urban living on maternal health and the influence of isolation on mothers’ anxiety about child-rearing and their potential for child maltreatment. The importance of fathers’ involvement in child-rearing in preventing maternal child-rearing isolation was highlighted.

Predictors of parenting difficulties at the 18‐month health checkups: A retrospective study using administrative data from infant health checkups

“…The mothers in this population were relatively older than those in the nationwide data (MHLW, 2021d), and the percentage of nuclear family households was 94.7%, which is estimated to be higher than the national data figures (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2017). Previous studies found that mothers’ older age is associated with parenting difficulties (Yoshioka‐Maeda & Kuroda, 2017) and that mothers in urban areas tend to have no one with whom to discuss their child‐rearing concerns (Yamazaki et al., 2022). Additionally, caregivers in nuclear families are primarily responsible for childcare and burdened by limited support from their relatives (Tanaka, 2019).…”