Early adaptation of the children in Japanese Returnees' family from China --a Five-year Follow-up--

Research Project

Project/Area Number	04670693
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Psychiatric science
Research Institution	UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
Principal Investigator	SAITO Masahiko UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO,SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, 医学部(病), 講師 (30235072)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	MIGUCHI Masahiro PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE OF TOKYO, 社会精神医学, 研究職主事箕口雅博東京都精神医学総合研究所, 社会精神科医学, 研究職主事
Project Period (FY)	1992 – 1994
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1994)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000) Fiscal Year 1993: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000) Fiscal Year 1992: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Keywords	IMMIGRATION / ADAPTATION / CHILD / CHINESE / JAPANESE / 適応
Research Abstract	17 children of 16 Japanese Returnees' families from China had been followed up for 5 years. They came to Japan from China with their parents from July 1988 to July 1989. One of their parents was a Japanese orphan who left in mainland China after the World War Second. The investigators make an semi-costructed interview to the children and their family members, and made a psychological assessment with HTP test just after their arrival to Japan, 1 year after, 3 years after, and 5 years after their arrival. 6 of the 17 showed some kind of problems in their adaptation to Japanese Society at the 1-year-follow-up study. Impairment of or too much parental support, conflicts between the life styles of China and Japan, and over adaptation were main reasons of their problems. All of these 6 cases adapted themselves to Japanese Way of Life by the 5-year-follow-up. However, the other one case showed mal adjustment syndrome from 4th year after his immigration. He has been staying in his room and withd … More rowed from not only his school but also his family members. He refused to meet us so we made an interview with his parents. Psychiatric or psychological assessments of this boy still remain. All of the 17 children could speak good Japanese by the time of 3-year-follow-up and were doing rather well in their schools., but their ability of Chinese language decreasing rapidly. On the other hand, many of their parents gave up studying Japanese soon after their immigration and found their way in small Chinese community in Japan. The difficulty of communication between these generations has been increasing. By the time of 5-year-follow-up, 5 of the 16 parents (one was Japanese orphan and the other was Chinese) showed severe marital problems. There were big differences between them in the motivation of immigration and in the expectation to Japanese society. Once they face to some difficulties in adaptation to Japanese society, the differences expand terribly. These marital problems should be another risk factor of their children's farther adaptation to Japan. Less