A Sociological Approach to the Foster Care Experience: Cases from Japan and the U.K.

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K17988
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sociology; Home economics/Human life
• Research Institution: Chiba University (2020-2021); Tokyo Metropolitan University (2017-2019)
• Principal Investigator: ANDO Ai 千葉大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (20750441)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 里親 / ファミリーホーム / 社会的養護 / 家庭養護 / ケアの社会学 / 国際比較

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, we have produced three main outputs. First, we visualized issues related to family-homes and foster care in Japan. Second, we clarified the impact of the concept of corporate-parenting in the UK and the differences in the meaning of the concept depending on the type of foster carers through the field research in the UK. Furthermore, the above findings from Japan and the UK led us to examine comparative cultural differences in the foster care experience, and also developed the universal theme of how caregivers interpret the paid care work using vocabulary such as volunteer/professional, family/work.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究を通して、里親養育を推進する機運に実証研究による知見を提供するほか、国際比較により日本の施策を相対化し、転換期の日本の里親養育のあり方に再考の視点を提供するものでもある。また本研究は里親研究にとどまらず、ケアの公私分担をめぐる理論的・実践的示唆を得る点で領域横断的な学術的意義を有し、少子高齢社会の家族政策や児童福祉領域の諸実践への波及効果を見込む社会的意義があるといえる。