Values of Work, Marriage, and Children and Life Course Choices Among Young Unmarried Womenn

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K03045
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10020:Educational psychology-related
• Research Institution: Bunkyo Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Nagahisa Hisako 学校法人文京学院 文京学院大学, 人間学部, 教授 (90297052)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 伊藤 裕子 学校法人文京学院 文京学院大学, 人間学部, 非常勤講師 (50296357)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 未婚化 / 結婚イメージ / 家族形成 / 文化的自己観 / 結婚意欲 / 自由の制約 / 幸せ / 未婚女性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined the life plans of young unmarried women and their relationship with the values of work, marriage, and children. The results of the interview survey indicated that the value of freedom, including work and hobbies, the value of child-rearing as a gender role, and the value of marriage in terms of the happiness and challenges it brings, were related to their willingness to marry, which is a part of their life plans. We created a marriage image scale that included these three values and examined the factors influencing it. The results showed that the marriage image was related to cultural self-construal as a self-schema, which in turn affected their life plans regarding marriage. For unmarried women with an individualistic lifestyle, it was considered that a marriage life dominated by an interdependent self-construal would lead to a lower willingness to marry due to the strong image of freedom constraints rather than happiness, impacting their overall life plans.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

家族形成に関する心理学的研究は極めて少ない。家族形成への社会的圧力が減り個人の人生の選択肢となった今日、その動機づけに関する研究は重要性を増している。未婚化や少子化の要因として経済的問題がクローズアップされる中で、結婚意欲の個人差を明らかにし、その個人差と結婚イメージという心理的要因との関連を示した点に重要な意義がある。また自己スキーマとしての相互独立的自己観が幸せな生活イメージを左右することを示した。個人主義的なライフスタイルが広がる一方で、今も家庭の中では相互協調性に基づく関係性が優勢である。この文化のズレが、自由の制約イメージを強め結婚意欲低下の要因となることを指摘した。