2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Social Stratification, Employment, and Intergenerational Reproduction of Social Inequality among Single-parent Families in Japan

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19K20918
Project/Area Number (Other)	18H05721 (2018)
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund (2019) Single-year Grants (2018)
Review Section	0108:Sociology and related fields
Research Institution	National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (2020) Rikkyo University (2018-2019)
Principal Investigator	SAITO Tomohiro 国立社会保障・人口問題研究所, 社会保障基礎理論研究部, 研究員 (00826620)
Project Period (FY)	2018-08-24 – 2021-03-31
Keywords	ひとり親世帯 / 社会階層 / 就労自立支援 / 地位達成 / 計量分析 / 貧困・低所得 / メンタルヘルス / 公的統計
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This research project aims to clarify the social risks among single-parent families in contemporary Japanese society. Specifically, we will examine the three research questions: (1)the determinants of formation of single-parent families, (2)the relationships among parental employment, poverty risks, and mental health, (3)children's socio-economic attainment. Secondary Analysis of quantitative social survey datasets, including micro-datasets of official statistics, revealed that formations of divorced single-parent families are more concentrated among people from lower SES backgrounds. Secondly, even if single mothers succeed in engaging in regular employment, about half of them cannot escape economic poverty by their own earnings alone. Thirdly, single-parents' low SES negatively affect the children's educational or occupational attainments through the instability of their family lives.
Free Research Field	計量社会学・家族社会学・社会階層論
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究の学術的意義は、貧困・就労・健康・教育などの生活領域におけるひとり親世帯内部の階層差を明らかにした点である。一般的な学術調査では十分に把握し難いひとり世帯の生活実態を、公的統計の個票データによって把握した数少ない計量社会学的研究であり、研究成果が他の社会科学分野（人口学・経済学・福祉学など）へ還元されることが期待できる。得られた諸知見は、2000年代以降に展開されたひとり親世帯の就労自立支援施策に対して多くの政策的含意を有する。所得再分配政策に加えてジェンダー中立的な生活保障システムの構築が、ひとり親世帯の生活機会の格差・不平等を是正・解消することに繋がりうるとの示唆を得た。