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New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education, 2010
Suzanne Manning
An overview of Junko Satoh's study in Japanese Playcentres: Changing demographics of Japanese society since World War II has meant that fewer mothers of young children could rely on extended family networks to provide parenting advice and practical support. This has resulted in increasing isolation for these mothers or, as it has been termed in Japan, ‘child-rearing in a cell’. Playcentres were introduced to Japan in 2002 as parent support initiatives to address this issue and help isolated mothers build support networks. This paper reports on a recent study which looked at the impact on Japanese mothers of participation in a Playcentre. The results showed the mothers were motivated to attend by the opportunity to participate alongside their children and it was this active involvement that resulted in the formation of strong social and support networks. Their parenting confidence was also increased through the formal and informal education opportunities offered. These are indications that Playcentre can be viewed as successful in providing a tool for a Japanese mother to ‘break out of her cell’ and re-connect with the community. The results were compared with the New Zealand study of adult participation in Playcentre (Powell et al., 2005) and found to be similar in the way support networks were generated. There were some differences in emphasis between the two countries due to the collectivist nature of the Japanese culture versus the more individualist New Zealand culture, and the nature of the different parenting discourses. Ongoing research on the impact of Playcentres in Japan would be useful to confirm these preliminary results.
Volume: 13
Page Numbers: 17-28
Publication Date: 2010
Publication Name: New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education
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