Parental Well-being: Comparing Germany and Japan
Final Report Abstract
"Pursuing happiness is not only idealistic, it is the world's best and perhaps only hope to avoid global catastrophe" (Global Happiness Policy Report 2018). With that, the report argues for happiness as overarching policy goal. It is in our research that we equally argue that parental well-being is well qualified to assume a central role for governments of industrially advanced nations that are in need of coping with the challenges of low fertility and societal aging, and should be acted upon with increasing urgency. More than 4000 mothers and fathers of young children in Germany and Japan have been surveyed in regard to their well-being and satisfaction with many aspects related to their work and family lives. The edited volume as the main, but not sole outcome of this research project, brings together 13 scholars to analyse this unique dataset. The chapters fall into three main parts: (1) parenting and childcare, (2) self, social relatedness, and social structures, and (3) family policy well-being. A particular focus lies on the well-being of mothers in contrast to fathers. The project uses a multidimensional concept of parental well-being. We found that national differences are in several aspects superseded by gender, class, and personality types. We continue the project beyond its funding cycle to explore subnational differences of parental well-being, particularly due to the fact that family policies are a mix of national, state/ prefectural, and local policies and funding sources. Thus in order to give relevant policy recommendations, a better understanding of well-being on the local level is the next important step in that endeavour.
Publications
- Parental Well-being in Japan. München: Iudicium (DIJ Miscellanea Nr. 19)
Holthus, Barbara, Matthias Huber, Hiromi Tanaka
- Care, human capital, and demographic transformation. In: Holthus,
Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, pp. 43-68.
Bertram, Hans
- Class and conformity revisited: Parental values and selfconception
in contemporary Germany and Japan. In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans
Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München, Iudicium, 2018, pp. 69-108, ISBN 978-3-86205-050-5.
Deuflhard, Carolin
- Glück und Wohlbefinden in Japan. Der Fall junger Eltern. In: beziehungsweise. Informationsdienst des österreichischen Instituts für Familienforschung, 2018, Jänner/Februar, S. 1-4
Holthus, Barbara
- Money, time, and infrastructure as elements of a new German family
policy. In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, pp. 253-263.
Bertram, Hans
- Parental satisfaction with family policies in Japan: An overview.
In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium,2018, pp. 264-292.
Holthus, Barbara.
- Parental well-being in Japan: Regional differences". In: Ralph Lützeler (ed.): Rural areas between decline and resurgence: Lessons from Japan and Austria. Vienna: Department of East Asian Studies/Japanese Studies, University of Vienna, 46. 2018, pp. 93-97.
Holthus, Barbara, Ralph Lützeler
- Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, 310 S.,
ISBN 978-3-86205-050-5.
Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds)
- Parents in transitional Germany and Japan. In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with
work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, pp. 9-15, ISBN 978-3-86205-050-5.
Bertram, Hans, Barbara Holthus
- Partnership satisfaction in Germany and Japan: The role of family work distribution and gender ideology. In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, pp. 164-196.
Peter Fankhauser, Barbara Holthus, Stefan Hundsdorfer
- Satisfaction and a plural modernity: German and Japanese parents.
In: Holthus, Barbara, Hans Bertram (eds). Parental well-being. Satisfaction with work, family life, and family policy in Germany and Japan. München: Iudicium, 2018, pp. 293-304.
Bertram, Hans
- Infrastructural family policy in Japan: Parental evaluation. In: Meier-Gräwe, Uta, Miyoko Motozawa, Annette Schad-Seifert (eds). Family life in Japan and Germany. Challenges for a gender sensitive family policy. Heidelberg - New York: Springer, 2019, pp 135-156.
Holthus, Barbara
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26638-7_7)
