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What Factors Affect the Intention to Participate in the Household Work of Married Men in Japan? : A Qualitative Study
Background & Objective: Many researchers have conducted various investigations on the determinants of housework participation of men up to today, but few researchers have carried out studies to find out the factors of promoting the participation in housework. This study aims to identify the factors which affect the intention of doing the household work among married men in Japan by adopting the Theory of Reasoned Action, which is one of the influential behavior change theories.
Method: We conducted a semi-structured qualitative study in 2013. The interviewees were 23 married men, who were volunteers, and 28-58 years old. Twelve men lived in Niigata, 5 in Hyogo and 6 in Kagoshima. The majority of them were members of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation and participated in our questionnaire survey in 2012. The rest interviewees were recruited through the personal relationships of the first author.
Results: We have identified a few of new factors to promote the household work participation of married men in Japan. A married man would have positive intention to participate in the household work, if he thinks as follows: he could take the power to decide the principles of his family life (modern patriarchal hypothesis); he could manage the household economy (family economy management hypothesis); and he has clear memories of the experiences in home economics education classes (home economics education hypothesis). In the near future, we will look into these hypotheses by analyzing the data of questionnaire survey in 2012.
* This study was partly supported by Health Labour Sciences Research Grant of Japan in 2012 and 2013. Dr. Ayako Kuramoto, Kagoshima Prefectural College, is a member of this study.