Japanese Wives

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1/18

Psychological Consequences of Occupational Conditions Among Japanese Wives

Author(s): Michiko Naoi and Carmi Schooler

Source: Social Psychology Quarterly , Vol. 53, No. 2, Special Issue: Social Structure and the

Individual (Jun., 1990), pp. 100-116

Published by: American Sociological Association

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2/18

Social Psychology Quarterly

1990, Vol. 53, No. 2, 100-116

Psychological Consequences of Occupational Conditions

among Japanese Wives*

MICHIKO NAOI

Tokyo Gakugei University

CARMI SCHOOLER

National Institute of Mental Health

This paper examines how Japanese women's occupational conditions affect their

psychological processes. We find that self-directed work increases their intellectual

flexibility and the self-directedness of their orientations; this finding replicates earlier

findings about these important psychological outcomes of self-directed work, even in a

culture where self-directedness for women is particularly disvalued culturally. Self-directed

work also leads to less traditional attitudes towards the elderly, whereas working in a

traditional industry makes such attitudes more traditional. This finding shows that Japanese

women's work experiences can affect even their acceptance of traditional norms. Our

evidence also shows that Japanese women are substantially less likely than their husbands to

do self-directed work on the job. The resultant occupationally induced lessening of

self-directed orientation may contribute to women s accepting cultural norms that> keep them

in subservient positions. Thus the culturally and social structurally determined occupational

experiences of Japanese women clearly affect how they confront major social and personal

problems.

This paper examines how Japanese wives'

occupational conditions affect their psycho-

logical functioning. In doing so, it asks a

series of questions about the interrelationship

of culture, socioeconomic structure, gender,

and psychological functioning: What are the

social and psychological factors related to

Japanese wives' working for pay? Do occupa-

tional conditions, particularly occupational

self-direction, have the same effects on

Japanese women as on other people? Do

occupational conditions affect traditional val-

ues about the Japanese wife's role, as

exemplified by their accepting responsibility

for caring for elderly parents in the home? If

occupational conditions have effects on Japa-

nese wives similar to those found for their

husbands, do these differences in the nature

* Please direct all correspondence to Carmi Schooler,

Laboratory of Socio-Environmental Studies, NIMH,

Room BIA-14 Federal Building, 7550 Wisconsin Ave.,

Bethesda MD 20892. This work could not have been

carried out without Carrie Schoenbach, who was

indispensable to the project at every stage, from the

editing of the data through data analysis to the writing of

the final manuscript. We are also very grateful to Zita

Givens, who provided valuable assistance at many times;

Hiroko Hayasi and Kiyoko Okamura of the Tokyo

Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, who played

important roles in collecting and coding the data; Junsuke

Hara of Yokohama University and Hideo Kojima of

Ibaragi, who were very helpful in the data collection; and

Melvin Kohn, who gave us a very helpful critique.

of husbands' and wives' occupational condi-

tions contribute to the acceptance of societal

norms about how women should behave?

With the exception of wives of small urban

(shitamachi) shopkeepers, Japanese women

traditionally have not been employed after

marriage. In recent years, however, the

proportion of Japanese wives in the work

force has increased dramatically (National

Institute of Employment and Vocational

Research 1989). We shall examine whether

there are social and psychological characteris-

tics that distinguish wives who work for pay

from those who do not.

The consequences of the trend toward paid

employment among Japanese women are

interesting in themselves for what they tell us

about the interaction of culture, gender, and

social structure in Japan. They also provide a

stringent test of the generalizability of earlier

findings by affording the opportunity to see

whether social structurally determined occu-

pational conditions have the same psycholog-

ical effects on Japanese women-persons for

whom paid employment is not traditional-as

on those for whom such employment is an

accepted tradition. The particular psychologi-

cal effects of occupational conditions whose

generalizability we investigate are those

which were found among men in the United

States and were replicated for Polish and

Japanese men: Substantively complex self-

100



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PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF OCCUPATIONAL CONDITIONS 101

directed work characteristic of the more

advantaged social strata leads to intellectual

flexibility and to a self-directed orientation to

self and society (Kohn, A. Naoi, Schoen-

bach, Schooler and Slomczynski 1990), Kohn

and Schooler 1983; J. Miller, Slomczynski,

and Kohn 1985; A. Naoi and Schooler 1985;

Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a; Slomczynski, J.

Miller, and Kohn 1981).

It is noteworthy that even among Japanese

men, whose cultural setting does not particu-

larly emphasize individual autonomy or

psychological self-directedness (A. Naoi and

Schooler 1985, Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a),

self-directed occupational conditions lead to a

self-directed orientation to self and society, as

well as to increased intellectual flexibility. It

would, however, strengthen substantially the

case that social structurally determined differ-

ences in conditions of daily life affect

psychological functioning, if it were found

that occupational conditions affect Japanese

women's psychological functioning similarly,

despite self-directed values running counter to

that society's traditional norms for women's

roles and demeanor.

Until now, all of the empirical findings

about the psychological effects of occupa-

tional conditions and culture in Japan have

been based on men. In the United States,

occupational conditions have been shown to

have the same effects on employed women as

on employed men. J. Miller, Schooler, Kohn,

and K. A. Miller (1979) found that occupa-

tional self-direction increases intellectual flex-

ibility and self-directed orientations of em-

ployed women as well as of employed men.'

1 Moreover, an analysis of the effects of dimensions of

household work on American women shows that

substantively complex housework increases the intellec-

tual flexibility and the self-directedness of orientation

among American women in the same ways as does

substantively complex work done for pay (Schooler et al.

1983; Schooler et al. 1984). In analyzing the data for

Japanese wives, just as in the case of American women,

we cannot consider the conditions of housework as

alternatives to those of paid employment, to be

substituted into our analyses as conditions of work for

women who are not employed. Not only are the codes for

the two types of work conditions different; in addition,

some of the conditions of paid employment (e.g.,

bureaucratization) have no analogs in the household

situation. In addition, employed women also do house-

work; thus they would have two sets of scores, whereas

the housewives would have only one. Following the

general scheme of analysis used with the U.S. data, we

plan a further paper on the psychological effects of

housework itself that will include both the employed and

The question remains whether the similarity

found in the United States between the effects

of occupational conditions on men and on

women also exists in Japan.

Women's and men's roles overlap less in

Japanese culture than in American culture.

Furthermore, the difference between Japa-

nese and American women's culturally pre-

scribed roles is even greater than that between

the roles of Japanese and American men.

Self-directedness, for example, is valued even

less for Japanese women than for Japanese

men (Ackroyd 1959; Lebra 1984; Schooler

and Smith 1978).

There is evidence that some social back-

ground conditions which increase individual-

istic, self-directed orientations of women in

the United States (Schooler 1972, 1984) have

similar effects on Japanese women. Such

evidence comes from a study of the effects of

social structure and culture on Japanese

women's attitudes towards their roles as

mothers and wives and on their performance

of those roles (Schooler and Smith 1978;

Smith and Schooler 1978). Just as in the

United States, where such conditions lead to

individualistic values (Schooler 1972, 1984),

social structural conditions that are linked to

being raised in a complex environment, such

as coming from urban settings, having fathers

with high-status occupations, and being well

educated, lead Japanese women to emphasize

the importance of the individual in their views

of the roles of wife and mother. In terms of

values for their children, women from such

backgrounds tend to value behavior reflecting

self-direction rather than conformity to exter-

nal standards.

Despite the cross-national similarities in the

effects of some socioenvironmental condi-

tions on women, striking cultural differences

exist in the way women carry out their roles.

Husband-wife (Schooler and Smith 1978) and

mother-child (Smith and Schooler 1978)

relationships are a case in point. In compari-

son with women in the United States,

Japanese women regard the couple relation-

ship as much less important than the mother-

child relationship.

In the present study we test whether social

structurally determined occupational condi-

tions have the same psychological effects on

Japanese women as on other relevant popula-

the unemployed wives in our sample and will take into

account the fact of employment.



4/18

102 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QUARTERLY

tions (i.e., Japanese men and American

women). More precisely, we test whether

occupational self-direction increases Japanese

women's intellectual flexibility and self-

directedness of orientation, just as it increases

the levels of these psychological characteris-

tics for Japanese, Polish, and American men

and for American women. We also test

whether oppressive working conditions lead

to distress. There is suggestive evidence that

such a relationship exists among American

women (J. Miller et al., 1979). The evidence

for men is more substantial; linear structural

equation analyses of reciprocal effects show

that oppressive working conditions lead to

distress and anxiety among American men

(Kohn and Schooler 1982) and Japanese men

(A. Naoi and Schooler 1985). In a further test

of how traditional Japanese culture may affect

Japanese working women, we examine

whether the finding of higher levels of

traditional values among workers in tradi-

tional (as compared to modem) industries

holds true for Japanese women, as it does for

men (Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a).

Our analyses go well beyond replication to

investigate how the whole range of occupa-

tional conditions affects an area of traditional

values whose occupational determinants have

not been examined previously: attitudes

towards living with and taking care of one's

elderly parents and towards living with and

being cared for by one's children when one is

older. The care and living arrangements of

elderly parents are particularly important

issues to Japanese wives, because the burden

of both caring for the elderly and of resolving

intergenerational disputes about household

matters probably would fall more on them

than on their husbands. Such burdens may

weigh particularly heavily on the already

complicated lives of working wives, for

whom the value of the household help that

elderly parents might provide may be less

than the added work and the potential for

interpersonal conflict that the presence of

elders in the household would bring.

Our hypothesis is that women who work in

traditional Japanese industries will tend to

have traditional values, just as they tend to

develop traditional orientations in other realms

(Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a). Thus women

working in traditional industries should ex-

pect to accept the responsibility of caring for

their parents in their own homes and also

should expect to be cared for similarly by

their own children. We also hypothesize that

occupational conditions which foster a self-

directed orientation should decrease the like-

lihood that traditional values will be main-

tained, and should increase the importance

that workers attach to autonomy and indepen-

dence in family relationships. As a result, the

experience of occupational self-direction

should reduce the belief that it is appropriate

to take one's elderly parents into one's own

home; this experience also should reduce the

feeling that one will want to live with one's

own children during one's own old age.

Finally we will examine the nature of the

differences between the work done by em-

ployed Japanese women and by their hus-

bands. The purpose of this analysis will be

not so much to document the well-known sex

discrimination in matters of promotion and

tenure as to explore the implications of

perhaps a more subtle form of discrimination:

namely, the differential effects of Japanese

men's and women's respective occupational

conditions on their psychological develop-

ment.

SAMPLE

Data for the analyses reported here were

gathered from the 246 working (20 hours or

more per week) wives of the employed men

interviewed in the A. Naoi and Schooler

study (1985). The men's sample of 629

subjects, drawn in 1979-1980 through ran-

dom probability sampling of employed males

26 to 65 years old in the Kanto plain of Japan,

represented a 74.6 percent completion rate of

the original sample. When the women's

survey was begun in 1983, 521 of these men

were married and still lived in the Kanto area

with their wives. Of the 418 wives who were

interviewed (80.2%), 246 (59%) were work-

ing. Although this procedure does not provide

an absolutely representative sample of all

Japanese working wives, it corresponds to the

method used by J. Miller et al. (1979) to

select a sample of working women in the

Kohn and Schooler (1983) studies in the

United States.

As in this earlier American study, one may

question the appropriateness of such a sam-

ple; our findings may not be generalizable to

unmarried employed Japanese women. Nev-

ertheless, because the great majority of

Japanese women marry and stay married, and

because the age of marriage is remarkably



5/18


uniform, our findings probably are applicable

to nearly all Japanese working women above

28 years of age.2 In any case, married women

are an appropriate population on which to test

the hypothesis that sex-role differences do not

alter the effects of occupational conditions on

psychological functioning, because employed

wives are especially likely to be subject to

actual and potential conflicts among occupa-

tional, conjugal, and maternal roles (Miller et

al. 1979).

The interview consists primarily of ques-

tions from the original American survey,

translated and used for Japanese men by A.

Naoi and Schooler. (For more detail about the

procedures see A. Naoi and Schooler 1985.)

Additional questions were of two types. One

set centered on housework and child rearing.

These questions also were based on questions

from Kohn and Schooler (1983), which were

translated and pretested for appropriateness in

Japan. The other set of questions pertained to

care of the elderly, and were developed by the

staff of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of

Gerontology.

Interviewing was carried out by trained

undergraduate and graduate students of Tokyo,

Yokohama, Ibaragi, and Chiba National

Universities and Tsuda Women's College.

MEASURES

Occupational Conditions

The occupational conditions in the model

include substantive complexity, closeness of

supervision, and routinization of work, which

are constituents of a single concept: occupa-

tional self-direction, and bureaucratization.

Information about the occupational conditions

of earlier jobs was acquired through retrospec-

tive questioning.

Substantive complexity of work is defined

as the degree to which performance of the

work requires thought and independent judg-

ment. This index is based on seven measures

(see Table 1) derived from a detailed inquiry

2 For Japanese women who married in 1985 the

average age of marriage was 25.4 years. The average age

of marriage for our sample is 24; 91 percent of the sample

was married by age 28. The divorce rate in Japan

(number of divorces per 1000 people) was 1.39 in 1985.

Of the 544 men in our original sample who were married

in 1979-1980, 12 (2%) were divorced by 1983.

about precisely what people do when working

with data, with things, and with people.

Closeness of supervision is a condition that

limits a worker's occupational self-direction.

This variable is measured by the worker's

assessment of how closely she is supervised,

her freedom to disagree with her supervisor,

and the extent to which her supervisor gives

her direct orders. (For earlier jobs, we

obtained only the last of these measures.)

Routinization, which limits occupational self-

direction by restricting possibilities for initia-

tive, thought, and judgment, is measured by

the respondent's rating of her job along a

single dimension that ranges from being

invariably repetitive to being unpredictable

and requiring different things to be done in

different ways.

We developed the measures of occupa-

tional self-direction through latent variable

linear structural equation modeling (Joreskog

and Sorbom 1976a, 1976b), using the MILS

program developed by Ronald Schoenberg.

Because the three principal determinants of

occupational self-direction-substantive com-

plexity, closeness of supervision, and routini-

zation-are theoretically interrelated, they are

modeled as indicators of a single second-

order factor, namely occupational self-

direction.

The measurement model is presented in

Table 1. It contains one problematic aspect:

although closeness of supervision is a power-

ful indicator of the occupational self-direction

of the earlier job, it is not a meaningful

indicator of current occupational self-

direction. Nevertheless, the model as it stands

seems a reasonable measure of occupational

self-direction; the overall fit to the data, based

on a chi-square per degree of freedom ratio, is

good (3.38). The values obtained through this

measurement model were fixed in the subse-

quent causal analyses.

The only measure of women's organiza-

tional position included in our final models is

the bureaucratization of the firm or organiza-

tion in which they were employed. This

position is indexed on the basis of the number

of formal levels of supervision and the size of

the organization (see Kohn 1971; Kohn and

Schooler 1983, Chapter 2).

Traditionalism of Industry

An industry's traditionalism is measured on

a three-point scale developed in conjunction



6/18


Table 1. Measurement Model of Occupoational Self-Direction

Standardized path from

oncept/ndcators concept to ndcators*

First-Order Concepts:

1. Substantive complexity of current job

ours wth things . .............................................................. -.38

Hurs wthdta . 46

Hours wth people ............................................................... .36

Complexity of work with things .................................................... .39

Complexity of work wth data ............ ......................................... .79

Complexity of work wth people ........... ........................................ .72

verall complexity . ............................................................. .98

2. Closeness of supervision (current job)

Coseness of supervision .......................................................... .59

reedomto disagree . ............................................................ -.63

Boss tells R what to do ........................................................... .69

3. Routinization (current job)

Does same thng in same wy ............ ......................................... 100

4. Substantive complexity of earlier job

Hours wth things . .............................................................. -.55

Hours wth data ................................................................. .51

Hours wth people ............................................................... .32

Complexity of work with things .................................................... .67

Complexity of work wth data ............ ......................................... .94

Complexity of work wth people .......... ......................................... .48

5. Closeness of supervision (earlier job)

oss tells R what to do ........................................................... 100

6. Routinization (earlier job)

Does same thing in same wy ........... .......................................... 100

Second-Order Concepts:

1. Occupational self-direction (current job)

ubstantive complexity ........................................................... .39

oseness of supervision .......................................................... .05

Routinization . .................................................................. -.45

2. Occupational self-direction (earlier job)

ubstantive complexity ........................................................... .51

Coseness of supervision .......................................................... -.59

Routinization . .................................................................. -.35

* Chi-square = 459.60, df = 136, ratio = 3.30.

Note: Correlations of residuals are not shown. Those modeled include matching pairs of indicators for current and

for earlier jobs as well as some pairs of intratime indicators, chosen on the basis of first-order partial derivatives.

with Ken'Ichi Tominaga of the University of

Tokyo (Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a).

Industries included in the Japanese Industrial

Code are rated as most traditional if they

manufacture products or provide services that

existed in Japan during the Tokugawa era,

before the Meiji restoration in 1868. Indus-

tries are rated as least traditional if they

manufacture products or provide services that

did not exist in the pre-Meiji era. Industries

are rated as intermediate if they provide

products and services of both the pre- and

post-Meiji eras. (The complete index is

presented in Schooler and A. Naoi 1988b.)

Psychological Functioning

Our measures of psychological functioning

are based on confirmatory factor analytic

measurement models that parallel the models

developed by A. Naoi and Schooler (1985)

for Japanese men (fully described in that

paper and the appendix available from its

authors). These psychological variables are

intellectual flexibility (Appendix IA) and

seven facets of orientation to self and to

others: 1) authoritarian conservatism, 2)

personally responsible standards of morality,

3) self-confidence, 4) self-deprecation, 5)

idea-conformity, 6) anxiety, and 7) trust (see

Appendix IB). (Unlike the measures of job

conditions, for which we have ratings for both

current and earlier jobs, we have measures

only for current psychological functioning.)

The measure of intellectual flexibility is

based on four indicators: 1) the respondents'



7/18


solutions to a seemingly simple but revealing

cognitive problem involving a well-known

issue, 2) their performance on a portion of the

Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Dyk, Fater-

man, Goodenough, and Karp 1962), 3) their

propensity to agree when asked agree-

disagree questions, and 4) the impressions

they made on the interviewers during a long

session that required a great deal of thought

and reflection. The Japanese women's model

fits the data quite well and is presented in

Appendix IA.

The seven measures of social orientations

and self-conceptions are based on a battery of

57 questions, mainly of the agree-disagree

and how often type. Principal-components

factor analysis was initially used to examine

the factor structure and to establish its general

similarity to that found for the Japanese men.

Confirmatory factor analysis was then used to

develop measures of self-conceptions and

orientation purged of measurement error. The

resultant measures fit the data quite well and

are presented in Appendix IB.

Attempting to deal with all seven facets of

self-conception and social orientation is

unwieldy. Therefore we proceeded to perform

a second-order confirmatory factor analysis

based on the hypothesis already confirmed for

Japanese, Polish, and American men (Kohn

et al. 1990, Kohn and Schooler 1983) and for

American women (Schooler, J. Miller, K. A.

Miller and Richtand 1984). According to this

hypothesis there are two principal underlying

dimensions: self-directedness versus confor-

mity to external authority, and a sense of

distress versus a sense of well-being. The

results of this analysis (presented in Appendix

IC) show that the same two dimensions

underlie the self-conceptions and social orien-

tations of Japanese wives. Therefore we used

these second-order dimensions in the present

investigation.

Attitudes towards the Elderly

These measures are based on a set of 13

items that literally ask what the respondents

think about having elderly parents live with

them, as well as about living with their own

children when they themselves are older. An

extensive series of exploratory and confirma-

tory factor analyses showed that this complex

of attitudes could best be described in terms

of four factors (the individual items and the

final models are presented in Appendix II).

These four factors are 1) general belief that

living with elderly parents is good (parents-

general), 2) belief that one should not live

with one's parents if this leads to problems

(parents-problem), 3) willingness to take in

parents if they are ill (parents-ill), and 4)

desire to live with one's own children when

one is older (respondent with children). The

first three of these factors can be made into a

second-order factor measuring willingness to

live with and care for elderly parents; this

factor fits the data well (see Appendix II).

WHICH JAPANESE WIVES WORK?

Before examining how the conditions of

paid employment affect Japanese women, we

look to see which Japanese wives go to work.

We do so by using multiple regression

analysis to determine which background and

family conditions distinguish wives in our

sample who work for pay from those who do

not. The predictors of paid employment that

we include in our equation are age less than

35, age 55 or more (age 35-54 is the omitted

category), respondent's education, urbanness

of background, father's education, father's

occupational status, traditionalism of hus-

band's industry, peripherality of the sector of

the economy in which the husband works

(Schooler and A. Naoi 1988a), husband's

income from job, and husband's educational

and occupational status. Of these variables,

only age 55 or more (Beta= -.24), age less

than 35 (Beta= - 15), urban background

(Beta = - .16), husband's education (Beta =

- . 13), and peripherality of husband's sector

of the economy (Beta= .23) have significant

independent effects on whether women work

for pay. Women who work tend to be in their

middle years, to come from rural settings, and

to have husbands who are less well educated

and who work in the economic periphery.

Thus the wives of classic salary men would

not seem to be among those most likely to

work.

Further analyses revealed no significant

independent relationships between the wives'

working and the psychological variables we

examine in this paper. When these variables

are included together with the social variables

that we found to be significant predictors of

working, none of the psychological variables

had a significant Beta weight. Thus the

probability of a wife's working is affected

neither by her psychological functioning, nor



8/18


her educational attainment or her husband's

income level. Instead, the primary determi-

nants of whether a Japanese wife works for

pay are her stage of life, whether she comes

from a rural background, and the peripheral-

ity of her husband's occupation in the

Japanese economic structure.

MODELING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL

EFFECTS OF OCCUPATIONAL CONDITIONS

AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING

Any causal model that includes an exami-

nation of the psychological effects of occupa-

tional conditions must take into account the

possibility of reciprocal effects of various job

conditions and psychological functioning. We

cannot rule out on a priori grounds the

possibility that an individual's personality

affects her job through processes such as

occupational selection or job molding. Fur-

thermore, there is empirical evidence that in

both the United States and Japan, not only do

job conditions affect personality; personality

also affects job conditions (Kohn and Schooler

1982, 1983, Chapter 6; A. Naoi and Schooler

1985; Schooler and A. Naoi 1988b). There-

fore, we should test our hypotheses with

models that include the reciprocal effects of

occupational conditions and psychological

functioning.

We estimate these models involving recip-

rocal causation through latent variable linear

structural equation modeling (Joreskog and

Sorbom 1976a, 1976b), using the MILS

program developed by Ronald Schoenberg.

The general model for the analyses is

presented in Figure 1. To gain instrumenta-

tion for the path from psychological function-

ing to the occupational self-directedness of

the present job, we postulate that characteris-

tics of the individual's family of origin affect

directly the individual's present psychological

functioning and the occupational characteris-

tics of her earlier job, but not of her present

job. Such a restriction is consonant with

previous research findings, which show that

in Japan the direct effects of social back-

ground indeed are limited to the first job (A.

Naoi 1980). We obtain instrumentation for

the reciprocal path from occupational self-

directedness of the present job to psychologi-

cal functioning by postulating that early

occupational self-direction directly affects

CURRENT

BACKGROUND EARLER JOB PSYCHOLOGCAL

CHARACTERISTICS JOB CONDITIONS CONDITIONS FUNCTIONING

oc c n3-=UES

oa Bkgounh

L = ~ ~ ~ 1 I D >

L_L4 L4

, ofChdreninC/X

~~ .2

>) ism off//) ismf.

Social Backgroundc

-U

Occupational Occupationial c

Sef-Sef-

Educationdrectiondrection0

C D

-n

C-

Urban Childhood Bureaucracy Bureaucracy -l

of Children in

Family of Origin Traditional- Traditional-

smofsmofL

Industry Industry

A ge

Figure 1. Reciprocal Effects Model



9/18


later occupational self-direction but not later

psychological functioning.

The background characteristics in the

analyses include mother's education, father's

education, and father's occupational status;

because of their very high intercorrelations,

these three items are modeled as a single

construct, namely parental background. The

other characteristics are respondent's age,

education, urban background, and number of

children in family of origin. Age is postulated

to affect psychological functioning and condi-

tions of both current and earlier job. All other

conditions are postulated to affect directly

current psychological functioning and the

conditions of the earlier job, but to affect the

conditions of the present job only indirectly.

The occupational conditions in the model

are occupational self-direction, bureaucratiza-

tion, and traditionality of the occupational

setting of the present and the earlier job. The

occupational conditions of the current job, as

well as the traditionality of the industry of the

current job, are modeled as affecting psycho-

logical functioning contemporaneously, but

psychological functioning is modeled as

affecting only occupational self-direction.

This latter limitation occurs because by

definition a change in job setting would mean

a change in job (Kohn and Schooler 1982). In

the modeling of present and of past job

conditions, however, both bureaucratization

and traditionality of industry affect occupa-

tional self-direction.3

RESULTS

What do our models reveal about the

3With certain exceptions, these models are generally

similar to those used by Schooler and A. Naoi in their

examination of the psychological effects of occupational

conditions and job settings on Japanese men (1988a,

1988b). For women, data were available on two

jobs-the present and the previous jobs-whereas the

Schooler and A. Naoi model for men includes data on

three jobs-present job, job held 10 years ago, and first

job. Four other variables that were included in the

Schooler and A. Naoi model of Japanese men could not

be included in the model of Japanese women. Data on

sector of the economy were not available for the women's

jobs; ownership and hierarchical position could not be

included because too few Japanese women were owners

or held supervisory positions to provide a statistical

distribution that could be modeled appropriately. Finally,

we omitted time pressure from the women's models.

Although we tried various alternative models, we could

not include time pressure successfully in the women's

models of reciprocal effects, possibly because we lacked

the extra identification provided in the men's model by

information about a third job.

effects of social structurally determined envi-

ronmental conditions on Japanese working

women? We begin by describing how such

conditions affect three important aspects of

their psychological functioning: intellectual

flexibility, self-directedness of orientation,

and level of distress. Then we examine how

those conditions affect the traditionalism of

their attitudes towards caring for elderly

parents and towards living with their children

in their own old age.

Intellectual Flexibility

The first thing we note when we examine

our model of the reciprocal effects of

occupational self-direction and intellectual

flexibility (see Table 2A), is that, while the

path from occupational self-direction to intel-

lectual flexibility is positive (.45), as pre-

dicted, and significant (t = 3.66), the recipro-

cal path from intellectual flexibility to

occupational self-direction is negative (-.20)

and not significant (t = 0.94). Such a pattern

is strongly indicative of multicollinearity

(Farrar and Glauber 1967; Gordon 1968;

Kohn and Schooler 1978, 1983).

Since multicollinearity may inflate path

coefficients artifactually, a more conservative

assessment of the effect of occupational

self-direction on intellectual flexibility may

be obtained by fixing at zero the statistically

nonsignificant contemporaneous path from

intellectual flexibility to occupational self-

direction.4 In such a nonreciprocal model, the

path from occupational self-direction to intel-

lectual flexibility drops to .40 but remains

highly significant (t = 3.45). The other

significant path to intellectual flexibility in

this model shows that higher educational level

increases intellectual flexibility directly (.27).

Whereas education increases intellectual flex-

ibility directly, other background characteris-

tics, such as parental socioeconomic back-

ground, may influence intellectual flexibility

indirectly by affecting education and occupa-

tional self-direction. Nevertheless, among the

potentially relevant variables we have mod-

eled, occupational self-direction has by far

the greatest direct effect on Japanese wom-

en's intellectual flexibility.

4 On this and all subsequent occasions, when we omit

a reciprocal path, the path that is omitted in our revised

models will be nonsignificant and the estimate of the

other will be exaggerated.



10/18


Table 2. One-way and Reciprocal Effects of Occupational Self-Direction and Psychological Functioning

Standardized Path Coefficients

Reciprocal Modeling Nonreciprocal Modeling

Occupational Psychological Occupational

Self-Direction Functioning Self-Direction Distress

t t t t

Psychological Occupational Psychological Occupational

Functioning Self-Direction Functioning Self-Direction

A. Psychological Functioning

1 Ideational fexibility.45* -.20.40*

2. Self-directedness of orientation .44* -.18 .32*

3 Dstress-2035 24

B. Attitudes toward Parents and

Children Living Together

1 Respondent andparents together-29*

2 Respondent wth children-.22 t= 184)

* =p


11/18


The one occupational condition that signif-

icantly affects Japanese working wives' sense

of distress is working in a bureaucratic

setting. The path from bureaucracy to distress

is .16 (t = 2.41). This finding-that Japanese

women who work in a bureaucratic setting

tend to become more distressed than other

women-is contrary to earlier findings for

Japanese men. Japanese men who work in

bureaucracies are more self-confident and less

anxious than those who do not (A. Naoi and

Schooler 1985; Schooler and A. Naoi 1988b);

both of these psychological characteristics

indicate an absence of distress. This differ-

ence between the sexes may well reflect the

different positions they hold in bureaucratic

Japanese businesses. In such businesses,

women generally are not fully accepted;

rather they are seen as short-term employees

who are ineligible to embark on the career

promotion ladders available to men or to

receive many of the benefits that the compa-

nies offer.

Being young is the final significant deter-

minant of distress in our model. The path

from age to distress is - .19 (t= 2.89). This

finding for Japanese working wives is similar

to that for their husbands, among whom the

younger also are more anxious than the older

(A. Naoi and Schooler 1985). Finally,

Japanese wives who hold traditional jobs tend

to feel less distressed than other women

(-.12; t= 1.81 p< .075), although this

finding does not reach the .05 level of

significance when a two-tailed probability test

is used. This result is consonant with the

significant effect of traditional jobs on

distress among their husbands (Schooler and

A. Naoi 1988b). Such findings accord with

both Durkheim's and Marx's beliefs that

modem industry leads to anomie and alien-

ation.

Traditional Values towards the Elderly

It seems unlikely that a woman's attitudes

towards responsibilities for the older genera-

tion would affect her level of occupational

self-direction, once she has entered the work

force. Thus we assumed that the causal

direction would be from occupational self-

direction to values towards the elderly.

Accordingly we modified the model presented

in Figure 1 by eliminating the reciprocal path

from the psychological variable to occupa-

tional self-direction.

When we test such models (see Table 2B),

the path from occupational self-direction to

our second-order factor measuring willing-

ness to care for elderly parents in one's home

is significant; the path from occupational

self-direction to wanting to live with one's

children when one is older is negative and

very close to significant (t = 1.84). Thus we

confirm our hypothesis that the self-directed

orientation resulting from doing self-directed

work would decrease people's willingness to

tolerate the constraints involved in living with

the older generation.

We also find support for our hypothesis

that working in a traditional industry in-

creases the traditionalism of family attitudes.

Although traditionalism of industry is not

related significantly to the second-order

measure of traditionalism of attitude towards

care of elderly parents, it is related signifi-

cantly to two of the component factors.

Working in a traditional industry increases

Japanese women's willingness to take elderly

parents into their homes, both if the parents

were sick (.15) and if doing so would cause

problems (.17). In addition, women working

in traditional industries are significantly more

likely than those working in nontraditional

industries to want to live with their own

children when they themselves are elderly

(.15). These findings-that Japanese women

working in traditional industries retain tradi-

tional attitudes towards the elderly-are

congruent with earlier findings for Japanese

men (Schooler and A. Naoi 1988b). Those

earlier findings show that Japanese men who

work in traditional industries tend to be

traditional in their orientations and values.

When we look at the effects of the other

variables in our model, we see that coming

from a high-social-status background de-

creases directly the acceptability of older and

younger generations of adults living together.

This finding is reflected both in a decreased

willingness to take elderly parents into one's

home, as measured by the second-order factor

(- .19), and in a decreased desire to live with

one's own children when one is older

(respondents with children= -.19).

Working in a bureaucracy is another

occupational variable that affects attitudes

towards the elderly. Such a work setting leads

to less willingness to take elderly parents into

one's home (- .34) and to less desire to live

with one's own children during one's own old

age (- .16). One possible explanation is that



12/18


bureaucracies may be less likely to permit the

flexible work arrangements that sometimes

are needed to care for the elderly at home.

The findings also can be explained by the

hypothesis that working in a bureaucratic

setting leads to a more general bureaucratic

view of life, in which problems are solved

through bureaucratic rather than personal

arrangements. If this is so, working in a

bureaucracy should lead individuals to believe

that impersonal agencies rather than families

should bear the responsibility for care of the

aged.

Another finding seems more puzzling:

Women from large families are less likely to

want to live with their children during their

own old age than are those from smaller

families (-.12). One possible explanation is

that such women are tired of the interpersonal

complexities that can arise in large house-

holds and thus would rather stay by them-

selves than become involved again in their old

age in potentially complicated family situa-

tions.

In our evaluation of the meaning of these

results, the type of analysis employed (see

Figure 1) searches for and controls statisti-

cally the effects of several other potentially

relevant background variables. Thus although

respondent's age, education, and urban back-

ground have no significant direct effects on

attitudes towards the elderly, these variables

are controlled statistically, so that the findings

we report take their effects into account.

Therefore the differences in traditionality of

attitudes between respondents working in

self-directed and in nonself-directed jobs, or

between respondents working in nontradi-

tional and in traditional industries, are not due

to differences in characteristics such as the

age of these different groups.

Husband's birth rank is another possible

cause of differences in attitudes towards

caring for elderly parents in one's home.

According to the traditional Japanese ie

family system, the oldest son not only inherits

the major share of his parents' wealth but also

the responsibility of caring for them in their

old age. Consequently it might be expected

that women who are married to first-born sons

would feel a special obligation to care for

their husbands' parents.

There is some evidence that in the past,

husband's birth rank may have affected the

likelihood of living with the husband's

parents, but that the pattern has changed. M.

Naoi, Okamura and Hayashi (1984), in

examining the actual patterns in which elderly

parents lived with their children, found more

women whose husbands were first-born

among respondents whose parents had lived

with them but then had died. Among those

living with their elderly parents at the time of

the interview in 1983, however, husband's

birth rank did not affect the likelihood of such

living arrangements. In this group the major

demographic predictor of living with one's

parents is whether the parents own a home

that provides comfortable accommodation for

the children.

We also modified the present analyses to

check whether the husband's birth rank

affects the wife's attitude about caring for

elderly parents. We did so by adding to the

model presented in Figure 1 a new variable-

whether the husband was first-born-and

estimating the path from that variable to

traditional attitudes towards living with the

elderly. Both for attitudes about living with

elderly parents or about living with ones

children, such a path, which serves as a

control for the effects of husband s birth rank,

was not significant and did not affect the

other values in the model.5

DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL

CONDITIONS

Having shown that occupational conditions

affect the psychological functioning of Japa-

nese wives in ways not too dissimilar to those

in which their husbands are affected, we now

examine the differences between the occupa-

tional conditions to which working wives and

their husbands are exposed to learn whether

such differences in themselves may have

sociocultural consequences. Table 3 presents

a comparison of Japanese working wives and

their husbands on the mean levels of various

occupational dimensions included in our

models. Because there can be some difficul-

ties in comparing mean levels of multiple-

indicator concepts when the item loadings on

the factors are somewhat different in the two

populations involved, we compare directly

S We also tried to develop confirmatory factor analysis

models based on the possibility that attitudes towards

one's husband's parents were different from attitudes

towards one's own parents. After a long series of

attempts, however, we were forced to conclude that such

a hypothesis was not supported by any well-fitting

confirmatory models.



13/18


Table 3. Means and Differences of Means for Husbands' and Wives' Work Conditions

eans Difference

ofSignfcance

Wves Husbands Means t-Value Level

A. Complexity of Work

1 Comlexityofdata 256 309 -053 424 .0001

2 Comlexityofthings 358 490- 132 9.07 .0001

3 Comlexityofpeople 333 426 -093 525 .001

4 Overall comlexity268 456 -187 2063 .0001

B. Closeness of Supervision

1. Not free to disagree wth boss 2.51 2.13 0.39 2.22 .029

2 Closelysupervised276 236 040252 .013

3 Boss tells what todo192 167 024 209 .040

C. Routinization

Nonvariable, easily predictible work 4.66 4.31 0.35 4.99 .0001

D. Hierarchical Position

Numerofsubordnates 113 236 - 124 1109 0001

E. Working in Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy index (including owners) 1.91 2.31 -0.40 3.50 .001

F. Pressures

1. Held responsible for things outside

ones contro 184 223 -039 514 0001

2 Frequencyoftim pressure 324 355 -031 287 004

3 Drtiness 194 223 -029 475 001

4. Riskofloss ofjob 1.41 1.32 009 1.01 ns

G Incom 1 = 10000Yen348 8.17 -467 1456 .0001

Note: Work conditions compared here are those at current job.

the mean levels of the individual items for

husbands and for wives. When we examine

such measures of the conditions of the current

job, we find that in every instance women's

conditions are less favorable than men's.

Thus in terms of the components of occupa-

tional self-direction, Japanese women score

significantly lower than their husbands on

complexity of work with data, things, and

people as well as on overall complexity.

Japanese wives' work also is significantly

more routinized than their husbands', and

they are significantly more likely to be

supervised on each of our three indices of that

concept. In addition, they are less likely than

their husbands to work in large bureaucratic

organizations, the generally preferred work

setting in Japan.6

When we look at the psychological effects

6 Hours of work with things, data, and people also are

part of the model of occupational self-direction; hours of

work with data and with people are positive indicators of

occupational self-direction, and number of hours of work

with things is negative. The Japanese men work longer in

each of these three types of work than do their wives, a

difference reflecting the men's generally longer hours of

employment. This difference in hours of work also may

account for part of the sex difference in pay (unfortu-

nately, we do not have directly comparable measures of

the total number of hours a week worked by the two

sexes). The men earn 2.35 times as much as the women

for perhaps one and one-half times as many hours.

of such work conditions on women, we find

that working in a bureaucracy has a moderate

negative effect on intellectual flexibility, but

that self-directed work has a strong positive

effect (.41). Thus the nature of their work

puts Japanese women in a less advantaged

position than that of their husbands in terms

of developing such flexibility. Working in a

bureaucracy has a nonsignificant effect on

self-directed orientations, but occupational

self-direction has a strong positive effect

(.44). The fact that Japanese women are less

self-directed at work than are their husbands

means that they are less likely to develop

self-directed orientations from their work

experience. Thus we see the possibility of a

feedback loop between cultural expectations

and the development of gender differences in

self-directed orientations. Japanese cultural

norms suggest that even if women work, they

should be in generally subservient, nonself-

directed positions. Occupying such positions

may serve to reduce the self-directedness of

their orientations in comparison to those of

their husbands; thus they become even more

amenable to the culture's norms.

DISCUSSION

In this paper we have examined the effects

of occupational conditions and job settings on

the psychological functioning of Japanese



14/18


women. We have done so partially in the

belief that replication among Japanese women

of the findings for Japanese men-that the

experience of occupational self-direction in-

creases both intellectual flexibility and self-

directedness of orientation-would add sub-

stantially to the robustness and theoretical

implications of those earlier findings. Such a

replication obviously also increases the gener-

alizability of similar findings for Polish men

and for American men and women. Of at

least equal importance is the evidence that our

results provide about the intricacies of the

causal interconnections among the psycholog-

ical, social structural, and cultural levels of

phenomena in which Japanese working wives

are enmeshed.

This web of interconnections extends to the

very question of which Japanese wives work.

Our findings suggest that whether a Japanese

wife goes to work is determined primarily not

by her social background, her educational

attainment, her husband's income, or even

her psychological orientation, but rather by

her stage in the life course, whether she

comes from a rural background, and the

degree to which her husband works in the

periphery of the economy. Socioeconomic

incentive to work is determined not by the

husband's earning power, but by financial

uncertainty and possibly by the actual need

for the wife's labor in small business and

rural settings. Who works and who does not

work seems to be determined strongly by

cultural expectations about what women at

certain stages of their lives and in certain

positions in the socio-economic system are

supposed to do.

Among women who work, our analyses

show that self-directed work in fact increases

intellectual flexibility and self-directedness of

orientation. Thus in a society in which

self-directedness generally is not valued, even

those for whom self-directedness is particu-

larly disvalued provide evidence the Kohn

and Schooler (1983) hypotheses about the

ways in which the psychological effects of

self-directed work generalize beyond the

workplace. In terms of orientation towards

Japanese cultural norms, our findings support

the hypothesis that the experience of occupa-

tional self-direction increases the importance

that Japanese wives place on being self-

directed and independent, while reducing

their adherence to traditional values that

emphasize the importance of family obliga-

tions over individual autonomy.

We also sought to examine whether

findings about the effects on Japanese men of

working in a traditional Japanese industry

(Schooler and A. Naoi 1988b) also hold true

for Japanese women. Here the replication was

only partial. We expected on the basis of both

Marx's and Durkheim's reasoning that Japa-

nese women working in traditional industries

would be more psychologically comfortable

and less distressed than those working in

modem industries, as is the case for Japanese

men (A. Naoi and Schooler 1985). For their

wives, the same trend just misses reaching the

accepted standard for level of statistical

significance. Not even marginally replicated

among the women is the finding for Japanese

men that working in a traditional industry

leads to traditional, nonself-directed psycho-

logical orientations.

On the other hand, we found evidence in

data that were not available for Japanese

men-traditionality of attitudes towards the

care of the elderly-that among Japanese

women, working in a traditional industry

results in traditional ways of thought. Even

when the effects of all other variables in our

model are controlled statistically, women

working in traditional industries have a more

traditional approach to assuming responsibil-

ity for the care of the older generation than do

those working in modem industries. Another

occupational variable that significantly affects

attitudes towards the elderly is working in a

bureaucracy. Here too we see some evidence

of modernization. Working in a bureau-

cratic setting seems to lead to the belief that

caring for the elderly should be done through

bureaucratic means rather than personally by

family members.

Most important, in terms of the effects of

occupational conditions on attitudes towards

the elderly, we were able to confirm our

hypothesis that occupational self-direction

would lead to less traditional attitudes. Our

findings demonstrate that women who are

more self-directed in their jobs are signifi-

cantly less likely to consider caring for elderly

parents. We also find that coming from a

high-status family background makes women

less willing to take their elderly parents into

their homes and also leads them to reject the

idea of living with their children in their own

old age. Coming from a high-status social

background previously was linked empirically



15/18


to a nontraditional, individualistic orientation

among Japanese women (Schooler and Smith

1978; Smith and Schooler 1978). These

findings have several explanations, not neces-

sarily incompatible. One plausible explana-

tion hinges on the fact that being raised in a

high-status family is linked to experiencing

high levels of environmental complexity

during childhood. Such exposure seems to

result in a self-directed orientation among

people in general (Schooler 1972, 1984) and

among Japanese women in particular (Schooler

and Smith 1978). As a consequence, such

childhood experience may lead (as does

self-directed work) to the rejection of tradi-

tional values which emphasize obligations to

others, including the family, at the expense of

the satisfaction of the individual. Another

possibility is that the greater resources

available to higher-status families make

alternative arrangements for the care of the

elderly more viable.

Finally, let us note an unexpected but

probably not artifactual finding: among our

sample of Japanese working wives, distressed

women are more likely to seek out self-

directed jobs or to do their jobs in self-

directed ways than are those who are not

distressed. The reasons underlying this pat-

tern of behavior are obscure. As we have

noted, women with self-directed orientations

are not particularly more likely than other

women to seek self-directed work. Neverthe-

less, women who are distressed because they

are not in tune with Japan's cultural climate

may be more likely to go against cultural

norms by seeking self-directed work.

Just as the effect of a psychological

variable such as distress on an occupational

condition such as self-direction takes place in

the cultural context of Japan, the effects of all

occupational conditions on psychological func-

tioning do not occur in a social vacuum. As

we have seen, the differences between

Japanese women's occupational conditions

and those of their husbands may well

contribute to the continuation of cultural

norms about differences in sex roles. Paid

employment of Japanese women is signifi-

cantly less self-directed than that of Japanese

men. Less self-directed work leads to less

intellectual flexibility and to less self-directed

orientations. It may well be that this occupa-

tionally induced lessening of self-directed

orientation contributes to Japanese women's

apparent acceptance of cultural norms that

keep them in subservient positions.

Taken together, our results portray a

complex pattern of interrelationships among

cultural, socioeconomic, and psychological

levels of phenomena. The likelihood of a

Japanese wife's working seems to be affected

strongly by cultural norms about what is

appropriate for a woman in her stage of the

life course, whose family is in the position

that hers occupies, in terms of its centrality to

the Japanese economic structure. If and when

a Japanese wife works, the occupational

conditions that she experiences-particularly

the level of occupational self-direction-

affect her psychological functioning and

social attitudes in ways generally similar to

those in which similar conditions affect her

husband. Differences between spouses in the

nature of their occupational conditions-

particularly the lower level of occupational

self-direction experienced by women-may

contribute to the perpetuation of cultural

norms that limit the opportunities open to

Japanese women.

Appendix IA.

Measurement Model of Intellectual Flexibility

Standardized

path from

concept to

Concept/Indicators indicators:*

Intellectual Flexibility (chi-square = .74,

df= 1, ratio=.74)

Reasons for/against cigarette ads ......... .23

Embedded Figures Test ........ ........ .64

Propensity to agree .................... -.51

Interviewer's estimate of R's intelligence. . .45

Notes:

1. The model has one correlation of residuals, that

between estimate of intelligence and cigarette ads

(.12).

2. Intellectual flexibility corresponds to the ideational

component of a two-factor model for U.S. men (the

other component is perceptual), which was repli-

cated for Polish and Japanese men and for U.S.

women. Because in all those populations the

ideational component was the only component

whose causal relationships with occupational condi-

tions could be modeled successfully, we replicate

only that factor for Japanese women.



16/18


Appendix IB.

1st-Order Measurement Models of Self-Conception and Social Orientation


oncept/ndcators concept to indcator

1. Authoritarian conservatism

(chi-square = 24.78, df= 22, ratio = 1.13)

The most important thing to teach children is absolute obedience to their parents ......... .64

People who question the old and accepted ways of doing things usually just end up causing

troube ................................................................... .45

In this complicated world, the only way to know what to do is to rely on leaders and experts ....... 47 ...

No decent man can respect a woman who has had sex relations before marriage ......... .33

Prison is too good for sex criminals; they should be publicly whipped or worse .......... .30

Any good leader should be strict with people under him in order to gain their respect ..... .58

It's wrong to do things differently from the way our forefathers did ..... .............. .55

One should always show respect to those in authority ............................... .58

2. Personally responsible criteria of morality

(chi-square= 1.39, df= 1, ratio= 1.39)

It's all right to do anything you want as long as you stay out of trouble ..... ........... -.55

If something works, it doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong ..... ................ -.62

It's all right to get around the law as long as you don't actually break it ................ -.64

Do you believe that it's all right to do whatever the law allows or are there some things

that are wrong even if they are legal? ........ ................................. -.33

Self-esteem two-factor model

(chi-square = 19.74, df = 17, ratio = 1.16)

3. Self-confidence:

I take a positive attitude toward myself ........................................... .54

I feel that I'm a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others ..... ........... .71

I am able to do most things as well as other people can .58

I generally have confidence that when I make plans I will be able to carry them out ...... .34

4. Self-deprecation:

t times I thnk I amno good at all .............. ............................... .56

feel useless at times ......................................................... .54

There are very few things about which I'm absolutely certain ..... ................... .31

(Correlation: self-confidence/self-deprecation) (0.56)

5. Idea-conformity

(chi-square= 1.85, df= 1, ratio = 1.85)

According to your general impression, how often do your ideas and opinions about impor-

tant matters differ from those of your relatives? .................................. -.62

How often do your ideas and opinions differ from those of your friends? ..... .......... -.67

How about from those of other people with your religious background? ..... ........... -.49

Those of most people in the country? ............. ............................... -.43

6. Anxiety (chi-square = 56.25, df= 37, ratio = 1.52)

How often do you feel that you are about to go to pieces? ....... .................... .64

How often do you feel downcast and dejected? ......... ........................... .55

How often do you find yourself anxious and worrying about something? ..... .......... .58

How often do you feel uneasy about something without knowing why? ..... ........... .67

How often do you feel so restless that you cannot sit still? ........................... .35

How often to you find that you can't get rid of some thought or idea that keeps running

through your mnd? ......................................................... .51

How often do you feel bored with everything? ..................................... .68

How often do you feel powerless to get what you want out of life? .................... .50

How often do you feel that the world just isn't very understandable? ..... ............. .34

How often do you feel that there isn't much purpose to being alive? ................... .52

t

Notes:

1. A high score on the indicator generally implies agreement or frequent occurrence; where alternatives are posed,

the first alternative is scored high.

2. In several of the models, some error correlations are allowed, which are not shown in the table.



17/18


Appendix IC.

Second-Order Measurement Model of Self-Conception and Social Orientation


oncept/ndcators concept to indcator

Second-order two-factor model (chi-square = 8.23, df= 6, ratio = 1.37)

Self-directedness (vs. conformity)

Authoritarian conservatism ...................................................... -.48

ersonally responsible criteria of morality ........ ................................. .96

Trustfuness .................................................................. .16

Self-deprecation . .............................................................. -.17

Distress (vs. sense of well-being)

Trustfulness ................................................................... -.25

Self-confidence . .............................................................. -.21

elf-deprecation . .............................................................. .42

Anxiety..................................................................... .96

Idea-conformty ............................................................... .35

Correation sef-drectedorentation/dstress) -11)

Notes:

1. A high score on the indicator generally implies agreement or frequent occurrence; where alternatives are posed,

the first alternative is scored high.

2. In several of the models, some error correlations are allowed, which are not shown in the table.

3. Because the measurement model of trustfulness, shows that this factor can be measured by a single indicator we

use that indicator alone as our index of trust in this second-order model: Do you think most people can be trusted?

Appendix II.

First-Order Measurement Models of Family Traditionalism


oncept/ndcators concept to ndcators*

1. Parents-General: Thinks that it would be a good thing to do to live with parents:

If both of wife's parents were alive ................................................. .55

f one of wfes parents were alive ......... ........................................ .74

If both of husband's parents were alive .............................................. .43

f one of husbands parents were alive ........ ...................................... .66

(Indicators coded: 1 = parents live separately; 2 = parents live with other child; 3 = parents live with

us.)

2. Parents-Problems: Thinks one should live with parents even if:

der parents were jealous ............ ............................................ .70

There is trouble between couple about parents ........................................ .71

Older parents spoil the grandchildren ......... ...................................... .59

der parents are incontinent ........... ........................................... .38

(Indicators coded: 1 = completely disagree; 2 = somewhat disagree; 3 = cannot choose; 4 = somewhat

agree; 5 = completely agree.)

3. Parents-Ill: Thinks that it is a good thing to do to live with parents:

If only one of wife's parents is alive and is ill ........................................ .63

If only one of husband's parents is alive and ill ....................................... .55

(Indicators coded: 1 = parents live separately; 2 = parents live with other child; 3 = parents live with

us.)

4. Respondent with Children: When you are older would you want to live with your own chil-

dren if:

Both husband and wife were alive .................................................. .41

ny one were alive . ............................................................ .96

Only one were alive and were ill ................................................... .50

(Indicators coded: First Question: 1 = live separately; 2= cannot choose; 3= live together; Second

and Third Question s: 1 = live separately; 2 = live with other child; 3 = live with us.)

* chi-square = 317.01, df= 56, ratio = 5.66, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = .999.

Note: Correlations of residuals are not shown in the table.



18/18


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MICHIKO NAOI is Associate Professor at Tokyo Gakugei University. Her research interests include

sociology of aging, family and women's attitudes.

CARMI SCHOOLER is Acting Chief, Laboratory of Socio-Environmental Studies, National Institute of

Mental Health. His research interests include social structural and cultural determinants of both normal

and abnormal adult functioning throughout the life span.

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