Contact with parents in Japan: effects on opinions toward gender and intergenerational roles

In this study, we examine the extent to which contact with husband's and wife's parents affects opinions held by adults on such issues as gender roles, intergenerational relations, and socialization goals. We expect parents to be a conservative segment of society, and that increased parental contact should lead to their adult children having more traditional opinions. The context is contemporary Japan, a society with substantial variation in the amount of contact adults have with their own and their spouse's parents. The data set is an April 1988 national survey on family issues. A variety of opinion items are examined. The effect of living with parents, a form of the most frequent contact across the generations, is clear and expected. But for those not residing with parents, frequency of contact has at best a minimal effect on current opinions. Our results suggest that pressure for future change in Japan will come from young adults, women, and the better educated.