Future risk in Japanese parents raising children with special needs

Abstract

This paper examines relationships in married couples raising children with special needs — children requiring medical care, from an economic point of view in the context of parental employment. There is an opinion that the burden of parents with children requiring medical care who are close to being a “handicapped child” is so heavy, that the couple’s relationship can be jeopardized. How does the parents’ employment relate to the burden of parenting and how does it affect the couple’s relationship? The research method is a survey of married couples with children throughout Japan (conducted in 2021). The questionnaire consisted of two parts: with multiple choice questions and open-ended questions. The multiple choice questions dealt with (1) family structure: number of persons in the household including number of children requiring medical care and their age, (2) parental employment, and (3) marital relationship (division of housework and childcare, communication between parents, frequency and reasons for fights). In considering how parents work, terms such as “shared responsibility” for dual-income families and “isolation” and “cooperation” for single-income families were key words in considering sustainable marital relations. The open-ended questions part shows what is necessary for the parents to maintain a sustainable relationship. In this paper we come to the conclusion that one of the reasons for troubles that the parents face is the fact that the definition of the term “children requiring medical care” is too broad. We suggested that this term should be subdivided so that administrative support could be spread widely, and that support should be tailored to the family’s lifestyle (e.g., career and other parental needs).