Sense of coherence in mothers and children, family relationships and participation in decision-making at home: An analysis based on Japanese parentchild pair data

Abstract

Children in early adolescence and their mothers were studied to clarify the association between a childs sense of coherence (SOC) and its mothers SOC, the quality of family relationships as gauged by the mother, and the childs positive life experiences at home. An anonymous self-administered group questionnaire was given to all 1540 students of a high school in Tokyo, and a similar questionnaire was sent by mail to their legal guardians. Responses were received from 1505 students (response rate: 97.7%) and 989 legal guardians (response rate: 64.2%); questionnaires completed by legal guardians who were the mothers of the students were paired with the corresponding childs questionnaire. The SOC scores of mothers and students were calculated, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed with the students SOC as a dependent variable. Results for boys revealed that a mothers SOC was directly related to the childs SOC, regardless of family relationships and participation in decision-making at home. For girls, a mothers SOC was related to family relationships and was indirectly related to the childs SOC through the childs participation in decision-making at home. Results revealed that for both boys and girls, a mothers SOC had an effect on the childs SOC, and this corroborates the hypothesis of Antonovsky. © 2011 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.