Comparison of opinions on pre-school education and developmental expectation between Japanese and American mothers

Abstract

purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare Japanese and American mothers with regard to their opinions about pre-school education and the areas where early development is desired. Subjects: 72 Japanese mothers and 67 white American mothers of various socio-economic groups in each country. All the mothers had 3 years 8 months old child at the time of the first interview. Method: Three kinds of questionnaires were prepared to examine the mothers' opinions on the goals of pre-school education and the roles of home and preschool education in early socialization These questionnaires were administered by interspersing the m among other interview given when their children were three years and eight months old. A kind of card-sorting technique was devised to elicit information about mother's developmental expectations through the mastery of a given task which ought to be achieved by chronological age range. Results: 1. The overall pattern of mothers opinions on the goal of pre-school education was found to be quite similar in both countries. Mothers in the U.S. placed more importance upon the education of independence and social skills. Japanese mothers tended to give somewhat more weight to expressive activities and school-related skills as compared to American mothers. Furthermore, socio-economic class differences were found in both countries. 2. Although the overall level of mother's developmental expectation was almost the same in the two countries, there were differences on several clusters: the Japanese mothers emphasized compliance, emotional maturity and independence, and the U.S. mothers emphasized verbal assertiveness (expressiveness) and social skills. There were socio-economic differences among the Japanese mothers; the mothers with the higher education tended to expect earlier development of their children. 3. The mothers' views of the allocation of socialization responsibility were roughly similar in the two countries. The greatest discrepancy between the two countries was found in the opinions on the responsibility for training social skills. Among Japanese mothers, socio-economic class differences were found; the mothers of the new middle class (white-collar group with higher education in urban area) tended to put emphasize on their own responsibility in socialization. 4. The greatest national difference was found in the mothers' opinions about four sources (parents' help, teachers' help, child's natural ability, luck) that contributed to the success of the child in school. The U.S. mothers assigned more importance to parental assistance than did the Japanese mothers, while Japanese mothers attributed more importance to the child's natural ability and luck than did their counterparts in the U.S. These results indicate that the sense of effectiveness that parents have with regard to their influence on child's performance is considerably different between the U.S. mothers and the Japanese mothers. Among Japanese mothers, responses on this questionnaire correlate with the opinions on mother's responsibility in socialization: the mothers who emphasize their own responsibility put more importance to parental help and encouragement. This study was conducted as a part of a cross-cultural project “The cross cultural study on the influence of socializing agents upon cognitive functioning, communication styles and educability of pre-school children in Japan and the U.S.” headed in the U.S. by Dr. R.D. Hess, Stanford University, and in Japan by Dr. H. Azuma, the University of Tokyo. We are indebted to our colleague, Dr. R.D. Hess for the collection and analysis of the data in the U.S., and for his precious suggestions during research conferences. © 1977, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.