SACRED OR SELFISH? A SURVEY ON PARENTAL IMAGES OF JAPANESE CHILDREN

This study examined several common images of Japanese children and child development. Images, closely related to parental ethnotheories, were defined as visual, mental representations which may be expressed in sayings, proverbs, and sym· bois, or inferred from customs or practices. A sample of 53 mothers and 29 fathers of urban middle class elementary school children completed a one-page questionnaire concerning their jidokan (view of children). Very few had heard the traditional say· ing, "before seven, among the gods, " although most felt that this proverb still applied to today's children. Most believed the proverb referred to the inherent purity of young children. A majority of parents reported that child-rearing is more analo· gous to the metaphor of cultivating a plant rather than to that of training an animal. Among five descriptors of children, many parents agreed that children "take a lot of work, " are " selfish, " and are " prone to loneliness, " while few described children as generally "robust, not fragile, " or "pitiable. " Finally, parents stated that they would intervene more often in children's disputes if (1) the dispute were physical rather than verbal, (2) the children were their own rather than neighbors', and (3) the children were preschoolers rather than school-age. The results were discussed in relation to cultural stereotypes and to norms of Japanese child development and chilo drearing