Two in Five Mothers in Japan Say Children Show Reluctance to Attend Elementary School

A survey of 682 mothers in their twenties to fifties with elementary-school children was conducted in Japan by consulting firm Dragon Education Revolution from August 8 to 12. The results show that 37.8% of the mothers reported that their child had shown some reluctance to attend school.

Faced with this situation, 31.0% of the mothers said that they were “deeply troubled,” while 45.0% were “somewhat troubled,” so that more than three-fourths of the women were concerned by their child’s attitude to school.

The most common reason cited by the mothers surveyed for a child not wanting to attend school was “relations with friends,” at 36.8%, followed by “schoolwork” at 34.5% and “physical or mental health issues” at 28.3%.

As for how mothers are responding to such situations, the most common action was to “persuade a child to attend school as much as possible” (35.3%), followed by “letting the child decide whether to attend school or not” (23.2%), and “encouraging attendance but allowing days off when necessary” (19.8%). Only a small minority, at 6.2%, said that they would “firmly insist that the child attend school.”

On the one hand, 41.1% of the mothers expressed the concern that forcing a child to attend school could be demoralizing. However, 39.9% worried that a child could end up being absent from school for a prolonged period of time. With this dilemma to contend with, the end of summer vacation can be a particularly troubling time for many mothers.

Data Sources

• Survey about children’s reluctance to attend school and their parent’s attitude (Japanese) from Dragon Education Revolution.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)