Changes in Family Roles and Subjective Well-Being among Japanese Adults

Abstract

Research in Western countries has demonstrated that marriage is associated with improved well-being, and parenthood with decreased well-being, for both men and women. However, less is known about whether the associations are universal for both genders across countries. Using nine waves of panel data and fixed effects models, this study examines the relationship between changes in family roles and subjective well-being of men and women in the highly gendered social context of Japan. Well-being was assessed across two domains: self-rated health and mental health. The results broadly support the protective effect theory, which posits that marriage itself has a positive effect on well-being; however, no association was observed between becoming a wife and self-rated health. Contrary to what previous research predicts, only men’s self-rated health negatively responds to transition to parenthood. These findings highlight the importance of country context and gender differences in the significance of family obligations.

Keywords

family health family demography life course gender and family quantitative

Research from North American and European countries has repeatedly demonstrated that marriage is associated with improved mental and physical health and reduced mortality for both men and women (Rendall et al., 2011; Ross et al., 1990; Waite & Gallagher, 2000). Some scholars have argued that marriage itself has a positive effect on well-being and have found evidence supporting this claim (Kim & McKenry, 2002; Rendall et al., 2011; Waite & Gallagher, 2000). Additionally, previous research shows that the protective effect of marriage is larger for men than for women (Umberson & Thomeer, 2020 for review). Furthermore, a large body of research from Western countries has shown that there is a negative association between parenthood and well-being, but the effect is small (Hansen, 2012 for review). However, research on the relationships between marriage and well-being as well as the relationship between parenthood and well-being has focused on Western cultures (Hansen, 2012; Mastekaasa, 1994). It remains unclear whether the findings are generalizable across countries. Furthermore, empirical evidence of whether the benefits of marriage and parenthood differ by gender across countries is scarce in the literature.

Research also finds that the effects of parenthood on well-being depend on the parents’ marital status (Evenson & Simon, 2005; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003). Nomaguchi and Milkie (2003), for instance, found that for married women, parenthood was associated with less psychological distress than for their childless counterparts, but the association is minimal for married men. Previous research has often examined the effects of transitions into marriage and parenthood on subjective well-being separately, which potentially conflates the effects of the two transitions. Less is known about the change in subjective well-being as men and women transition across the family roles of marriage and parenthood.

In this study, I use Japan as an illustrative case of a highly gendered industrialized social context to address the following questions: how are transitions into marriage and parenthood related to changes in subjective well-being? And how does the relationship differ by gender? Japan is an interesting country in which to study these questions, as it is a nation where marriage is valued by most young single men and women (Raymo et al., 2015), where the norm of childbearing only within marriage remains strong (Hertog & Iwasawa, 2011), and where there is also a high degree of gender inequality among married couples compared to many other industrialized nations. Japanese wives perform most of the housework even among dual-earner couples (Oshio et al., 2013), and husbands do substantially less housework than their counterparts in other industrialized countries (Fuwa, 2004). Marriage may bring psychological benefits for both men and women in the country context, but highly asymmetric gender relations within marriage may undermine women’s general health. Likewise, the transition to parenthood may be detrimental to women’s well-being, as their family obligations increase significantly, especially given that they are expected to be the best caretakers and educators (Fujita, 1989; Hirao, 2001; Yu, 2009). Yet for men who spend little time with their children (Ishii-Kuntz, 2008), the transition may have little impact on their well-being. As childbearing almost exclusively occurs among married couples in Japan (Raymo & Iwasawa, 2008), this study focuses on individuals’ transitions into the spousal role and, subsequently, to parenthood. The Japanese case potentially underscores the importance of the normative environment in examining the link between family roles and well-being. The findings may also have implications for other gender inegalitarian countries.

Previous research using cross-sectional data in Japan on the association between marital status and well-being demonstrated better self-rated health only for married women and better mental health for both genders compared to their never-married counterparts (Tamaki, 2014). Cross-sectional studies, however, fail to account for systematic differences in characteristics among those who transition to different marital or parental statuses. Another empirical research using panel data has demonstrated that in Japanese society, marriage is associated with better mental and physical health for women compared with their never-married counterparts (Lim & Raymo, 2016). Yet it remains unclear whether and to what extent marriage is associated with subjective health for Japanese men, as well as whether and to what extent marriage is more beneficial in terms of well-being for men than for women. Furthermore, how the transition to parenthood may be associated with changes in well-being in this social context is unknown.

The goal of this study is to examine how the transitions to marriage and parenthood are related to subjective well-being among Japanese men and women in early to middle adulthood. I use longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of men and women who were between 20 years and 40 years of age in 2007. With longitudinal data, I am able to use individual-level fixed-effects models to take into account all time-invariant personal characteristics that lead individuals to select into different marital and parental statuses. I examine two dimensions of well-being: self-rated health and mental health. Examining these two measures of well-being, rather than a single measure, allows for a more nuanced understanding of this complex phenomena.

This study adds to the scholarship on family, gender, and well-being in several ways. First, the present study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between changes in family roles and well-being by gender in the context of Japan, which has a highly gendered normative environment. Second, by employing a life-course perspective, which focuses on a sequence of roles that the individual occupies over time, this study contributes to better understanding of the relative change in subjective well-being as individuals experience marriage and parenthood. Third, this study assesses gender differences in the impact of occupying different family roles. Lastly, the study sheds light on how the effect of change in family roles can manifest differently, depending on indicators of well-being.

Marriage, Parenthood, and Subjective Well-Being

Many studies conducted in the West have demonstrated that, compared with being never married, divorced, or widowed, being married is associated with better self-rated health (Hahn, 1993; Hughes & Waite, 2009; Liu & Umberson, 2008), mental health (Horwitz et al., 1996; Hughes & Waite, 2009; Kim & McKenry, 2002), morbidity (Hughes & Waite, 2009), and longevity (Rendall et al., 2011). Marriage can be linked with both objective and subjective well-being in different ways, but in recent decades, the availability of longitudinal data enables researchers to track individuals transitioning to different life stages. Using longitudinal data, accumulating evidence indicates that transitioning into marriage itself has a positive effect of well-being (Kim & McKenry, 2002; Waite & Gallagher, 2000) and longevity (Lillard & Waite, 1995; Rendall et al., 2011). The theoretical perspective that posits a protective effect of marriage postulates that marriage itself promotes well-being and longevity because marriage provides individuals with social, psychological, and economic resources. A spouse can take care of his/her partner in case of illness. Partners may monitor each other’s health and health-related behaviors, such as excessive drinking and encourage self-regulation (Umberson, 1987). Marriage may also provide emotional support (Simon, 2002).

How might the transition to parenthood be related to men’s and women’s well-being? Previous research suggests multiple ways in which being a parent may have an impact on men’s and women’s well-being. First, some studies suggest that parenthood results in increased social resources. Becoming a parent (Ambert, 2001) and the presence of children (Gallagher & Gerstel, 2001; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003) bring about social integration for parents, which can promote well-being, especially if parents have good-quality social ties (See Umberson & Karas Montez, 2010 for review). Another body of research highlights the psychological benefits of parenthood. Parenthood may provide individuals with a sense of meaning and purpose (Umberson and Gove 1989), which could improve well-being. At the same time, parenthood can bring with it work–family conflict (Nomaguchi, 2009; Winslow, 2005) and increased housework demands, especially for mothers. To summarize, the association of parenthood and well-being can be explained in terms of a combination of burden and rewards, with positive and negative consequences offsetting each other (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003).

Gender Differences

Studies have indicated that men generally benefit more than women from marriage (See review by Umberson & Thomeer, 2020). Why might marriage provide different degrees of health benefits for men and women? Some scholars argue that the mechanisms underlying the association between marriage and better health may differ by gender (Coombs, 1991). Married men tend to benefit in terms of psychological well-being (Gove, 1984) and longevity (Lillard & Waite, 1995; Rendall et al., 2011) more than do women, possibly because wives put more effort into monitoring and controlling their husbands’ negative health behaviors such as excessive smoking and drinking than husbands do for their wives (Umberson, 1992). Married women, on the contrary, may benefit from increased economic resources more than do men (Bianchi & Spain, 1986; Cherlin, 1981). In fact, empirical research finds that much of the relationship between marriage and women’s better health can be explained by economic assets gained through marriage (Hahn, 1993), although other scholars found few gender differences in the relationship between marital status and physical mobility, mental health, and self-rated health (Hughes & Waite, 2009). When interdependence between spouses due to a sharp division of labor is high, marriage may provide health benefits to both genders to a similar extent.

With parenthood, mothers are more likely to experience higher levels of distress and fatigue than fathers, even after work status are controlled (Bird, 1997; Musick et al., 2016; Simon, 1992). A study of dual-earner parents indicates that mothers are more likely than fathers to feel time strain, and that feeling is associated with higher psychological distress for mothers, but not fathers (Nomaguchi et al., 2005). Likewise, previous research finds no association between the transition to co-resident fatherhood and their self-rated health and depression (Knoester & Eggebeen, 2006). Some scholars highlight the differences in social roles occupied by men and women that account for gender differences in psychological well-being (Aneshensel et al., 1981; Gove & Geerken, 1977). For women, increased family role obligations as they become spouses and mothers, especially in a social context with strong normative expectations that mothers should devote themselves to child-rearing, can undermine their well-being. In such a context, transitioning to parenthood may lead to particuraly sharp gender differences in subjective health.

The Japanese Context and Hypotheses

Is the transition to marriage associated with better health for individuals in Japan? If so, are Japanese men and women likely to benefit from marriage in terms of well-being to a similar degree? It is possible that, unlike what has been found in Western research (Umberson & Thomeer, 2020), both men and women benefit from marriage to a similar extent in Japan. Especially in a country like Japan where marriage is perceived to be a “rigid social institution involving the interests of and influences from the extended family and kinship” (Tsuya & Choe, 2003, p. 20), marriage is expected to expand family networks. In Japan, despite a rising average age of first marriage (Raymo, 2003), most young single men and women still highly value marriage and desire to marry (Raymo et al., 2015), raising the possibility that marriage provides health benefits to individuals by creating a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, marriage may provide couples with elevated living standards through pooled incomes. Given that a large gender wage gap persists (OECD, 2012, p. 167, Figure 13.1), health advantages from marriage may be particularly large for women because women in Japan gain access to increased economic assets. This potentially makes marriage similarly beneficial for both genders.

Hypothesis 1a: Transitioning from being never married to being married without children is positively associated with well-being for both genders to a similar extent.

At the same time, there is a possibility that the gain in well-being from marriage for women is minimal compared to that of men’s. When interdependence between spouses due to a sharp division of labor was higher, the transition into marriage may have been equally beneficial for both men and women. However, as more married women have entered the labor force in recent years (Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office, 2015) and married men’s participation in household labor has only slightly increased (Tsuya et al., 2005), many Japanese wives, particularly those without children, have faced the dual burden of paid work on top of domestic work. Even in the case of dual-earner couples, Japanese wives do 90% of the housework, and Japanese husbands do much less compared to Chinese and Korean husbands (Oshio et al., 2013), and substantially less compared to husbands in other industrialized countries (Fuwa, 2004). Thus, many wives without children nowadays may be physically and emotionally exhausted by the dual responsibilities of home and outside work, and the exhaustion and psychological distress may undermine the health benefits of marriage from increased economic resources, while men may gain from marriage by having a wife who performs most of the domestic labor.

Hypothesis 1b: Transitioning from never having been married to being married without children is positively associated with well-being, only for men.

Previous studies indicate that parenthood brings few changes in terms of costs or rewards of parenting for married men (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003). Employees in Japan, particularly those with more promising positions, are expected to show commitment and loyalty to their employers through long work hours in a male-centered corporate culture (Nemoto, 2013; Ono, 2018; Yu, 2009). Men work 50 hours per week on average, and employment hours of Japanese husbands in their prime working years have remained relatively stable over a couple decades (Kuroda, 2010; Tsuya et al., 2012). Possibly due to long work hours and husbands’ expected role as the primary breadwinner in the family, the time that Japanese fathers spend on childcare is very limited (Ishii-Kuntz, 2008). In 2005, Japanese fathers spend 1.3 hours per day on childcare on average, which is just one-third of that of mothers’ (Ishii-Kuntz, 2008). Due to the limited time spent with children in Japan, becoming a father may hardly have an impact on their subjective well-being. I therefore propose:

Hypothesis 2a: Transitioning to parenthood has no or little association with change in well-being, compared to being married without children, for men.

Japanese mothers are expected to be the main caretakers for and educators of their children at home, which makes it difficult for them to combine family with paid employment (Hirao, 2001; Yu, 2009). And the social disapproval of working mothers with young children is strong, especially for white-collar working mothers (Yu, 2001). Many women in Japan leave the labor market upon marriage or childbirth and re-enter it later when their children enter elementary or middle school, often as non-regular or contingent workers (Brinton, 2001; Yu, 2002, 2005). Recent government survey results show that while over 70% of all married Japanese women remain in the labor force upon marriage, only a little less than 40% of them remain in the labor force when their first child is born (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, 2016). Particularly with limited childcare time by Japanese fathers (Ishii-Kuntz, 2008), the transition to parenthood for married women further increases the domestic burden. While parenthood may bring increased social (Ambert, 2001) and psychological resources (Umberson & Gove, 1989), given findings on parenting and psychological/physical strain (Bird, 1997; Musick et al., 2016; Simon, 1992), the increased spouse–mother role obligations are hypothesized to undermine women’s well-being.

Hypothesis 2b: For women, transitioning to parenthood is negatively associated with well-being, compared to being married without children.

Data and Methods

The data used for this study were obtained from the University of Tokyo, Institute of Social Science, Japanese Life Course Panel Survey (JLPS) Wave 1 (2007) to Wave 9 (2015). JLPS is an ongoing panel survey conducted annually in Japan since 2007. The JLPS collects information on respondents’ labor market and household activities, attitudes, and well-being, and it is used by many scholars (e.g., Ishida, 2013; Shirahase, 2010; Yu & Kuo, 2018). The JLPS consists of nationally representative samples of men and women aged 20–34 years (youth sample) and 35–40 years (middle-aged sample). Survey questionnaires were identical for the two age groups and conducted at separate times in the same year. The JLPS added a supplementary sample of 963 during Wave 5. Respondents were not married to each other. For this study, I merged the two original datasets (4,800 in total), as well as the supplementary sample of 963 individuals. For analytical purposes, I converted the data to person-year format. By Wave 9 (2015), respondents were 28-48 years of age.

For this study, I focused on two outcomes related to individuals’ well-being. Specifically, the dependent variables are self-rated health and mental health, which I created using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) scale. Self-rated health is a widely used measure of health in population studies (Jylhä, 2009), and research shows that self-rated health is sensitive to both physical and mental health statuses (Bailis et al., 2003), associated with objective health (Zheng & Thomas, 2013) and a strong predictor of mortality risk (Idler & Benyamini, 1997; Jylhä, 2009 for review; Zheng & Thomas, 2013). The MHI-5 scale is a short form of the RAND Mental Health Inventory that is used to screen for depressive symptoms (Veit & Ware, 1983). The validity of the MHI-5 in a general population sample is established (Rumpf et al., 2001), and it has been shown to be an effective measure of mental health status in the West (Fone et al., 2007; Milner et al., 2018) as well as in Japan (Yamazaki et al., 2005).

Respondents’ general health status was assessed using the question, “How do you feel about your health?” measured on a five-point scale (1 = very good, 2 = somewhat good, 3 = normal, 4 = not so good, and 5 = bad). The respondents who rated their health as “bad” accounted for 1.5% of the original total sample of 34,785 observations. I combined the response categories of “bad” with “not so good” for analytic purposes, and I reverse coded the answer categories for the dependent variable so that 4 indicated the best and 1 indicated the worst self-rated health.

The respondents’ mental health was assessed using the question, “In the past month, how often did you feel the following items? Choose the best fitting number” for five items, which were: (a) felt very nervous, (b) felt so down in the dumps that nothing could cheer me up, (c) felt calm and peaceful, (d) felt downhearted and depressed, and (e) felt happy. Participants responded to each of the five questions on a five-point scale (1 = all of the time, 2 = most of the time, 3 = some of the time, 4 = a little of the time, and 5 = none of the time). I reversed the scoring of questions (c) and (e) so that higher scores indicate better mental health status. I used alpha scoring to create the MHI-5 scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.79). The scale scores range from 1 to 5 and a higher score indicates better mental health status. The two indicators of well-being were moderately correlated. The correlation coefficient between self-rated health and MHI-5 was 0.37, which is statistically significant at the 0.001 level.

My key independent variable is family roles, indicated by the combination of marital and parental statuses. Roles refer to the “rights, duties, and normatively approved patterns of behavior for the occupants of a given position or status” (Aneshensel et al., 1981, p. 380). The classification of family roles is “never married,” “married, nonparent” and “married, parent,” with “married, nonparent” as a reference group. In Japan, marriage and childbearing are closely tied (Raymo & Iwasawa, 2008), with only 2% of children born outside of marriage (Raymo et al., 2015, p. 477). This indicates that the proportion of unmarried mothers is low. Therefore, I did not break up the “never married” category by parenthood status. As the present study focuses on individuals’ transitions into the spousal role, and subsequently to parenthood, the data are restricted to individuals who did not experience a union dissolution (either by divorce or being widowed) during the nine-year window of observation.

For control variables, I used demographic characteristics that included age, type of work, daily work hours including overtime work, educational attainment, whether respondents were enrolled in school or not, respondents’ self-rated financial circumstances, and number of people in the respondents’ households. The JLPS asked respondents to select the type of work that they did from among 12 categories. I combined these into four categories: not employed, regular employment, nonstandard employment, and self-employment. There are two kinds of workers in the Japanese labor force: regular employees (seishasin) and non-regular employees (hiseikishain). The former are granted opportunities for promotion and training and enjoy job security and many fringe benefits (e.g., housing allowances, travel expenses, and family allowances), and are expected to work overtime (Brinton, 1993; Yu, 2002). For non-regular employees, there is little or no chance for promotion and benefits and no guarantee of long-term job security. 0 (hours) was assigned for respondents’ daily work hours when they were out of the labor force at the time of the interview. The JLPS asked respondents to indicate the level of education that they last attended from among six categories and whether or not they completed that level of education. I created three categories of educational attainment: completed high school or less, completed junior college or vocational school, and completed university or higher. In addition to educational attainment, I included a dummy variable, indicating whether respondents were enrolled in school or not at the time of each interview. For household income, 24.9% of the original total sample either did not respond or reported that they did not know. These data are possibly missing not at random, and any approach to handling this much missing data can be expected to produce biased results. Therefore, instead of the household income variable, I used respondents’ self-rated financial circumstance as a proxy for household income, measured on a five-point scale (1 = affluent, 2 = relatively affluent, 3 = average, 4 = relatively poor, and 5 = poor). I reversed the answer categories so that 5 indicates the best and 1 indicates the worst financial circumstance.

For the purpose of this study, I limited my sample to individuals who responded to at least two waves of the survey with non-missing values on both the dependent and independent variables, as required by the fixed-effects model. Missing values of the variables included in the analysis are within 2%. I used a listwise deletion procedure to handle the missing data. The final sample size was 30,224 person-year observations, with 13,732 person-year observations from 2,181 male respondents, and 16,492 person-year observations from 2,448 female respondents.

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the analytical samples. For self-rated health, the mean is 2.4 with standard deviation 0.9. For the MHI-5 scale, the mean is 3.5 and standard deviation is 0.7. Overall, the distribution for the two well-being indicators was a little skewed to the positive side.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of the Analytic Sample (N = 30,224 person-years).

	Total	Men (45.4%)	Women (54.6%)
Self-rated health (mean, SD)	2.4 (0.9)	2.4 (0.9)	2.4 (0.9)
Mental Health Inventory (MDI-5) scale (mean, SD)	3.5 (0.7)	3.5 (0.7)	3.5 (0.7)
Marital and parental status (%)
Never married	39.6	45.0	35.1
Married, nonparent	10.3	10.1	10.6
Married, parent	50.1	45.0	54.3
Age (mean, SD)	34.8 (6.4)	34.7 (6.3)	34.8 (6.5)
Work types (%)
Not employed	16.8	5.7	26.0
Regular employment	53.4	75.0	35.5
Non-regular employment	24.1	12.0	34.2
Self-employment	5.7	7.3	4.4
Daily work hours (mean, SD)	7.0 (3.8)	8.9 (2.9)	5.5 (3.8)
Educational attainment
Completed high school or less	32.6	35.3	30.3
Completed junior college/vocational school	32.7	19.9	43.3
Completed university or higher	34.8	44.8	26.4
Enrolled in school (%)
No	96.6	96.0	97.2
Yes	3.4	4.0	2.8
Self-rated financial circumstance (mean, SD)	3.0 (0.8)	3.0 (0.8)	3.1 (0.7)
Number of residents in household (mean, SD)	3.5 (1.5)	3.4 (1.5)	3.6 (1.5)

Note: The unit of analysis is person-years. The sample contains 13,732 person-years for men and 16,492 person-years for women.

Data source: Japanese Life Course Panel Survey.

For marital/parental status, around 40%, 10%, and 50% were never married, married nonparent, and married parent, respectively.

Analysis Strategy

Following previous research (e.g., Lim & Raymo, 2016; Musick & Bumpass, 2012), I used an individual-level linear fixed-effects model to control for unvarying individual characteristics (Allison, 2009), with self-rated health and MHI-5 score as dependent variables. The parameter estimates from the fixed-effects model used in the analysis represent changes in the average level of one of the two indicators of well-being with a one-unit change in each of the independent variables when holding all other variables in the model constant. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata version 14. Based on my hypotheses and previous research indicating that marital and parental statuses are associated differently with men’s and women’s subjective well-being outcomes (Coombs, 1991), I tested the association separately for each group.

The model for y is given by the following:

y_{i j} = μ_{j} + β X_{i j} + γ Z_{i} + α_{i} + ε_{i j} w h e r e ε_{i j} ~ N (0, σ_{ε}^{2})

The $y_{i j}$ denotes the dependent variable, which is self-rated health or MHI-5 of person $i (i = 1, 2, 3, \dots, n)$ at time $j (j = 1, 2, 3 \dots, l)$ . m _j is the intercept, and $β$ and $γ$ are vectors of coefficients. $X_{i j}$ represents the time-varying variables and $Z_{i}$ represents the time-invariant variable. $α_{i}$ denotes the unobserved individual specific fixed effect that varies across individuals, not over time, and $ε_{i j}$ indicates the individual unobserved random error term that varies across individuals at each point in time. With fixed-effects models, time-invariant variables are dropped. Therefore, all variables used in the analysis are time-varying.

Results

The results of a series of fixed effects models are presented in Table 2. Figure 1 is a graphical representation of the estimates of the key independent variable by gender.

Table 2.

Results from Fixed-Effects Models Predicting Men’s and Women’s Subjective Well-being.

	Men		Women
	Self-rated Health	Mental Health	Self-rated Health	Mental Health
Never married (ref.: married, nonparent)	−0.127***	−0.095***	−0.041	−0.094***
	(0.035)	(0.028)	(0.030)	(0.024)
Married, parent	−0.085*	−0.041	0.050	−0.001
	(0.037)	(0.030)	(0.033)	(0.025)
Age	−0.027***	−0.004*	−0.030***	0.000
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)
Regular employment (ref.: not employed)	0.211***	0.236***	0.017	0.054
	(0.053)	(0.042)	(0.044)	(0.034)
Non-regular employment	0.228***	0.231***	0.094**	0.110***
	(0.049)	(0.039)	(0.034)	(0.026)
Family/self-employment	0.265***	0.255***	0.087+	0.091*
	(0.065)	(0.052)	(0.046)	(0.036)
Work hours per day	−0.025***	−0.022***	−0.022***	−0.024***
	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.005)	(0.004)
Educational attainment (ref.: completed high school or less)
Completed junior college/vocational school	−0.036	0.047	0.141*	0.082
	(0.067)	(0.053)	(0.066)	(0.051)
Completed university or higher	0.008	0.041	0.063	0.073
	(0.065)	(0.052)	(0.069)	(0.054)
Enrolled in school (ref.: not enrolled)	0.014	0.039	0.021	0.008
	(0.046)	(0.037)	(0.043)	(0.033)
Self-rated financial status	0.090***	0.089***	0.084***	0.082***
	(0.011)	(0.009)	(0.011)	(0.008)
Number of residents in household	0.014+	−0.004	−0.001	−0.018**
	(0.008)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.006)
Constant	3.083***	3.402***	3.191***	3.376***
	(0.107)	(0.085)	(0.094)	(0.073)
No. of person-years	13,732	13,732	16,492	16,492
No. of respondents	2,181	2,181	2,448	2,448

Note: Standard errors in parentheses. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, and +p < 0.1 (two-tailed test).

Self-rated health is measured on a scale of 1 (not so good/bad) to 4 (very good). Mental health is measured by MHI-5 scores which range from 1 to 5 with 5 indicating better mental health.

Data source: Japanese Life Course Panel Survey.

Figure 1.

Model-estimated effects of family roles on well-being.

Transition into Marriage and Well-being

I hypothesized that the transition from never having been married to being married without children would be linked with elevated levels of well-being either for both genders (Hypothesis 1a) or only for men (Hypothesis 1b). All the models for men show that being married is associated with better subjective well-being. For men, as shown in Table 2, becoming a spouse resulted in statistically significant improvement in self-rated health and mental health compared to their status before marriage when other variables were held constant. Women also seemed to benefit psychologically from marriage compared with being never married. Specifically, for women, becoming a spouse resulted in significantly improved mental health compared to when they were never married, when holding all other variables constant. However, the results did not support the prediction that becoming a spouse would be associated with improved self-rated health.

To examine whether the difference in protective effects for men and women in terms of mental health was statistically significant, I ran separate exploratory models, which included both genders with an interaction term for family roles and gender. The interaction was not statistically significant. The results do not provide evidence, indicating that the effects of transitioning into marriage differ by gender.

Thus, in terms of mental health, Hypothesis 1a was supported, but Hypothesis 1b, which predicted that the health benefits of marriage would be only evident for men, was not supported. The results demonstrate that there are protective effects of marriage for both men and women in terms of mental health. On the other hand, in terms of self-rated health, Hypothesis 1a was not, but Hypothesis 1b was supported. While the transition into marriage also seems to be beneficial in terms of self-rated health for men, the effect is unclear for women.

Transition into Parenthood and Well-being

I expected that the transition into parenthood would have no or little association with changes in well-being for men (Hypothesis 2a), but it would be negatively associated with changes in well-being for women (Hypothesis 2b). The results do not support either hypothesis.

For men, contrary to Hypothesis 2a, the model for self-rated health demonstrates that becoming a parent is associated with worse self-rated health. Specifically, compared to being married without children, becoming a father resulted in a statistically significant deterioration in self-rated health, when holding all other variables constant. However, no evidence showing that becoming a parent is associated with changes in mental health was found.

For women, the results do not support the prediction (Hypothesis 2b) that becoming a parent would be associated with worsening of self-rated health or mental health.

In addition, I explored whether the number of children, as opposed to merely whether or not respondents were parents, would matter for parents’ well-being. To assess this possibility, I ran models using a categorical variable that measured the number of children (results not shown). The categories are never married, married nonparent, married with one child, and married with two or more children. The results indicated that only for men, the transition from being a parent of one child to having subsequent children further deteriorated their self-rated health. However, the results of other models did not provide evidence showing that the outcomes were affected by changes in the number of children.

Summary and Discussion

Research from the West suggests that marriage is associated with an elevated level of subjective well-being. By netting out the selectivity into different marital and parental statuses with fixed-effects models, I examined how transitions to the role of spouse and subsequently the role of parent were associated with changes in two indicators of well-being, self-rated health, and mental health measured by the MHI-5 and how the relationship differed by gender.

Consistent with previous research and associated theory, the results of this study generally support the protective effect of marriage perspective. While a protective effect for men was manifested for both indicators of health, the results do not support the prediction that marriage would have a protective effect in terms of women’s self-rated health. Contrary to previous research findings (Umberson & Thomeer, 2020), I did not find that the protective effect of marriage in terms of mental health was larger for men than for women. Taken together, the findings suggest that both men and women in Japan benefit psychologically from marriage, possibly because partners provide emotional support to each other. In addition, as marriage is valued (Raymo et al., 2015) and is a precondition to childbearing (Hertog & Iwasawa, 2011), transition into marriage may provide an additional psychological boost for both genders. The findings of this study for women’s mental health are consistent with previous findings from Japan (Lim & Raymo, 2016). Married men’s self-rated health may benefit from having a wife who provides emotional support and helps monitor her husband’s health. While previous research shows that marriage is associated with elevated levels of physical health (Lim & Raymo, 2016), findings of this study do not indicate the link between marriage and self-rated health for women, though the outcomes are not exacly the same. I speculate that the absence of evidence for a protective effect of marriage in terms of women’s self-rated health is due to their heavy family obligations of more recent age cohort. Upon marriage, while women may benefit from access to increased economic resources (Hahn, 1993), many may experience physical fatigue deriving from dual responsibilities of household tasks and paid work, as husbands contribute little to household tasks.

Contrary to the prediction derived from previous research, the present study found that the transition into parenthood among married men was negatively associated with self-rated health, while there was no statistically significant association among women. The finding is particularly noteworthy, considering the limited amount of time that Japanese fathers spend on childcare (Ishii-Kuntz, 2008). The results suggest that even if fathers spend little time on childcare, their general health can be affected by becoming a father. Parenthood may deteriorate men’s self-rated health by leading them to take on a larger role as a breadwinner, as many wives leave the labor force upon childbirth. Because of the large change in mothers’ work circumstances, fathers in Japan may be under high pressure as the sole or primary earner for the family, where social norms put emphasis on fathers’ financial provider role (Ishii-Kuntz, 1993), and parents are expected to make a large monetary investment in children’s education (Tsuya et al., 2003). Results of the exploratory analyses, indicating that the arrival of subsequent children further worsens their self-rated health, suggest that increased family role obligations as a father of multiple children in a gender-inegalitarian context is detrimental to fathers’ general health. Japanese fathers may actively take and be given more responsibilities by their employers, on top of already long work hours, which may negatively affect their physical health. The finding has implications for future studies in country contexts where social norms emphasize the importance of fathers’ role as the primary financial provider for the family. For women, while becoming a parent is expected to sharply increase women’s household responsibilities, the large adjustment in work circumstances possibly offsets the negative effects on well-being at least temporarily, as many wives leave the labor force upon childbirth.

This study has some limitations. First, the conclusions drawn in this study are only applicable to Japanese women and men in early to middle adulthood. It is unclear whether the findings can be generalized to older ages as well. For instance, it is unable to assess any long-term health consequences of marriage and parenthood when individuals are 50 years of age or older. Second, research indicates that the association between parenthood and psychological well-being may differ by marital status (Evenson & Simon, 2005; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003). Because of low statistical power due to the small sample size of single mothers and fathers, this study could not address the question of whether the transition to parenthood among unmarried individuals had a different association with well-being than for married individuals. Likewise, for the same reason, this study did not consider the distinction between cohabiting and non-cohabiting unmarried individuals, though there has been a significant increase in premarital cohabitation (Raymo et al., 2009). Third, the exact mechanisms of the association between family roles and well-being remain unknown. This study did not find that marriage elevates women’s self-reported health, possibly due to physical fatigue deriving from dual responsibilities of household tasks and paid work, but as the JLPS does not specifically ask about respondents’ share of domestic labor with their spouse or their hours spent on domestic labor, it is difficult to assess this possibility. Likewise, it remains unclear why parenthood seems to negatively affect men’s self-rated health. Future studies can address these issues.

Despite these limitations, this study provides empirical evidence of how men’s and women’s experience of marriage and subsequently parenthood are linked with changes in subjective well-being from a non-Western, highly gender-unequal industrialized country. The findings illuminate the ways that normative context shapes the relationship between family roles and subjective well-being and how the relationship differs by gender. Specifically, in terms of self-rated health, the lack of empirical support for the protective effect of marriage for women, and the negative relationship between parenthood and self-rated health for married men, show that experiencing marriage and parenthood can lead to different findings, depending on country context. This study also highlights the importance of considering multiple dimensions of well-being, as the outcomes of occupying certain family roles may be more sensitive to some indicators of well-being than others. More research examining whether the influence of family roles on well-being differs by country context, and why, is needed.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Yuko Hara

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