3.4 percent of new parents in Japan risk mental health issues

Written with exttracts from Jiji Press

September 17 2020

TOKYO – A team of Japanese researchers has found that 3.4 percent of couples raising children under the age of 1 are facing risks of mental health issues.

Both partners are experiencing downturns in their mental health due to such reasons as the husband having to work long hours and the wife being sleep-deprived, according to the study by the National Center for Child Health and Development.

Researchers used data from the health ministry’s 2016 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions, which covered some 220,000 households nationwide. They analyzed 3,514 households with children under the age of 1 in which both spouses answered questions about their mental health.

The study found that 11 pct of husbands and 10.8 pct of wives are at risks of drops in their mental health, while the proportion of households in which both partners faced such risks was 3.4 pct.

The probability of facing such risks for both spouses when the husband worked for 55 hours or more per week stood 60 pct higher than when he worked under 55 hours per week.