本研究は,地方と都市部における育児期間中の看護職者の家族機能について比較検討を行うことを目的とした。出雲圏内の看護職者989人(以下,地方群とする)と大阪府内853人(以下,都市部群とする)を対象として,自記式質問票による調査を行った。家族機能の測定用具として,Olsonら(1986)の開発したFamily Adaptability Cohesion and Evaluation Scale-HI(FACES-III)を使用した。
　その結果,子育て経験ありは,地方群525名(61%),都市部群156名(23%)だった。子ども数の平均は,地方群2.3人,都市部群1.9人で有意差があった(p〈.001)。家族形態は,都市部群では68%が核家族世帯で,地方群では義父母同居家族60%,実父母同居家族が20%であった。
　0lsonら(1986)の円環モデルでは,凝集性と適応性の下位尺度2因子が直行する2軸をなし,それらのカーブリニアな関係性を仮説とする。凝集性は情緒的きずなを意味し,適応性はストレスに際して役割関係を変化させる能力を意味する。これら2因子が両極でなく,中程度の場合,最も安定した家族であるとの理論である。本調査では,0lsonら(1986)と同様の2因子を抽出したが,相互の相関性から円環モデルを支持することはできず,それぞれの因子の直線的関係が示唆された。また育児中の看護職者の家族機能は,家族形態により差があった。特に家族機能の凝集性については,核家族の方が拡大家族よりも高く,地方と都市部においても同様の傾向がみられた。以上の結果から,育児中の看護職者の家族機能の凝集性は居住する地域の影響を受けにくい可能性が示唆された。
The purpose of this study was to compare family functions between rural and urban nurses. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 989 nurses in lzumo City (rural group) and 853 in Osaka prefecture (urban group). The Japanese
version of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-III(FACES-III) developed by Olson et al. (1986), was used to measure family functions.
The results showed that 525 (61%) nurses in the rural group and 156 (23%) in the urban group had had experience with child rearing. The mean number of children was significantly higher (p<.OOl) in the rural group (2.3 children) than in the urban
group (1.9 children). Sixty-eight percent of the urban group lived in nuclear families, sixty percent of the rural group lived with parents-in-law and twenty percent of the rural nurses lived with their own parents.
The Circumplex Model proposed by Olson et al. (1986) is rectangular with cohesion and adaptability as its two subscales, and hypothesizes a curvilinear relationship between these factors. Cohesion means emotional bonding among family members, and adaptability means the ability of family members to adapt their roles in response to stress. The values of these factors in most balanced families are in the central area, not at the extremes. The present study investigated two factors, just as Olson et al. (1986) did, but it was found that the correlation between the two factors did not support the Circumplex Model. Rather, it was suggested that they had a linear relationship. The survey showed that family type had a significant influence on the family function scores of nurses during child rearing. In particular, the cohesion scores of family functions werc significantly higher in nuclear families than in extended families. The same trend was observed in both the urban and the rural groups. The results of this study suggested that the type of living environment (urban or rural) has very little influence on the cohesion score of family functions in nurses.