本稿の目的は，島根県の中山間地域に住む高校生の保護者を対象に実施したアンケート調査のデータを用いて，保護者が子の将来についてどのように考えているかを考察することである。調査の結果，男子生徒の親は女子生徒の親よりも，子が高校卒業後も地元に残ると考えていることが分かった。また，男子生徒の親のほうが子に地元に残ってほしいと思っており，女子生徒の親のほうが子に少なくとも一度は大都会へ出てほしいと願っている。
　一方，男子生徒の親も女子生徒の親も，子には地元に貢献し，チャレンジする人生を送ってほしいと願っている。しかし，女子学生の親はチャレンジする生き方を安定した生活と対立するものと捉え，男子学生の親はチャレンジする生き方を大学進学や安定した職業を選ばないことと結びつける傾向がある。また，男子学生の親が子にチャレンジする生き方を望む場合，その子は高校卒業後も地元に残ることを選択する傾向があることが示唆された。
　本稿は，中山間地域では，現在の競争社会の価値観に挑戦する新しい価値観の追求が展開しているということ，そしてそれは男性にしか奨励されないかもしれないということを示唆した。

　The purpose of this paper is to examine how parents envision their children's ideal futures, using data from a survey of parents of high school students in the mountainous area of Shimane, Japan. The results show that parents of male students are more likely than parents of female students to believe that their children will stay in their hometowns after graduating from high school. In addition, parents of male students are more likely to hope that their sons will stay in their hometowns, while parents of female students are more likely to expect that their daughters will move to larger cities at least once.
　On the other hand, parents of both male and female students hope that their children will contribute to their hometown communities and seek a challenging life. However, parents of female students often perceive a challenging life as being in conflict with a stable life, while parents of male students typically associate it with not going university and not getting a stable job. Furthermore, it is suggested that when parents of male students express a desire for their children to pursue a challenging life, these students are more likely to remain in their hometowns after graduating from high school.
　This paper proposes that the pursuit of a new value to challenge the prevailing norms of competitive society may arise in mountainous areas; however, this encouragement may be limited to men.