Concepts of deviance in children and adolescents: The case of Japan

This paper reviews the theoretical, clinical, and empirical literature on three forms of deviance in Japan: bullying, school refusal, and children's violence against parents. These behaviors are among the most widely discussed and extensively researched behavioral problems of children and adolescents in Japan today, yet they occur with relatively low frequency compared with other industrialized nations This paper analyzes the relationship among Japanese child‐rearing goals, traditional values, interpersonal dynamics, and concepts of deviance in children and adolescents and explores the emergence of these expressions of deviant behavior as major social problems in Japan. Application of this type of sociocultural‐psychological analysis to the study of deviance in American society is considered.