Staff Profile

2026.07.24.

Areas of Expertise

Family Development,  Family-focused clinical understanding,  Lifespan Developmental Psychology

Research Subjects

Theoretical research on lifespan changes in family relationships and relational difficulties

Research Keywords

Parent–child and family relationships,  Lifespan development,  Generational cycle,  Mutuality

Research Overview

My research focuses on families, particularly parent–child relationships, exploring how parents and children experience their roles and relationships across the lifespan, and how we can better understand the difficulties and conflicts that accompany changes in these relationships in order to support their development and everyday lives.

For children, parents are the first significant others they encounter in life, and parent–child and family relationships are the earliest relationships they experience, preceding all other relationships.

Although this may seem self-evident and is often not consciously recognized in everyday life, my research suggests that the significance of these relationships becomes particularly salient during life transitions or important decisions in our lives. In some cases, changes in these relationships can profoundly unsettle one’s sense of self and meaning in life.

Moreover, parent–child relationships are not simply dyadic relationships between parents and children. Rather, they are multilayered and extend across multiple generations, including those that precede and follow them. Even after becoming parents themselves, individuals continue to experience themselves as children in relation to their own parents, and these experiences in turn shape how they enact parenthood. To understand such interconnected and temporally extended relationships, a broader conceptual framework is needed. One such framework is Erik Erikson’s concept of the “generational cycle.”

Drawing on this concept, I reexamine what it means to live one’s own life within family and parent–child relationships, as well as the adversities families face, including child maltreatment, and seek to further develop the concept itself.

Through this work, I hope to support the growth and well-being of children, parents, and families across the lifespan.

Simplified curriculum vitae

Society Affiliation

Japan Society of Developmental Psychology, Japanese Research Association of Psychological Science, Japanese Association of Qualitative Psychology, Japan Society of Youth and Adolescent Psychology

Classes in charge

Undergraduate school: Family Psychology, Clinical Family Development Studies (Advanced Seminar)
Graduate school: Advanced Topics in Family Clinical Practice

Detailed profile