"Parents Should Be Cared for by Children" Is an Old Saying... Only 4% Consider Marriage and Childbirth Essential

Children and Parental Support Responsibilities 'Halved'
Changing Marriage Values Among Young Women

Only one in five Koreans believes that "supporting parents is the children's responsibility." This figure has sharply declined compared to 15 years ago when more than half of the population responded that children should take care of their parents.

According to the 2022 Korea Welfare Panel Survey and Analysis Report released by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs on the 26th, only 21.4% agreed with the statement "the responsibility of supporting parents lies with the children." Among them, 3.1% "strongly agreed" and 18.3% "agreed."

Responses of "disagree" and "strongly disagree" were 41.9% and 7.3%, respectively, meaning that nearly half of the respondents did not agree with the responsibility of supporting parents.

Perceptions of childcare have also changed significantly. In the 2007 survey, 64.7% agreed with the statement "young children should be cared for at home by their mothers," but in last year's survey, this dropped to only 39.6%.

Perceptions of welfare systems have also shifted. Opposition to the statement "welfare should only be provided to the poor" was 41.9%, higher than the 34.8% who agreed, indicating a preference for universal welfare. Additionally, 71.4% opposed the idea that "national health insurance should be reduced and private medical insurance expanded."

Unlike in the past when the burden of caring for the elderly or children was solely on the family, there is now a growing perception that it is the responsibility of society and the state.

According to a study in Social Welfare Research titled "The Impact of Young Adults' Quality of Life and Social Perceptions on Attitudes Toward Marriage and Childbirth," a survey of 281 unmarried men and women aged 20 to 34 found that only 4.0% of women agreed that "marriage and childbirth are essential in a woman's life."

Furthermore, 53.2% of women responded that "marriage and childbirth are not important in a woman's life," exceeding half, while 61.3% of men answered that "marriage and childbirth are important in a woman's life."