Research shows that Korean teenagers spend an average of an hour and half with their parents, while they wish they could spend more time with each other. Even the hour and half was often spent watching TV together. (Image : Kobizmedia / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Research shows that Korean teenagers spend an average of an hour and half with their parents, while they wish they could spend more time with each other. Even the hour and half was often spent watching TV together.
IKEA, a multinational furniture company from Sweden, conducted an online survey on 300,000 parents and children from 12 countries including Korea, Japan, France, Sweden and England. The results were published in a report called ‘Play Report’.
According to the report, 73 percent of the Korean parents answered that they want to spend more time with their families, which is equivalent to the average of the 12 countries, and higher than Sweden (64 percent), Germany (68 percent) and England (72 percent).
A slight majority of 56 percent of Korean children between the ages of 7 and 12 answered that they wanted their parents to play with them more. This was nine percent higher than the average (47 percent).
The report shows that Korean parents and children all want to spend more time with each other. However, the time they shared was relatively short.
Korean teens aged between 13 and 18 spent an average of 1.5 hours with their parents during weekdays. It was the shortest among the 12 countries that the survey was conducted in.
Even on the weekends, they spent an average of 5.1 hours, which was also the lowest among the 12 countries, as the total average was 7.2 hours.
However, Koreans often spent their short ‘quality time’ watching TV, with 75 percent of the teens and 69 percent of children answering that the activity they do most with their parents is watching TV.
The report says that teens in Korea, China and India feel that their parents force them to study too much other than their studies at school. In the meantime, they showed a tendency to want to spend more time with their parents, as the portion increased from 38 percent in 2009 to 47 percent last year.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
