A 70-year-old son looks at his 104-year-old wheelchair-bound mother at a senior care hospital in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province in this file photo taken on Sept. 14, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The perception that children should look after their parents is quickly disappearing, a report showed Sunday.
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs conducted a survey of 7,865 households, in which only 21.4 percent believed that children should be responsible for looking after their parents.
Another 29 percent neither agreed nor disagreed, while 49 percent disagreed with the idea.
In a 2007 survey, 52.6 percent believed that children should be responsible for looking after their parents. Only 24.3 percent said otherwise.
In a 2010 survey, only 40.8 percent agreed with the idea, which was still more than those who were against it (36.1 percent).
In a 2013 survey, the tide turned for the first time, with those who were against the idea (36 percent) surpassing those who agreed with it (35.4 percent).
In 2016, 33.2 percent agreed and 34.8 percent disagreed. In 2019, the gap widened to 23.3 percent agreeing, and 40.9 percent disagreeing with the idea.
The perception that mothers should stay at home to look after young children has also dropped over the last 15 years.
In a 2007 survey, 64.7 percent agreed with the idea. In a 2022 survey, only 39.6 percent agreed.
This indicates that there has been a significant change in the perception of family or gender roles over the last 15 years.
Unlike in the past, when families were mainly responsible for taking care of their children, more people now believe that society or the state should take more responsibility for child-rearing.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
