Current State of the Childrearing Culture in Korean Families

가정생활 문화에 대한 의식과 실태: 한국인의 양육문화

This study was carried out with the purpose of capturing current state of Korean family life culture related to childrearing. The Questionnaire developed for this study in order to delineate the values and perceptions related to general childrearing practices in present Korean families consisted of 73 items concerning prenatal care and child birth, child caring and rearing, and role division and value education. Subjects were mothers of young and primary school children currenly residing in Seoul area and Choongchung province of South Korea. Four hundred and four questionnaires were analyzed, and the summary of results were as follows. First, both the respect for children's individual needs concerning food, clothing, and health-related behaviors and the pursuit of convenience in everyday life on the part of mothers appeared to be important and valued by Korean mothers. Second, the basic values and traditional meanings of family events such as prenatal care, children's birthday, especiall the first one, and family rituals and gatherings still appeared to be exsiting and influential, but there seemed to have been some changes both in their formal aspects and detail contents. Third, meaningful differences in childrearing attitudes were found according to mother's place of growth, educational level, and her employment status. Finally, traditional distinction between sexes and sex-role division in childrearing seemed to have weakened to some extent, which was particularly among mothers with higher educational level or residing in big cities.