Disintegration and Reconstruction of the Family/Kinship Structure Among the Rural Families of Korea

가족/친족 구조의 해체와 재구성 II : 농촌지역 실태조사를 중심으로

This study focused on the disintegration and reconstruction of the family/kinship structure among the rural families of Korea. For this study, detailed data about the value related to the family/kinship, the family relationship, The attitude of divorce and remarriage, the social network, and the family/kin rites are gathered A total 593 subjects completed structured questionnaires. Major conclusion of the study are as follows : First, most of the rural respondents are found to support familism and boy preference slightly, and not to agree the reward of child value. So, their attitudes toward traditional values are changing slowly than urban residents. Second, the rural respondents shared the common perceptions that spousal and parent-child relationships has been changed toward the direction that the positions of wives and children are respected and the their influences are increased in the past 10 years. In addition, generational differences in the perceptions of relationship change and appropriate roles of wives and husbands are discovered. However, sex differences previously revealed in Seoul study were not found in the case of rural respondents. Third, generally, there are both remaining and changing aspects of conservative attitude toward divorce and remarriage, the level of change is different according to age and sex. And the difference by age is stronger than by sex. Fourth, the social networks of the respondents is characterized by two distinct trends, namely, strong parent-adult child ties and the close relationships between neighbors. fifthly, in the family/kin rites, traditional aspects coexist with changing aspects under the influence of industrialization and westernization. But the aspects of attitudes toward rites, it is showed the non-traditional tendency. Respondents who support westernization and socialization of family rites are young, highly eamed, and Christian.