A Study of Decision-Making Structure of Rural Couples

농가부부의 의사결정 구조 분석

The purposes of this study were to explore decision-making patterns of rural couples and to clarify the differences between socio-demographic variables related to the patterns. The data were gathered from 1,870 rural households through interviews with structured questionnaire in the 187 rural communities sampled by multi-staged cluster stratified sampling method in November 2005. A total of 1,106 farm households including householder and spouse participated in the interview. The results of this study were as follows: First, in general, mainly householder made decision-making in the areas of dealing with real estate and selling farm products, while spouse decided in the areas of choosing television channel and deciding living expenses. Second, there were no significant differences of patterns by age, education and income level. Third, decision-making patterns were significantly different by sex and family type. According to the results of the study, in farm household, 'pattern of mainly householder or husband decision-making' was high yet as regarding agricultural decision making. Therefore, researchers suggested that educational program could be helpful for rural couples to participate in practicing gender equity decision- making.