육아가구의 삶의 질 제고 방안

Abstract

In 2023, the number of newborns in Korea was approximately 230,000, which is less than half the 485,000 recorded in 2012, 11 years ago. The purpose of this study is to examine the quality of life of parents raising children and to explore ways in which they can pursue quality of life while managing the various aspects of life, including child-rearing in the era of low birth rates. This study was conducted through literature review, surveys, in-depth interviews, and secondary data analysis using 2019 Korean Time Use Survey. First, the survey included 1,614 households with children and 410 childless households, with a total of 2,024 participants. Parenting households were sampled by dividing them into groups based on the age of the first child, including infants, toddlers, lower elementary school, and upper elementary school households. Childless households were sampled according to the age distribution of parenting households. In the survey examining the quality of life of parenting households, various life domains were considered, such as subjective well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, health, education, leisure, family life, social relationships, working life, and material well-being. The key findings revealed that while worries and depression levels were higher among parenting households compared to non-parenting households, life satisfaction, happiness, and life meaning were very high among infant households. Furthermore, parenting households showed higher levels of trust in neighbors and strangers compared to non-parenting households, indicating stronger community engagement of parenting households. However, parenting households showed lower levels of regular exercise, sleep quality, satisfaction with leisure activities, and perceived adequacy of leisure time, suggesting that support may be needed in these areas. Overall, this study compared the quality of life between parenting and non-parenting households, as well as across households with children of different ages. Notably, in parenting households, women showed significantly lower levels of satisfaction with household chores and happiness compared to men, indicating a more pronounced gender difference in parenting households compared to non-parenting households. Additionally, using 2019 Korean Time Use Survey data, the study analyzed the daily time allocation of parents who are raising children. The time-use analysis divided the daily time of parents into personal maintenance time, obligatory time, and discretionary time, and compared the time distribution between parenting and non-parenting households. It was found that non-parenting households spent 15.5 minutes more on personal maintenance time and 57.7 minutes more on discretionary time compared to parenting households. On the other hand, parenting households spent 73.2 minutes more on obligatory time, including time for care-giving. Based on these results, the study suggests several policy recommendations by the age of children. For parents of infants, health promotion programs and early child-rearing consultation support were recommended. For parenting households with elementary school-aged children, expanding after-school program support, recognizing the caregiving experience of women who have left the workforce, and providing cultural activities for families raising children were proposed. Above all, the study stresses the need to expand a parenting-friendly culture where parenting support systems are more widely utilized.