More grownup children live with parents

Koreans once held that when children became adults, they supported their parents. However, this is no longer the general trend, with more aging parents having to support adult sons and daughters, according to a Seoul City report Friday.

The number of people in their 30s or 40s still living at home with their parents almost doubled over the last decade, mainly because of the trend to marry later than before or because of financial and other difficulties that keep them from living independently.

According to the report based on data from Statistics Korea, 484,600 citizens in their 30s or 40s lived with their parents in 2010, a 91.4-percent increase from 253,200 in 2000.

In 2011, senior citizens aged over 60 who still lived with their children were asked why and 39.5 percent cited “to support our children,” because their adult children were unable to support themselves as a result of financial difficulties or grandchildren were in need of care.

This was followed by the inverse situation of “children supporting them,” with 32.2 percent saying the elderly couldn’t live alone due to financial issues or health problems.

“The average age for people to marry has become older and many young adults have extended their period of studying at colleges or in other education because of the high unemployment rate. Also a greater number of women are working. Consequently many in their 30s or 40s can’t deal with financial burdens or childcare issues on their own and have to seek help from their parents,” a city official said.

But such living conditions are not what the parents really want, as research showed only about one third of senior citizens answered that they prefer to live with their children.

“The ratio of elderly hoping to live with their children dropped to 29.2 percent in 2011 from 49.3 percent in 2005. More and more elderly citizens don’t want to rely on their children,” the official said.

It seems both parents and children agree on that point as only 30.4 percent of citizens aged 15 and over said children are obliged to support their parents in 2010, a huge drop from 60.7 percent in 2006. Instead a growing number of people believe the government and a better social welfare system should shoulder the responsibility of supporting the elderly. . <Korea Times/Kim Rahn>

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