부양의식, 형제자매 지원과 노부모 동거에 대한 혜택-비용 지각 - 도시와 농촌 비교를 중심으로 -

Korean Caregiver's Perceived Benefits and Costs of the Coresidence with the Elderly Parents - focused on Rural and Urban Difference -

In spite of rapid sociocultural changes and an increase in the number of nuclear families in recent years, quite many families in Korea still have taken the extended family form where daughter-in-law provides care for the elderly parents. Even though the nature of the inter-generational relationship in Korea is reciprocal in many regards, most of the studies looked at the burden or costs of coresidence with the elderly parents while relatively little attention has been given to the positive side of the coresidence. This study is an attempt to fill this gap in the area. The purpose of this study is to examine not only the costs but also benefits of the coresidence with the elderly parents. We also explore whether there is a rural-urban differences in costs and benefits of coresidence and related factors. For the purpose, data were gathered from 876 daughters-in-law of three generational family both in rural and urban area, using structured questionnaire. The statistical methods used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, cross tables, and regression analysis with SPSS/PC+ program. The major findings of this study were as follows: Marital and economic status of the elderly parents, age, job status and filial responsibility attitude of caregiver, sibling support, and coresidence duration were the significant variables predicting the level of perceived benefits. Marital status of elderly parents, income, job status, educational level, and filial responsibility altitude of caregiver, residence region affected the level of perceived costs. Rural-urban differences are found in many aspects of coresidence experiences and related factors. Rural caregivers receive higher level of the sibling support, have more traditional final responsibility altitude and perceived less costs and more benefit than urban caregivers. There also are differences in the factors influencing the level of perceived costs and benefits between rural and urban area. Level of sibling support and final responsibility attitude have significant impact on both the perceived costs and benefits. But there are differences in terms of that perceived costs and benefits of urban caregivers are affected by job status of caregivers while those of rural caregivers are affected by educational level of caregivers and marital status of elderly. The results confirm that Korean caregivers experience both positive and negative aspects of coresidence and shows that the nature of the inter-generational relationships differ between rural and urban Korea.