The Current State and Determinants of Korean Baby-Boomers' Welfare Consciousness

This study was conducted in order to assess the effect of variables influencing Korean baby-boomers' welfare consciousness. For this purpose, data from the $8^{th}$ supplementary survey of the Korea Welfare Panel in 2013 were analyzed. The subjects of analysis were 2,035 people who were born between 1955 and 1965 whose welfare panel data did not have missing values for the variables of the research model. According to the results of analysis, first, when the descriptive statistics of the major variables were analyzed, those showing a relatively high mean score among the sub-factors of the baby-boomers' welfare consciousness were 'expansion of expenditure for public assistance' (mean 3.65, SD .557), 'expansion of expenditure for social insurance' (mean 3.53, SD .646), and 'expansion of expenditure for social services' (mean 3.26, SD .424). The mean score of the baby-boomers' overall welfare consciousness was relatively high as 3.45 (SD .428), advocating the expansion of welfare expenditure. Second, the independent variables influencing the baby-boomers' welfare consciousness was found to have explanatory power of 12.9%. In the results of regression analysis, variables found to have a significant effect were gender (B=.100, t=2.573, p<.01), personal responsibility for poverty (B=-.151, t=-3.635, p<.01), social responsibility for poverty (B=.149, t=3.437, p<.001), and recipient's laziness (B=.251, t=6.578, p<.001). Based on these results were discussed major relevant policies.