• 가정과삶의질연구
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.85-93
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Korean's value of children and perception of parenting difficulty through the agreement to the three kinds of Korean proverbs: difficulty of parenting, preference of son and value of daughter. Also, this study attempted to identify whether the value of children and the perceived difficulty of parenting measured by the agreement of the proverb is related to the number of children they thought as ideal before marriage and the number of children they actually have. Total 385 married men and women who have a job participated in the survey. Main result is as follows. 1) In most cases, the ideal number of children was at least equal or more than the actual number of children. 2) The subjects showed higher degree of agreement to the proverbs regarding the difficulty of parenting than the preference of son or the value of daughter. 3) The degree of agreement to each kind of proverbs were different in terms of some demographic variables such as age and sex. 4) When the age effect controlled, the ideal number of son had correlation with the agreement to the son-preference proverbs while the ideal number of daughter or total children had no correlation with agreement to any kinds of proverb. The actual number of son was positively correlated with agreement to the son-preference proverbs while actual number of daughter was negatively correlated with it. In conclusion, this study suggests the Korean's value of children has been rapidly changing and it has, in part, an effect on the number of children they want to have or they actually have.