• 가정과삶의질연구
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.1-19
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• 2016

This study attempted to assess the durability of the trend in increasing childcare time and to get some clues based on research findings to make efficient policy interventions in case there is a need to continue or reverse course for such trend. In doing so, a total of 9,668 diaries from the 2004, 2009, and 2014 Korean Time Use Survey were analyzed targeting parents with a preschooler as their eldest child. Parental time was regressed on parents' weekly work hours, mother's relative income, parents' education and gender role attitudes. Furthermore, increase in parental childcare time was decomposed into parts that were attributable to differences in the means and slopes of associated factors. Analytic results revealed that; parents' weekly work hours were associated with time spent on childcare from 2004 to 2014; the negative relationship between mother's relative earnings and her childcare time in 2004 and 2009 was reversed to a positive one in 2014; parent's education had stronger positive effects on father's than on mother's childcare time; parents' gender role attitudes had a weak association with childcare time; social and cultural changes such as decrease in work hours, higher education, more egalitarian gender role attitudes, and rise in women's wages contributed to the increase in parental childcare time, but in a different way for mothers and fathers. By taking into account the social and cultural context behind the changes, this study is able to provide a more constructive implications for childcare policy in Korea.