In the ageing era, elders who faced old age without preparation are causing various social problems and ways of preparing for old age are emerging as important social issues. However, middle-aged adults who need to prepare for their later life are hav...
In the ageing era, elders who faced old age without preparation are causing various social problems and ways of preparing for old age are emerging as important social issues. However, middle-aged adults who need to prepare for their later life are having difficulty in preparing for their own later years due to the increased period of supporting parents and excessive education expenditure of their children.
Therefore, to investigate the effects of family support burdens on middle-aged people’s preparation for later life, this study surveyed the middle-aged people between 40 to 59 years of age living in Seoul from Jun 25 to Aug 16, 2018, and used total 286 copies excluding the ones with unreliable response on the analysis. This study conducted frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis on the collected data using SPSS 21.0 Program. The research results are summarized as follows.
First, according to the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, most people had college graduation or further degrees, and highest percentage for occupation was unemployed(including housewife). Many people had 2 children, and 4~4.99 million won was the highest for average monthly household income. Child support expense and supporting expense of parents showed a considerable difference as less than 500,000~1 million won was the highest for child support expense and less than 500,000 won was the highest for supporting expense of parents.
Secondly, for degree of preparation for later life of the respondents, most people believed that they need to prepare for their later life and believed that 40’s was the most appropriate time to start preparing for their later life. Less than 200,000∼500,000 won(33.9%) was the highest for monthly saving for later life and pension, 58.3% responded that retirement saving they were preparing for was inadequate, and national pension was the highest for preparation method for later life(31.9%). The overall preparation score for later life was 48.26 out of 100.
Thirdly, according to the burden of family support of the middle aged, it was identified that people feel more burden by child rearing than supporting parents as the average of child rearing burden was 3.07 points and burden for supporting parents was 2.65 points.
Fourthly, for degree of preparation for later life, physical preparation for later life(2.99 pts) was being prepared well followed by preparation for leisure(2.96 pts), economic preparation(2.85 pts), and social relationship(2.83 pts) in later life.
Fifthly, parenting burden in middle age showed a significant difference by gender, age, career, and child rearing expense; female, 40s, unemployed (including housewife), and higher child rearing expense showed higher burden for child support. On the other hand, it was identified that female, unemployed (including housewife), and higher parent child support expense showed higher burden for supporting parents as a sense of burden for supporting parents showed a significant difference by gender, career, and parent support expense.
Sixthly, the degree of preparation for later life of middle aged people showed a significant difference by age, academic background, and monthly household income. That is, those who were older, with higher educational level, and higher monthly household income prepared better for later life.
Lastly, according to the result of conducting multiple regression analysis to identify influencing factors on preparation for later life, it was identified that age, academic background, monthly household income, and burden for child rearing made significant effects on physical preparation for later life; gender, age, academic background, number of children, and monthly household income on financial preparation for later life; gender, age, academic background, monthly household income, and burden for child rearing on preparing for social relationship in later life; and gender, age, academic background, and child rearing burdens on preparation for leisure. Those who were female, older, had higher academic background and higher monthly household income, and had fewer child and lower child rearing burdens showed higher degree of preparation for later life.
The significance of this study is that it has verified child rearing burdens and burdens for supporting parents of middle-aged people at the same time. Also, this study has verified by subdividing preparation for later life into physical, financial, social relationship, and preparation for leisure. Suggestions for social welfare alternatives based on the analysis results are as follows. First, to reduce child rearing burden of middle-aged people, it is necessary to make practical education policy that can reduce burden of expense by child rearing and to develop a variety of jobs and employment education for adult children. Also, individualized educational program for systematic preparation for later life needs to be developed and conducted on middle-aged people, and requires social attention such as campaign for preparation for later life. Moreover, design program for preparing later life is considered necessary for various social classes such as people just starting out in their career and newlyweds early to prepare for aging period that became longer. Lastly, it would be necessary to balance preparation for later life and child rearing and to put effort to raise the level of preparation for later life.
Keywords: middle-aged people, family support burdens, child rearing burdens, parent support burdens, preparation for later life