"Children Should Be Cared for at Home by Their Mother"...Opinion Reversed for the First Time in 18 Years

Agreement 33.83% vs Disagreement 34.12%

In 2007, Agreement Reached 64.7%

For the first time, the number of respondents disagreeing with the perception that "children should be cared for at home by their mother" has surpassed those in agreement. This is a first in the 18 years since the related survey began in 2007.

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According to the "20th Korea Welfare Panel Survey and Analysis Report" by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs released on May 18, 2026, 34.12% of respondents disagreed with the statement "children should be cared for at home by their mother." This slightly exceeds the 33.83% who agreed. It is the first time since the perception survey was made public in 2007 that the rate of disagreement has surpassed agreement.

Specifically, 27.86% said they "disagree," while 6.26% said they "strongly disagree." In contrast, 26.91% "agree," and 6.92% "strongly agree." Meanwhile, 32.05% responded "neither agree nor disagree."

The atmosphere was different in the 2007 survey. At that time, 64.7% agreed with the statement "young children should be cared for at home by their mother," with 16.4% "strongly agreeing" and 48.3% "agreeing." The rate of disagreement was only 17.7%.

Over the past 18 years, the rate of agreement has decreased from 64.7% to 33.83%, while the rate of disagreement has nearly doubled from 17.7% to 34.12%.

In the past, the belief that caring for young children was primarily the mother's role was dominant. However, this stereotype has gradually weakened, driven by the increase in dual-income households, the expansion of women's economic participation, and the growing awareness of society's shared responsibility for caregiving.

This latest survey was conducted in the first half of last year, targeting 7,300 households from the Korea Welfare Panel. The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs has surveyed the Korea Welfare Panel annually since its launch in 2006, and every three years, it conducts an additional survey on welfare perceptions. The question "children should be cared for at home by their mother" is one of the items in this supplementary survey.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.