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Korean Women's Development Institute Releases Survey Results on May 8

Grandparents Spend an Average of Six Hours Per Day Caring for Grandchildren

Elderly Women Bear Greater Multiple Caregiving Burdens and Are More Likely to Consider Ceasin

It has been found that grandparents who care for their grandchildren spend an average of about 6 hours a day on caregiving. In addition, 6 out of 10 reported that their mental burden or stress has increased during the caregiving process.

The Korean Women's Development Institute announced on the 8th the results of an online survey conducted over about 20 days starting in July last year, targeting 1,063 grandparents with experience in caring for grandchildren.

The survey results showed that grandparents’ caregiving continues to play an important role in filling care gaps in many households. However, the burden is significantly greater for elderly women.

The participating grandparents cared for their grandchildren an average of 4.6 days per week on weekdays, spending an average of 6.04 hours per day, with the average weekly caregiving time reaching 26.83 hours.

More than half (53.3%) of grandparents caring for grandchildren experienced involuntary caregiving, meaning they did not want to provide care but could not refuse due to their children's circumstances. This burden was more pronounced among women than men, with 57.5% of women and 44.6% of men experiencing this, a difference of 12.9 percentage points.

Additionally, 51.1% of grandparents carried the burden of “multiple caregiving,” meaning they looked after not only grandchildren but also other family members such as spouses. This multiple caregiving burden was higher among women (56.4%) than men (40.1%).

The main reasons that grandparents’ care is needed even when public care services are used were identified as parents’ working hours, family values prioritizing caregiving, and the need for private education.

Caring for grandchildren had a considerable negative impact on the physical and mental health of elderly grandparents. After providing care, 73.7% reported increased physical fatigue, and 60.4% reported increased mental burden or stress. Additionally, 47.8% said that pre-existing illnesses or pain worsened. These negative changes were particularly pronounced among elderly women.

Among the grandparents caring for grandchildren, 46.8% said they had thought about quitting caregiving, with women (49.0%) higher than men (42.5%). Notably, 54.7% of elderly women caring for grandchildren aged 0 to 1 said they had considered stopping caregiving.

The main reasons for considering stopping caregiving were: “Because caring for grandchildren is too difficult” (46.7%), “Because I experience a lot of stress while caring for grandchildren” (12.1%), and “Because my health has deteriorated” (10.8%).

Kim Jongsook, President of the Korean Women's Development Institute, stated, “It is time to move away from relying on grandparents’ help and shift policy toward strengthening public care systems that guarantee parents time to care and offer reliable alternatives.”

The research team proposed policy tasks such as restructuring labor market time to guarantee parents’ caregiving time, improving the quality of after-school care for preschool children, and both expanding and enhancing the quality of care for elementary school students.