Six out of 10 parents in South Korea are willing to help out their grown children should they face any financial difficulties, a survey showed Thursday.
In the poll conducted on 437 parents in their 50s and 60s with unmarried children aged 20 and older, 64.8 percent said they would offer financial help.
The younger the parents were, and the higher their education levels were, the more willing the parents were to financially help out their adult children, the survey conducted by Samsung Life Retirement Research Center showed.
Among those in their 50s, 66.0 percent said they would help out, while 66.9 percent of those with college diplomas said they were willing to help.
Those who had not yet retired also tended to be more willing to offer financial help at 67.8 percent, compared to 56.9 percent of retired parents.
Of the respondents, 47.1 percent said they would take care of their future grandchild if necessary.
Parents with lower incomes (less than 3 million won monthly) were more eager to take care of the grandchildren with 55.8 percent, compared to 45.0 percent of parents with more than 3 million won in monthly income.
Among the parents, 13.5 percent said they deemed it “an obvious duty” of the parents to give financial support to their children regardless of age. Some 10.1 percent said they believed in sacrificing even though it is burdensome.
Only 8 percent said their grown children should solve their own financial problems themselves.
The survey also revealed that 80.3 percent actually had more than one incidence of paying living expenses for their adult children. Some 31.4 percent said they have paid their children’s credit card bills for them.
Meanwhile, the same survey conducted on 369 unmarried people in their 20s and 30s with at least one parent surviving showed that 87.2 percent of them were willing to financially help their parents in their retirement years.
Some 49.2 percent of them said they believed it was their filial duty to do so.
(khnews@heraldcorp.co.kr)
