4 in 10 parents support grown-up children: report

Four in 10 Korean parents were found to continuously support their grown-up children regardless of whether they were employed or married, a report showed Sunday.

According to the report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 39 percent of adult children continued to receive financial support from their parents last year.

The result was based on a two-month phone survey on 262 parents aged between 40 and 64 who have children aged 25 or older.

Of the grown-up children, about 68 percent of the children were living with their parents. About 87 percent were unmarried while 59 percent were employed.

The parents spent an average of 740,000 won ($623) per month on their children in the past year, with more than half of them using under 500,000 won a month.

While 42 percent of the parents felt they could handle the support for their children, 31.6 percent said it was burdensome, with 14 percent feeling it was very burdensome.

As for the types of challenges faced by the parents, 39 percent picked financial burden, followed by conflicts with their children at 30 percent and constraints on their personal life at 10 percent.

Meanwhile, a majority of the parents said that they provided little emotional support for the children, with about 40 percent saying that they never gave it.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)