Who Cares for Korean Children? Changes in Family-Based and Outsourced Forms of Childcare over Two Decades, 2000-2020

Who takes care of young children during the daytime in South Korea? Despite a comparably high level of educational attainment, a substantial share of Korean women continue to stop working due to childcare. Even though the government has set up more public childcare centers, the strong norm for intensive mothering and growing competition for children’s educational success have prevented substantial reduction of childcare burden to mothers. Moreover, the rise of life expectancy has made grandparents available for childcare to a growing share of families. This paper investigates changes in the major forms of childcare among Korean families with young children over two decades between 2000 and 2020. Using individual- and familial-level data from 2% Census microdata, we examine how the use of family-based (e.g., parents or grandparents) vs. outsourced forms (e.g., childcare center) of childcare forms has changed or persisted over the two decades in the midst of rapid fertility decline. The study focuses on heterogeneity in the use of different forms of childcare by parental education. The preliminary results show that 1) the share of Korean parents who exclusively rely on family-based forms of childcare has increased, especially in 2020 (i.e., during COVID-19); 2) the increased use of family-based forms of childcare is more evident for parents with BA+ than for parents with high school or less; 3) mothers with BA+ increased their labor force participation but also increased their reliance on grandparents for childcare (among working mothers). Mothers with BA+ who are not working have increasingly took care of their children by themselves. We discuss the implications of our findings for inequality in family life between those with lower and higher education.