Changing Life Style of Elderly People in South Korea

我研究了韩国社会老年人生活方式改变的最近情况。田野调查是在城南市京济道(首尔都会区)、大田都会市和忠清南道农庄地区进行的。我发现总体趋势如下：1)老年父母晚年加入成年子女家庭的生活方式增加2)在农村组建三代家庭的困难3)经济条件下的多种生活选择4)由所有孩子共同承担赡养父母的责任等。与日本的生活方式相比，以下特点变得明显：1)与分开居住的孩子和邻居频繁接触；2)高工作率，特别是在农村地区，以及孩子的经济支持等。

I studied the recent situation of changing lifestyles of elderly people in South Korean society. The field research was held in Seongnam City Geonggi-do (Seoul Metropolitan area), Daejeon Metropolitan City and the farm village area of Chungcheongnam-do. I found the general trends as follows ; 1) increase of the lifestyle of elderly parents joining their grown children's families in later years 2) difficulty of forming the three-generation family in the countryside 3) varieties of living alternatives by economical condition 4) tendency to share the responsibility of supporting one's parents among all children, etc. Compared with the Japanese lifestyles, following characteristics became clear such as 1) frequent contacts with children living separately and with neighbors 2) high working rate especially in village areas and economical support from children, etc.