Effect of married women’s economic activity type on the private education expenditure for children in Korea
사회보장연구
2012, vol.28, no.3, pp.87~120(33 pages)
UCI : http://uci.or.kr/G704-000662.2012.28.3.002
한국사회보장학회
연구분야 : 사회과학 > 사회보장연구
석재은
(한림대학교); 김봉근
초록
소득불평등, 양극화가 현재의 문제에 그치지 않고 부모세대를 넘어 자녀세대에게까지 계층 이동성을 제약한다는 것은 훨씬 더 심각한 문제이다. 이 연구는 세대 간 계층 비이동성을 야기하는 핵심적 요인으로 계층별 자녀교육비 지출 격차에 주목하는 동시에 자녀의 사교육비 투자에 실질적 결정자라 할 수 있는 엄마의 역할에 주목하여, 엄마의 경제활동 유형에 따른 자녀의 사교육비 투자에 대한 영향을 분석하였다. 이를 위해 엄마의 경제활동 특성을 군집분석을 통해 독립형, 생계형, 보탬형, 비경제 활동형으로 유형화하고, 한국 엄마의 경제활동의 특성에 따라 소득계층별로 자녀 사교육비 지출에 어떠한 영향을 미치는가를 밝히고자 하였다. 한국노동패널자료 10차 및 11차 자료 중 근로연령층(20-59세) 유배우 및 유자녀(만 5-18세) 가구를 추출하여 분석 자료로 활용하였다. 분석결과, 소득 5분위의 사교육비 지출수준은 소득 1분위의 5.4배였으며, 여성의 경제활동 유형별로는 독립형이 월 38.4만원으로 가장 높고, 비경제 활동형 월 34.1만원, 보탬형 월 28.3만원, 생계형 월 19.6만원 순이었다. 그러나 가구소득 등을 통제한 상태에서 엄마의 경제활동 유형이 자녀 사교육비 지출수준에 미친 영향에 대한 다중 회귀분석 결과는 비경제활동형>독립형>생계형 순으로 높게 나타났으며, 보탬형은 통계적으로 유의하지 않았다. 소득계층 집단별로 분석한 결과에서는 고소득층 집단에서는 비경제 활동형에 비해 독립형이 유의미하게 자녀 사교육비 지출수준이 낮았고, 중간소득층 집단에서는 비경제 활동형에 비해 생계형이 유의미하게 동 지출이 낮았으며, 저소득층 집단에서는 여성의 경제활동 유형은 유의하지 않았다. 이러한 결과는 한국은 경제활동 취업여성보다 비경제활동 전업주부가 가용한 물질적 자원에 여유가 있으며, 비경제활동 전업주부들이 풍부한 시간자원을 활용하여 자녀의 사교육을 더 원활히 지원하는 행태가 나타나고 있음을 시사한다. 즉, 자녀의 사교육비 투자가 부모의 ‘경제적 자원’과 ‘시간적 자원’의 함수라고 할 때, 본 연구결과에서 시간자원 역시 경제적 자원과 마찬가지로 사교육 투자 불평등을 강화하는 방향으로 작용한다는 것이 밝혀졌다.
It would be a very serious problem if the income inequality and polarization are transmitted from the parent’s generation to the next generation and restrict the social mobility of the children’s generation. This study focused on the role of mothers, the practical decision-makers in relation to the investment in their children’s private education, while bringing the focus to the disparity in private education expenditure for children among different social classes, the essential factor that causes intergenerational social class immobility. This study attempted to take an empirical approach to the issue mentioned above on the assumption that the investment in the children’s private education would be affected by the type of mothers’ economic activities. Thus, the characteristics of mothers’ economic activities were classified into several categories, i.e., independent type, livelihood type, financial supplementation type, and noneconomic activity type, based on the analysis of the groups, and this study attempted to determine the effect that the characteristics of Korean mothers’ economic activities would have on the private education expenditure for children by income class.
For the analysis, the data were obtained by sampling the households with married spouse and children(aged between 5 and 18) among the working age class(aged between 20 and 59) from the 10th and 11th editions published by the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study. The per-capita expenditures for children’s private education were examined by income quintile. It was found that the monthly per-capita spending on the private education for children was KRW 96,000 in the lowest 20% income bracket and KRW 514,000 in the highest 20% income bracket. This shows that the per-capita expenditure for the private education of children in the highest income bracket was approximately 5.4 times higher than that for the private education of children in the lowest income bracket. Based on the type of women’s economic activities, the monthly per-capita expenditure for the private education of children was KRW 384,000 among the independent type, the highest, followed by the non-economic activity type with KRW 341,000, financial supplementation type with KRW 283,000, and livelihood type with KRW 196,000.
The results of the multiple regression analysis - pertaining to the effect that the characteristics of mothers’ economic activities would have on the expenditure for the private education of children - showed that the noneconomic activity type had the largest private education expenditure for children, followed by the independent and livelihood type, when the household income, etc., were controlled. Meanwhile, the financial supplementation type did not exhibit statistical significance. Based on the results of analysis by income class, it was found that the independent type had significantly lower expenditure for the private education of their children compared to the noneconomic activity type in the high income class, while the livelihood type had significantly lower expenditure for the private education of their children compared to the noneconomic activity type in the mid-level income class.
Meanwhile, the type of women’s economic activities was not statistically significant in the low income class. Those results imply that full-time house wives who are not engaged in economic activities have more available material resources compared to the working women and tend to have more free time and leverage to provide support for the private education of children in Korea.
