The biggest cause of family conflict was cited as health issues of family members.
On the 17th, according to the '2024 Korean Welfare Panel Survey Analysis Report' by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Social Welfare Research Institute at Seoul National University, the household members of participating households identified 'health of family members' as the most common factor causing worries and conflicts within families over the past year.
The research team surveyed and analyzed the problems and coping methods that occurred within families over the year in 7,499 completed households out of 7,821 welfare panel households surveyed over four months from February 26 of last year.
As a result of the analysis, among the households that responded that they had 'no particular difficulties' (53.81%), looking at the primary response items of the remaining households, 54.85% cited 'health of family members' as the biggest cause of family conflict.
'Economic difficulties,' such as liabilities or credit card debt, followed with 18.19%, and 'employment and unemployment of family members' took third place with 8.34%. This was followed by 'children's education or behavior' (4.7%), 'housing-related issues' (4.15%), 'children's marriage issues' (3.74%), 'relationships among family members' (2.92%), others (2.17%), 'alcohol use by family members' (0.79%), 'violence within the family' (0.08%), and 'family members running away' (0.07%).
When examining the responses to the same question by income group, 61.12% of low-income households (60% or below median income) cited health issues of family members as the most important cause of family conflict. This differed somewhat from the responses of general households (43.39%). The response that 'economic difficulties' are causes of family worries was also higher among low-income households at 20.17% compared to general households (16.93%).
Meanwhile, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs has been conducting the Korean Welfare Panel Survey annually since 2006 to understand living conditions and welfare needs across various demographic groups.