Colloquium in June 2024
Da Eun Kwan (Doctor, Population Policy Lab, KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea)
This study aims to examine childcare network formation focusing on two cities, Seoul and Sejong City, in South Korea drawing on mixed methods.
The presence of supportive social networks should be relevant to families with young children, but there has been little effort to explore the childcare network configurations in South Korea. At the backdrop of the lowest-low fertility in South Korea, this study reconceptualizes social capital in childcare communities and examines the composition and structure of childcare networks and its factors.
This study highlights the differing patterns of childcare network formation across regions, suggesting that non-kinship childcare networks are positively correlated with childcare experience and possibly to fertility. Policy implications will be discussed.
