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By Kim Jae-heun
Six in 10 parents in Korea want their child to become a doctor or lawyer or have another other professional career, a study showed Monday.
According to a survey by the Korean Institute of Child Care and Education (KICCE), 58.7 percent of 316 parents said they expect their child to have a professional job. The respondents were parents living in Seoul with children aged between two and five years old.
Following the lucrative professional careers, they chose artist, musician or entertainer as their second choice at 10.9 percent, followed by teacher with 9.9 percent, and office worker or technician with 8 percent.
Parents' occupation preference for their child also differed according to the child's gender. Those with a son picked office worker or technician as their second choice; while parents with a daughter chose teacher or entertainer.
Parents in other countries want their children to become doctors or lawyers too.
The institute surveyed 300 parents in four other cities: Tokyo, Taipei, New York and Helsinki and they all picked professional jobs as their top choice.
However, Japanese and Taiwanese parents picked office worker or technician as their second choice while American and Finnish parents picked CEO.
Parents from the other four countries had a higher percentage of agreement than Korean parents to give lifetime emotional support to their child.
Only 48.4 percent of Korean parents said they were willing to give lifetime emotional support to their child whereas all Finnish, American and Taiwanese parents showed a far more positive response rate of over 90 percent.
