Work–Care Arrangements Among Single Parents In South Korea: The Relationship between Formal and Informal Care and Employment

Background and Purpose
All children require care, but those aged 0–5 are particularly dependent on intensive caregiving. At the same time, parents, as primary caregivers, must participate in paid work, requiring them to allocate limited time between work and care. This tension is especially pronounced for single parents, who must manage both responsibilities without a partner. Although South Korea has implemented a universal early childhood education and care (ECEC) system since 2013, little is known about how single parents combine paid work and caregiving within this institutional context. In contrast, informal care may play a more direct role than formal care in enabling single-parent households to sustain employment. This study examines how different care arrangements are associated with employment among single parents, with a particular focus on gender differences.

Methods
Using cross-sectional data from the Population and Housing Census in South Korea, we analyze 1,116 single-parent households with one child aged 0–5. Care arrangements are categorized into single (e.g., parent, grandparent, housekeeper, relative, ECEC care), and combined arrangements (e.g., parent + ECEC, grandparent + ECEC). We examine how these configurations are associated with employment and conduct gender-disaggregated analyses to compare single mothers and single fathers.

Results
Results show substantial variation in employment across care arrangements and by gender. Single fathers maintain relatively high employment rates (93.27%) across care types, whereas single mothers exhibit lower employment rates (64%) and greater sensitivity to care arrangements (Pearson’s χ²(1) = 92.85, p < .001). In the full sample, the overall difference across care arrangements was statistically significant (Pearson’s χ²(7) = 124.45, p < .001), and employment was more strongly associated with informal care, particularly single grandparental care (95.29%), than with single ECEC care (79.62%). Notably, among single fathers, employment status did not significantly differ by care arrangement. In contrast, among single mothers, employment status varied significantly across care arrangements (Pearson’s χ²(7) = 109.92, p < .001). Among single mothers, employment was highest in single grandparental care arrangements (95.56%). In comparison, the employment rate was 74.3% for single ECEC care and 44% for parent care.

Conclusion and Implications
These findings indicate that current formal childcare services alone are insufficient to support work–care reconciliation among single parents in South Korea, particularly single mothers. Informal care, especially grandparental support, remains essential for sustaining employment, revealing a continued reliance on family-based care. Against the backdrop of South Korea, where universal ECEC has become firmly established, the findings suggest that a more flexible and diversified formal care system is needed to support a wider range of work arrangements. In addition, given that informal care appears to make a meaningful contribution to supporting the employment of single mothers, the formalization of institutional support for informal grandparental care may serve as an effective and practical policy direction. By providing population-level evidence on work–care arrangements among single mothers and fathers in a universal childcare context, this study contributes to understanding the limits of formal care systems and informs more responsive policy design.