The Epoch of Many Elders
A Literature Review on South Korea
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.572Keywords:
South Korea, Elderly, suicideAbstract
The elderly population in South Korea is plagued by a variety of issues: they suffer from a lack of income and a high poverty rate and a lack of a robust governmental support system. Most telling, they also face the highest suicide rate among OECD nations. These facts, coupled with their high percentage rate vis-à-vis the youth, make the elderly demographic ripe for research. In particular, this paper examines the state’s treatment towards its elderly. This paper reflects a literature review that examines a layout of studies on this underexplored field, including the influence of cultural and religious beliefs such as Confucianism, and the melancholy that resulted from the physically demanding labor produced by this demographic. It concludes with the idea that sociology in Korea should take this phenomenon seriously and that a lot more work remains to be done.
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