South Korean single parents are vulnerable to depression and job insecurity, and their young children are often left by themselves after school, a government study showed Tuesday.

The study, which surveyed a total of 2,552 single-parent households nationwide last year, revealed that 27 percent of the parents said they have no meaningful social support network at all -- not a single person they can speak or rely on -- when they face financial difficulties.

More than 65 percent of the households consisted of single mothers and their children.

The report showed that more than 60 percent of all Korean single parents are in their 40s, while 77 percent of them are divorcees. Also, 60 percent of them never received post-secondary education. More than 40 percent of them were relying on government subsidies and 78 percent never received any child support payments from noncustodial parents.

A significant portion of the parents -- more than 30 percent -- said they were in poor health. Also, the proportion of those who were suffering depression was much higher than the national average. Although 20 percent of the parents said they were depressed, only about 6 percent of them sought professional medical help. More than half of them said they simply “endured” the symptoms of the mental condition and 21.9 percent said they found comfort in alcohol.

The employment rate of the parents was almost 90 percent, which is much higher than the national average. Yet the study showed that a large number of them had very limited job security and were receiving low wages. Some 36.7 percent of them were in contract positions or working as day laborers. Another 15.3 percent of them had their own businesses or worked for family businesses without being paid. The average monthly income of single-parent households was 1.73 million won ($1,490), which was significantly lower than the national household average income of 3.9 million won.

The largest proportion of the parents were working in the service sector and almost half of them worked more than 10 hours a day.

As a result of their parent’s long working hours, many children of single-parent households were left by themselves after school. In addition, almost half of the children never spent time with their noncustodial parents.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)