J Korean Acad Fam Med.  1999 Mar;20(3):252-258.

Korean family's crisis analysis and function evaluation

• Park JY
• Huh BY
• Yun YH
• Cho BL
• Cha JH
• Choi SJ
• Byun HS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Since the winter of 1997, Korea has been in an economic crisis. During this period family-the most important and basic social unit- faoed many problems. The purpose of this survey was to assess Korean family's functional status and emphasize family as a social support unit.
METHODS
During April- May 1998 Nationwide Telephone survey was done. Sampling was done by Multi State Stratified Random Sampling technique. We questioned subjects on 5 categories of present family problems and used Modified Faces -III Questionnaire for the evaluation of family function.
RESULTS
By 5 point scale, the impact of present ecanomic problems to the family showed the highest score(3.7). Other causes had a score range of 1.7-2.1. Economic impact was greater in 4th and 5th life cycle step, those with low income, and those in bereavement. Family type was divided in to 3 groups; extreme type 20%, mid-range 50%, and balanced 30%. Among extreme groups chaotic adoption and enmeshed cohesion type were the most common(10.8%).
CONCLUSIONS
In the Korean family 1998, economic problem seems to be the most important impact factor and the proportion of extreme type family is high.

Keyword

family; family function; family crisis; telephone; survey

MeSH Terms

Bereavement
Humans
Korea
Life Cycle Stages
Telephone
Surveys and Questionnaires