RESUMO
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.