Abstract

Within a recent few years, the number multicultural families had been increasing rapidly in Korea. This study was conducted to investigate relationship of stress and family function of multicultural families. Study subjects were 75 foreign women who had been married with Korean men and immigrated into Korea. All participants were registered in one of three migration support centers in South Jeolla province. They completed self-administered questionnaires which evaluated demographic information, family APGAR score, and Korean translated BEPSI scores. Mean of family APGAR score is 6.27±3.23 and mean of Korean translated BEPSI score is 1.33±1.18. Family APGAR score has inverse correlation to Korean translated BEPSI score after correction other socio-demographic characteristics. Multicultural families may show inverse correlation between stress and family function. We needs to be concerned with family dysfunction if women in multicultural family shows stress related disorders. (Korean J Str Res 2009;17:27∼33)

• Keywords: Stress, Multiculture, Family function