Abstract
Purpose : This study was performed to identify the levels of parenting stress, the levels of family functioning and their relationship to the military families with preschool children for the development of a nursing intervention model for the military family at risk. Method : The data had been gathered from 106 military families located in Kwyangmyeong, Yanggu, and Seoul of S.Korea. The questionnaire consisted of Abidin's Parenting Stress Index(PSI) with 5-Likert 36 items, and Lee In-sook et al's Korean Family Functioning Scale with 4-Likert 24 items, as well as the demographics of the families surveyed. Results : The mean score of parenting stress among military families with preschool children was $77.9{\pm}18.3$ among fathers and $77.9{\pm}19.3$ among mothers. The mean score of family functioning was $71.6{\pm}8.4$ among fathers and $71.4{\pm}9.9$ in the mothers. There was a significant negative correlation between level of family functioning and parenting stress(r=-.49, p<.001). The parenting stress was significantly related to health status, marital satisfaction and monthly income. The level of family functioning also was significantly related to health status and marital satisfaction. Among the 106 families studied, 38.6% were shown to be at risk. Among these families, either parent or both, respectively, had a cutoff score above 90 o the PSI. Conclusion : This study suggested that military nurses found out the vulnerable military family with high score of PSI and low score of family functioning. In the future, family nursing intervention program should be developed for parenting stress management and family functioning improvement.