Correlation Between Perceived Family Support and Self-Esteem of Middle Age Women with Degenerative MusculoSkeletal Diseases

퇴행성 근골격계 질환을 가진 중년여성이 지각한 가족지지의 자아존중감의 관계

Middle age for women is one of the most important stages of the whole normal life span and has unique problems concerning the psychological and physical health, specifically degenerative musculoskeletal diseases. Therefore middle age women should prepare in order to lead a healthy and fruitful life as they enter/begin old age. As the population of middle age women increase, the demands of nurses who care for this age group also continue to glow. Nurses must be interested in this middle age group of women in Korea. This study was designed to identify the extent of family support and self-esteem of the middle age women with degenerative musculoskeletal diseases and the relationship between them and nurse's contribution to middle age women's health promotion that maintain and promote qualify of her life. The population of this study was 112 women aged 40-60, attending the out patient clinic one University Hospital and one Hospital, in Pusan. The data was collected from 1st August to the 30th of September, 1998 by using 36 items questionnaire. The instrument used for measuring family support was of Chai's(1983) FSS which was modified by Kang's(1984) Family Support Scale. And that for self-esteem was Rosenberg's(1965) Self-esteem Scale. The reliability of Chai's FSS and Rosenberg's instruments were tested by Cronbach's alpha and showed that they were 0.93 and 0.89 each respectively. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient using the SPSS computer program. The results of the study were summarized as follows : 1. The mean score of the perceived family support was $39.31{\pm}9.42$. 2. The mean score of the perceived self-esteem was $33.16{\pm}6.75$. 3. Statistically significant factors influencing the family support among sociodemographic variables was satisfaction of marriage(F=-3.069, p<0.003). 4. Statistically significant factors influencing the self-esteem among sociodemographic variables were age(F=3.992, p=0.000), education(F=2.260, P=0.026), housing (F=-1.987, P=0.049) and satisfaction of marriage(F=-2.305, P=0.023). 5. There was a significant correlation between family support and self-esteem (r=.621, p<.000). In conclusion, perceived the family support was important for middle age women to increase their self-esteem. Nurses should be aware of the necessity of family support in the supportive nursing of middle age women and should be able to make a plan to educate the family about supporting the wife/mother. The continuing study of the health promotion of middle age women to find out variables influencing middle age women' health must continue.