The family is of critical importance in human-environmental interaction and a primary resource for health. Individuals are in continuous interaction with their families. The family environment is of crucial importance not only in health but also illness, including the mental illness of one member of the family. In this study, the family environment of families where one member of the family was receiving psychiatric care was compared with that of families where threre was no history of psychiatric care. The purpose of this study was to contribute to theoretical understanding and eventually to the planning of theoretical nursing care toward the enhancement of the family as a health promoting environment. Data were collected from September 1 to 30, 1991, from 113 families of patient admitted to two hospitals or attending two clinics in Seoul and KyongKi Province for psychiatric care. The comparative group consisted of 131 families where there was no reported history of psychiatric care. The instrument used was the Moos Family Environment Scale(FES) Form R modified by the investigator. The data were analyzed by using an SPSS computerized program and include percent age, X2-test, frequencies and ANOVA. 1. Only occupation was significantly different between the two groups` general characteristics(P=0.0030). 2. There werer differences in the FES scores between the two groups : Personal Growth(P=0.000) and System Maintenance (P=0.000) scores of the comparison group werer higher than those of the families where one member was reveiving psychiatric care. Scores were also higher for the comparison group on six subscales, cohesion (P=0.000), independence(P=0.000), intellectual-cultural orientation(P=0.000), organization(P=0.005) and control(P=0.000), Only conflict(P=0.001) scores were higher for families where one member was receiving psychiatric care. 3. There were relationships between certain general characteristic variables` and the three dimensions of the FES for the total group. 1) In the Relationship dimension, age, sex, education, religion, occupation, family economic level and the number of people in the family were related to Cohesion and Conflict. 2) In the Personal Growth dimension, age. sex, education, religion, occupation, family economic level and the number of people in the family were related to Independence, Intellectual-cultural orientation and Active-recreational orientation. Sex was related to Achievement Orientation and Religion to Moral-Religious Emphasis. 3) In the system Maintenance dimension, age, sex, education, religion, occupation, family economic level and the number of people in the family were related to Organization. Age, sex, education, religion, occupation, family economic level and the number of people in the family were related Control. The FES scores were generally higher for families where no one was receving psychiatric care than for families where one was. The family environment-individual interaction patterns may be critical to the recovery of the individual`s mental heath and the health promotion of the whole family. Recommendations were made for further research and questions raised about the instrument`s cultural appropriateness.