This study was designed to identify the relationship of perceived social support on self-esteem and hopelessness in patients with chronic renal failure who are hemodialysis. The subjects of this study were the 50 patients who were registered in the hemodialysis department of the two hospitals. The data were colleced using a questionnaire and The period of the data collection was from August 9 to 16,1993. The instruments for this study were the perceived social support scale designed by Park Ji-Won, the self-esteem scale designed by Rosenberg and the hopelessness scale desinged by Beck et al. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results are summarized as follows; 1. The degree of support according to the type of perceived social support ranged down in the following order from high to low: the mean emotional support 21.12, the mean informational support 19.58, the mean appraisal support 17.00, the mean material support 15.22, the mean self-esteem was 32.00 and the mean hopelessness was 60.48. 2. Test for hypothesis; Hypothesis 1, "The higher the level of perceived social support in patients on hemodialysis, the higher their level of self-esteem will be." was not supported(r=.05, p=0.74). Hypothesis 2, "The higher the \evel of perceived social support in patients on hemodialysis, the lower their level of hopelessness will be." was supported(r=-0.53, p=0.00). 3. The relations between general characteristics and the level of perceived social support, self-esteem, and hopelessness; (1) The 'Gender'(P=0.04), 'Occupation'(P=0.04), 'Education'(P=0.00), 'Married state'(P =0.00) 'Duration of Hemodialysis'(P=0.00) and 'Income' (P=0.00) of the subjects were related to perceived social support and showed a statistically significant difference. (2) No general characteristics of the subjects were related self-esteem in a statistically significant way. (3) The 'Education'(P=0.00), 'Income'(P=0.00) of the subjects were related to hopelessness and showed a statistically significant difference. Thus, it is concluded that social support must be included in nursing interventions for patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis.