Studying Families

When studying families, how do researchers decide which family members should be included in their study? What if the family consists of nonmarried parents, or homosexual partners? Or what if a couple does not have any children? Are they considered a family? This book examines the inherent problems researchers face when studying this social group.

This volume provides valuable guidelines and information to the family studies research. Each chapter contains thought provoking exercises and a reference list. Anyone considering a family study needs to read this volume before beginning. While no single volume can provide a complete roadmap, this text provides a good outline and points out major roadblocks. However, one should not get the idea this volume is for the researcher only. Anyone who works in the family therapy arena will benefit from the insights provided, especially as they read the literature to keep current. --Evaluation Practice "Studying Families is a very practical, down-to-earth book about how to study families from a psychological perspective. . . . The authors present insightful discussions of research issues involved when studying multiple members of the same family and when the objective is to measure properties of the family as a group. There is a well-balanced presentation of the advantages, disadvantages, and techniques of using observations and self-reports to collect data from family members. . . . We recommend Studying Families as a useful supplemental text for psychologists who need to teach about or research the family." --Contemporary Psychology "I assigned Studying Families as a text for a graduate class in Family Research Methods. My students and I gave the book rave reviews; it was extremely readable, concise, and thorough. It introduced us to a state-of-the-art thinking in family research. It often helped us to clarify confusing concepts we were struggling with from other family readings. This book should be extremely helpful to anyone engaged in the process of thinking about family research methods." --Leslie Brody, Boston University "In Studying Families, Anne Copeland and Kathleen White present a concise, well-written, and extremely interesting discussion of several distinct issues related to family research. Their appraoch is rather characteristic, in that rather than reviewing basic social science research methodology, they have chosen to outline very succinctly the unique (and often problematic) aspects of methodology relevant to the study of families. . . . Each chapter concludes with a set of challenging exercises and a list of suggested readings. This book, along with the supplementary readings, would be excellent in a course on family research methods, in which students had already completed a basic social science research methods course. It also will make a valuable addition to every family researcher′s collection of resource materials." --The Journal of Marriage and the Family By exploring the special issues and problems related to research on families, Copeland and White show the reader how the techniques needed to study families differ from the standard methods used to study individuals. In addition to covering such techniques as self- report and observational methods, the book includes suggestions for the use of existing data and an evaluation of the problems with secondary data use, as well as the considerations necessary for aggregating data and performing analyses. Through a focus on the issues involved in assessing individuals, their relationships, and families, Studying Families offers a guide through the complex challenges inherent in doing family research.