The Objectives and Approach of the Study

  • Kathryn C. Backett
Chapter
Part of the Edinburgh Studies in Sociology book series (ESIS)

Abstract

This book is about the everyday experiences of parenthood and family life of a group of young middle-class couples living in Scotland. Although parenthood manuals abound, there are relatively few accounts from the parents themselves.1 Most of us become parents, and everyone has opinions on how to bring up children, but although much of this valuable information circulates in conversation it is seldom recorded, let alone examined analytically. Hopefully this book will be of interest to the lay person who perhaps has his or her own theories about what actually goes on in families, as well as to the student of family behaviour who is interested in a systematic empirical analysis.

Keywords

Family Life Parental Behaviour Family Role Family Behaviour Order Construct 
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Notes and References

  1. 1.
    Some recent examples are: A. Oakley, Becoming a Mother (London: Martin Robertson Press, 1979).Google Scholar
  2. J. Busfield and M. Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-war England (Cambridge University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
  3. 2.
    See for example: J.M. Pahl and R.E. Pahl, Managers and their Wives: A Study of Career and Family Relationships in the Middle Class (London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1971).Google Scholar
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    Since I devised my own research strategy I have come across two books which seem to offer some extremely useful practical advice concerning methodology. See: L. Schatzman and A.L. Strauss, Field Research: Strategies fora natural sociology (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1973).Google Scholar
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Copyright information

© Kathryn C. Backett 1982

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  • Kathryn C. Backett

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