Skip to main content

Qualitative Family Research

  • Chapter

Abstract

Qualitative family research requires in-depth and detailed information about family interactions and about the perceptions, understandings, and memories of family members. In qualitative family research, the persons being studied “speak” in words or through other symbols about family experiences and dynamics. There can be a special excitement that comes with the access to such privileged information and a heavy responsibility to present it respectfully in written reports.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adler, P. A., & Adler, P. (1987). Membership roles in field research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agar, M. (1980). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agar, M. (1986). Speaking of ethnography. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R., & Pickett, R. S. (1987). Forgotten streams in the family life course: Utilization of qualitative retrospective interviews in the analysis of lifelong single women’s family careers. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 517–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life (R. Baldick, Trans). New York: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, H. R. (1988). Research methods in cultural anthropology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bluebond-Langner, M. (1978). The private worlds of dying children. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bossard, J. H. S., & Boll, E. S. (1950). Ritual in family living. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, D. T. (1978). Qualitative knowing in action research. In M. Brenner, P. Marsh, & M. Brenner (Eds), The social contexts of method (pp. 184–209). London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chenitz, W. C., & Swanson, J. M. (1986). From practice to grounded theory: Qualitative research in nursing. Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. E. (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, K. (1988). Reshaped parenthood identity: The transition to adoptive parenthood. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 17, 40–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • DuBois, B. (1983). Passionate scholarship: Notes on values, knowing and method in feminist social science. In G. Bowles & R. Duelli Klein (Eds.), Theories of women’s studies (pp. 105–116). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, M. P., & Rosenberg, S. D. (1981). Men at midlife. Boston: Auburn House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, L. R. (1981). Transitions in the mother-daughter relationship. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 613–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, L. R. (1983). Married men and their mothers. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 14, 393–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, L. R. (1986). Linked lives: Adult daughters and their mothers. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flaherty, D. H. (1972). Privacy in colonial New England. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowlkes, M. R. (1980). Behind every successful man: Wives of medicine and academe. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerstel, N., & Gross, H. (1984). Commuter marriage. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goetz, J. P., & LeCompte, M. D. (1984). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gubrium, J. (1988). Analyzing field reality. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gubrium, J. F. (1988). Family responsibility and caregiving in the qualitative analysis of the Alzheimer’s disease experience. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 197–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (1987). The private image: Experiential location and method in family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 773–786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Handel, G. (1967). The psychosocial interior of the family. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, J. (1965). Pathways to madness. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, R. D., & Handel, G. (1959). Family worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honey, M. A. (1987). The interview as text: Hermeneutics considered as a model for analyzing the clinically informed research interview. Human Development, 30(2), 69–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, M. (1969). The affair. New York: World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, J., & Miller, M. L. (1986). Reliability and validity in qualitative research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komarovsky, M. (1962). Blue-collar marriage. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaRossa, R., Bennett, L. A., & Gelles, R. J. (1981). Ethical dilemmas in qualitative family research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 303–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaRossa, R., & Wolf, J. H. (1985). On qualitative family research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 531–541.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laslett, B., & Rapoport, R. (1975). Collaborative interviewing and interactive research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 37, 968–977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leifer, M. (1980). Psychological effects of motherhood. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, O. (1961). The children of Sanchez. New York. Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, O. (1964). Pedro Martinez: A Mexican peasant and his family. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, O. (1969). A death in the Sanchez family. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lofland, J. (1966). Doing social life: The qualitative study of human interaction in natural settings. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, E. S. (1966). The Puritan family: Religion and domestic relations in seventeenth-century New England. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munhall, P. L., & Oiler, C. J. (1986). Philosophical foundations of qualitative research. In P. L. Munhall & C. J. Oiler (Eds.), Nursing research: A qualitative perspective (pp. 47–63). Norwalk, CT: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Y., & Murphy, R. F. (1974). Women of the forest. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myerhoff, B. (1978). Number our days. New York: Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oakley, A. (1981). Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms. In H. Roberts (Ed.), Doing feminist research (pp. 30–61). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelto, P. J. (1970). Anthropological research. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peppers, L. G., & Knapp, R. J. (1980). Motherhood and mourning. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piotrkowski, C. S. (1979). Work and the family system. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainwater, L. (1970). Behind ghetto walls. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raush, H. L., Barry, W. A., Hertel, R. K., & Swain, M. A. (1974). Communication, conflict, and marriage. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinharz, S. (1983). Experiential analysis: A contribution to feminist research. In G. Bowles & R. Duelli Klein (Eds.), Theories of women’s studies (pp. 162–191). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, H. (1981). Doing feminist research. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, P. C. (1981). Ethnographic case studies. In M. Brewer & B. Collins (Eds.), Scientific inquiry and the social sciences (pp. 194–225). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, P. C. (1983). Bitter, bitter tears: Nineteenth century diarists and twentieth century grief theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman, E. K. (1984). Hands and hearts: A history of courtship in America New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, L. B. (1976). Worlds of pain: Life in the working-class family. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, H., & Jacobs, J. (1979). Qualitative sociology. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stack, C. B. (1974). All our kin: Strategies for survival in a black community. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. J., & Bogdan, R. (1984). Introduction to qualitative research methods: The search for meanings (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, W. I., & Znaniecki, F. (1918–1920). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thome, B., & Yalom, M. (1982). Rethinking the family: Some feminist questions. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, R. H. (1970). Family interaction. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller, W. (1930). The old love and the new. New York: Liveright.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, W. L. (1961). The family of God. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weitzman, L. J. (1985). The divorce revolution: The unexpected social and economic consequences for women and children in America. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, W. F. (1943). Street corner society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikan, U. (1980). Life among the poor of Cairo. London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M. (1968). The house of Lim: A study of a Chinese farm family. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rosenblatt, P.C., Fischer, L.R. (2009). Qualitative Family Research. In: Boss, P., Doherty, W.J., LaRossa, R., Schumm, W.R., Steinmetz, S.K. (eds) Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85764-0_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85764-0_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44264-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-85764-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics