Looking at Families in Nursing Research: Strategies for Study Design

Abstract

Pediatric nurses have identified the importance of studying children within the context of their families. There have been calls for attention to the family as the focus of study and unit of analysis in nursing research. One of the most important strategies for designing a study that keeps the focus on the family is the maintenance of study integrity. All the strategic choices made by the researcher when developing the research design need to reflect the theoretical premises on which the study is built. Throughout the study design, components of well-constructed family research will demonstrate consistency with the overall conceptual framework.

Community Violence Exposure and Positive Youth Development in Urban Youth

“…Family functioning is characterized by the overall health and pathology of the family system, encompassing six dimensions: problem solving, communication, roles, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, and behavior control [23]. In this study, family was conceptualized as “A self-identified group of two or more individuals…who function in a way that they consider themselves to be a family” [32]. Participants self-defined family and were asked to complete this instrument by using whoever they considered to be family .…”

An exploration of parent-child dyadic asthma management influences on quality of life

“…This type of analysis is important when considering the shared experiences of the respondents that when considered jointly may have significant effects on the outcome variable of interest. Structural equation modeling was used to answer the research question because it allows for exploration of relationships and inter-relationships between variables and is an especially useful approach to analyzing dyadic data (Kenny et al, 2006; Marcellus, 2006). SEM was used to explore the effects of asthma knowledge, self-efficacy to manage asthma, and asthma management on the child’s QOL…”

“…While many studies have been conducted to improve parents’ and children’s management of this complex condition, they fail to capture the work that is shared by the parent-child dyad (Marcellus, 2006). In many studies of childhood chronic illness a single respondent, usually the parental caregiver, provides all the data for the family.…”

“…Studies have shown that parents tend to underestimate illness symptoms and associated limitations (Taggart, Wittich, & Yawn, 2006). In other studies that collect data from both parent and child, the data are treated as independent factors rather than being treated as non-independent or correlated factors due to the intra-familial influences family members have on each other (Knafl, et al, 2009; Marcellus, 2006). In a recently completed longitudinal study, data pertaining to asthma management were collected from both the primary parental caregiver and the child with asthma to examine changes over time in these factors (Horner & Brown, 2014).…”

Hierarchical clusters in families with type 2 diabetes

“…For Marcellus, 8 the study of families represents a methodological challenge that studies in individuals do not have. Family researchers try to ensure that the unit of analysis reflects the family as such, in other words, they try to correctly choose the family member who will answer the study questions.…”