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This article reports on an analysis of 320 empirical research articles published between 1993 and 2010 in three of the leading 'childhood' journals. The study looked to establish the potential samples used in accounts of empirical research studies with children; and to explore the methodology employed. The first part of this article outlines why a consideration of the ages used in childhood research is worthy of investigation. This addresses technical, methodological and epistemological dimensions of the area. It then goes on to discuss the results of our investigations. The guiding question was 'who are the children in the social study of childhood?', and the authors conclude that there is an over-focus on a particular age group.

In this paper we develop the concept of family display by responding to David Morgan’s suggestion that researchers should consider whether ‘family displays’ are used to convey a ‘type’ of Family. We do so by applying the concept to the accounts of migrant family children living in an English city, and those of adults that grew-up in Mennonite communities in Mexico and Canada. Analysis uniquely shows that migrant family children do display a type of ‘Family’, and that this is influenced by familial constructs privileged by intended audiences. We contribute further by arguing that whilst some families do display core values attached to Family ‘types’, this is not the case in the example of the Mennonite community and researchers should be cognisant of applying this concept to all contexts. This is because the priority for display may not be the presentation of legitimate Family, but other features of collective identity.

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