Conducting a Multi Family Member Interview Study

Abstract

Family researchers have long recognized the utility of incorporating interview data from multiple family members. Yet, relatively few contemporary scholars utilize such an approach due to methodological underdevelopment. This article contributes to family scholarship by providing a roadmap for developing and executing in-depth interview studies that include more than one family member. Specifically, it outlines the epistemological frames that most commonly underlie this approach, illustrates thematic research questions that it best addresses, and critically reviews the best methodological practices of conducting research with this approach. The three most common approaches are addressed in depth: separate interviews with each family member, dyadic or group interviews with multiple family members, and a combined approach that uses separate and dyadic or group interviews. This article speaks to family scholars who are at the beginning stages of their research project but are unsure of the best qualitative approach to answer a given research question.

Co-parenting and feeding in early childhood: Reflections of parent dyads on how they manage the developmental stages of feeding over the first three years

“…One drawback of most research on co-parenting is that the self-report of one parent, mostly the mother, is used to indicate an inherently dyadic process. While the subjective perspective of individual parents is valuable, interviewing parents together can capture multiple perspectives and provide insights from how parents co-construct a narrative about how they manage feeding issues (Eisikovits & Koren, 2010;Reczek, 2014). We will draw on 4 primary dimensions of co-parenting as described by Feinberg (2003;Feinberg, Brown, & Kan, 2012) in his integrative model of coparenting: agreement, support, satisfaction with labor, and conflict.…”

“…Interviewing parenting dyads together will not only allow for new insights into the varied ways parents collaborate around infant feeding, but also advance the utility of the concept of coparenting in this area more effectively than collecting the perspective of one caregiver (Reczek, 2014). A more robust understanding of how families collectively feed and socialize young children to food is important not only to move beyond looking at the influence of one parent at a time but to understand the inter-parental dynamics that contribute to the individual behaviors that together construct a home or family food environment.…”

“…First, while dyadic interviews provided a unique perspective on how parents work together, that is underrepresented in the literature on parenting broadly, only using dyadic perspectives did not provide in-depth, independent accounts from either parent. Dyadic interviews have been found to minimize conflicts and capture perspectives for which there is consensus (Reczek, 2014). Also, the analytic approach taken here to highlight themes in the content of the interviews may not have fully captured other interpersonal dynamics within the dyads, such as power, that not only shape how parents collaborate with one another around childcare but also shape the amount and nature of contribution in co-constructing a narrative (Reczek, 2014).…”

Families with parental mental illness: supporting children in psychiatric and social services

“…The questions were discussed and reflected upon by each member at a time, so that all the members thus listened to each other's stories, which were all regarded equally true, even if they appeared to contradict to each other, in line with Reczek (2014), Åstedt-Kurki, and Hopia (1996).…”

“…Families that had been provided with family meetings were interviewed as a unit, and families that had been supported with parent support groups and child support groups were interviewed individually. Furthermore, as shown in studies I and II, certain topics may be sensitive to discuss together with a sick family member, and need to be followed up in individual interviews (Mitchell, 1999;Reczek, 2014).…”