Qualitative family research: Innovative, flexible, theoretical, reflexive

Abstract

Qualitative research is increasingly part of the methodological repertoire of scholars who study families. In this article, we examine contemporary trends, tensions, and possibilities for the interdisciplinary enterprise of qualitative research on and about families. We situate our collaborative approach as critical family scholars who pursue social justice work. We then examine four trends that have recently emerged or evolved in qualitative family research. First, we address methodological innovations associated with the pervasive emergence of online technologies and their possibilities for enhanced sample selection, data collection, and data analysis. Second, we address the potential for qualitative methodological orthodoxy to become rigidly embedded as a result of relying on a formulaic approach and instead we advocate for a continued commitment to analytic flexibility, which has characterized qualitative family research since its inception. Third, we emphasize the interlocking relationship between qualitative family research and the process of theorizing. Fourth, we highlight the potential of reflexivity—not simply in positionality statements, but throughout the qualitative knowledge production process. We conclude with guidance for scholars, reviewers, editors, and readers in utilizing and assessing excellent qualitative family research—research that embodies one or more of these trends of innovation, flexibility, theoretically driven, and reflexivity.