An Exploration of the Issues Involved in Family Related Research

[[abstract]]現今的健康照護體系已開始由醫院為基礎的服務，轉向以家庭及社區為導向的照顧模式，家庭護理及家庭研究的發展也逐漸受到重視。家庭是由個人組成的群體，同時具有獨立性及集體性的特性，因此家庭研究的複雜性比個人研究高，衍生出許多概念性及研究方法上的挑戰，本文針對家庭研究概念、研究設計、家庭的定義、取樣、研究工具及資料處理等研究方法學議題進行討論，建議未來進行家庭研究需考量(1)依據研究問題定位家庭的定義及選擇合適的研究方法；(2)以理論基礎決定訪談家庭人數及分析單位；(3)選用具有信度及效度的工具收集資料回應研究問題；(4)分析方法需與家庭概念及分析單位的特性相符；(5)重視家庭成員招募的倫理議題，以期獲得高品質的家庭研究成果。 Nowadays, health care delivery systems are changing from hospital-based services to more family-oriented or community-oriented care. The development of family nursing and family research is the focus of more attention than ever before. A family is composed of individuals. It combines the characteristics of individuals and collective groups, which makes family research more complex than studies of individuals. Consequently, research into family-oriented areas presents additional challenges concerning conceptual methodological issues. This article focuses on the issues of family research concepts, research designs, definitions of family, sampling, study tools, and data analysis. In order to promote high-quality family research outcomes, we propose below suggestions to serve as a guide to conducting family research: (1) identify the definition of family involved in a particular research question and choose a suitable methodology; (2) determine the number of family members and units of analysis on theoretical bases; (3) select high-validity, high-reliability research tools in answering research questions; (4) analysis methods must match the concept of family and the characteristics of the units of analysis; (5) ethical issues must be respected in the recruitment of family members