ISSUES IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH WITH VULNERABLE FAMILIES

This article explores methodological and ethical issues in the conduct of research with vulnerable families. Some methodological and ethical issues are common to all family research, regardless of the families' vulnerability; however, many research issues are more problematic in vulnerable families, and a few issues are relatively unique to vulnera ble families. Vulnerable families are defined as families that are sus ceptible to harm because of their socioeconomic status, their minority status, or other stigmatizing status. Methodological issues include d efinition of family; recruitment and retention of participants; reliab ility and validity of instruments; and racism, classism, and sexism. E thical issues include confidentiality, reporting abuse and neglect, co nflict of research ethics and personal ethics, identifying problems no body can fix, balancing demands and benefits, and interpretation of da ta. Examples of methodological and ethical issues are drawn from sever al research studies in which the primary author was or is currently in volved.