CROSS NATIONAL FAMILY RESEARCH: ATTEMPTS AND PROSPECTS

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 14, Heft 3, S. 425-451

Abstract

A bibliography of 58 items was produced in a survey of contemporary comparative fam res based on interviews with 20 European investigators in 1956 & a total/sum survey of 40 soc sci'ts engaged in internat'l fam res in 1961. A typology of these res re the dimensions of primary vs secondary data collection & the degree of internat'l collaboration produced 4 types: Type (I) Inventorying Published Works on Family Patterns (many societies but no original field work); Type (II) Comparative Studies (2 or more societies, field work, but researcher functions alone); Type (III) Collaborative Comparative Studies (2 or more societies, field work, relations with sponsors & colleagues); Type (IV), Comparative Studies Involving International Teams (covering 2 or more societies, extensive field work, maximum collaboration among several countries). Content analysis finds cross-nat'l fam researchers to be less prescriptive (action oriented) than intra-nat'l fam studies. The res surveyed was either descriptive (factual, informational) or analytic (explanatory) in methodological stance, focussing on the basic issue of extending the dissemination of the generality of res propositions adduced from theoretically conceived but empirically discovered findings in the O's home setting. In this, the present group of internat'l researchers share the interests of the early comparative sociol'ts of the 19th cent, but their stance, style, theory & methods have been shown in this survey to be quite diff. AA.