Riflessioni metodologiche nella ricerca sulla famiglia. [Methodological thoughts in family research]

[Autom. eng. transl.] The study of family relationships gives the researcher several challenges from the methodological point of view that originate from the particular nature of this object of investigation (Lanz et Rosnati, 2002). The present contribution underlines the peculiarities of family research and the methodological implications that derive from it, paying particular attention on the one hand to the importance of adopting a strictly family perspective in all phases of research, and on the other to integrating the different levels (individual, dyadic and family) that characterize the family itself. Through the description of a research on parent-child relationships during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, the opportunities and difficulties of adopting such a perspective have been exemplified.