title: Delimiting family in syntheses of research on childhood chronic conditions and family life.
abstract: Synthesis of family research presents unique challenges to investigators who must delimit what will be included as a family study in the proposed review. In this paper, the authors discuss the conceptual and pragmatic challenges of conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the intersection between family life and childhood chronic conditions. A proposed framework for delimiting the family domain of interest is presented. The framework addresses both topical salience and level of relevance and provides direction to future researchers, with the goal of supporting the overall quality of family research synthesis efforts. For users of synthesis studies, knowledge of how investigators conceptualize the boundaries of family research is important contextual information for understanding the limits and applicability of the results.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Knafl
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leeman
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Havill
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crandell
authors.forename: Margarete
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sandelowski
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D012107:Research Design; D012196:Review Literature as Topic
keywords: Childhood Chronic Conditions; Family Research; Research Synthesis; enfermedades crónicas de la infancia; investigación familiar; síntesis de la investigación; 家庭研究; 研究整合; 童年慢性疾病