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 vulnerable families. Vulnerable families are defined as families that are susceptible to harm because of their socioeconomic status, their minority status, or other stigmatizing status. Methodological issues include definition of family; recruitment and retention of participants; reliability and validity of instruments; and racism, classism, and sexism. Ethical issues include confidentiality, reporting abuse and neglect, conflict of research ethics and personal ethics, identifying problems nobody can fix, balancing demands and benefits, and interpretation of data. Examples of methodological and ethical issues are drawn from several research studies in which the primary author was or is currently involved.