Family Violence Research Methodology and Design

Abstract

Research on family violence is in its early days. The quality of research is uneven, and findings are often inconsistent. Better studies and more accurate data are needed to improve our understanding of family violence and to develop more effective prevention and control strategies. Unfortunately, insufficient attention has been given to methodological issues that need to be investigated and resolved before more valid and reliable estimates of the prevalence and correlates of family violence can be expected. Definitional problems include wide variations in the boundaries of the domain of family violence and in the elements of definitions. Crucial methodological problems that affect research findings on family violence include issues related to the research context, data sources, sample characteristics, research designs, and measures and their validity.