ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to investigate parent and child conflict from the perspectives of power, gender, and subjectivity in the context of daily family life. The methodological ways in which the research was undertaken with the families is discussed in this chapter, beginning with some brief details about the pilot study. This is followed by a discussion of how the families opened their lives to the scrutiny of a video camera that recorded intimate aspects of their daily domestic life. The chapter also considers how the families came to participate in the study, how entry to the homes was negotiated, as well as data collection methods and analysis techniques.
The research began with a pilot study as a preliminary exercise to model and check data collection methods (Janesick, 1998) and as a way of having parents identify issues concerning parent and child conflict. It was anticipated that the issues parents identified could be explored further, particularly those that were noted consistently. The pilot study consisted of unstructured interviews (Cannold, 2001; Morse, 1998; Silverman, 2000) with twenty mothers undertaken mostly in their homes, although three women were interviewed at their place of employment. The twenty respondents answered an advertisement in a free local suburban newspaper and interviews were arranged through a follow-up phone call. No males responded. Audiotaped interviews of approximately one to one and one half hours duration identified respondents’ views about situations that caused conflict between themselves and their children aged four or five
