ABSTRACT
The chapter presents an application of the five-step qualitative methodological model for dyadic analysis to relationships in families of older people. The chapter describes a five-phase model for dyadic analysis and demonstrates the phases of analysis in a study dealing with the relationships between older bereaved mothers and their daughters-in-law (widows). The chapter includes a discussion of the benefits of applying the model in studies dealing with relationships in families of older people in a variety of situations. The model provides a solution to the methodological gap concerning the topic of relationships in families of older people in the research literature, and discusses the ethical and methodological challenges facing researchers who use this model to investigate relationships in families of older people. The conclusion derived from the application of the dyadic analysis model is that the model allows a systemic perspective that expands the understanding of relationships in families of older people. The analysis enables a growing understanding that begins in the first phase, with the individual and subjective perceptions of older people, extraction of the different perceptions of the two interviewees regarding their relationship in the second phase, expansion to the understanding of the relationships in the family as a whole and between the key characters in the relationship in the third phase. The fourth phase, the abductive one, provides new theoretical insights about the family through a dialog between the theory and the analysis. Finally, in the last phase, the model makes possible an overall understanding of the families that participated in the study, and its products may help social workers who assist older people and their families plan appropriate interventions that may improve and preserve family relationships.
