Methodological insights from researching temporality in families with teenage children

The often unremarked processes through which gender and generation play out in families with teenage children in, through, and over time, was the topic of a mixed qualitative methods study, drawing on the accounts of multiple family members – 14 and 15 year olds and their resident parent(s). Using this as a case study the paper critically considers a number of methodological, ethical, and political issues faced in undertaking the research, particularly with respect to research with children. These pertain to challenges of a social constructionist approach and to research from multiple perspectives. We argue that there are paradoxes and contradictions that arise between a social constructionist approach and the practicalities of carrying out research into dynamic phenomena, such as “generationing”, particularly when trying to understand this from multiple perspectives. But rather than consider these as flaws we show how they are in fact opportunities for insight into the interplay between the structural and the dynamic nature of intergenerational relations.