The text in its context: what is family for you?

Abstract

Objective: To carry out a meta-analysis in qualitative research about different concepts of family who used the question: "what is family for you?". Method: This is a meta-synthesis performed on MEDLINE, IBECS, LILACS, SCIELO, Cochrane Library, Virtual Health Library and Google Scholar. Results: Ten items which contemplated the inclusion criteria. The concepts covered in the analyzed articles referred to the structural concept of family, family based on the feelings between family members, family concept based on their roles and definitions that go beyond. Conclusion: It was possible to evidence a need to understand the multidimensionality of the concept of family. There is a concern in complement the concept of family that literature brings throughout his tory and the existence of an exploratory look on the different thematic issues. It is noteworthy lack of validated instruments and methodological strategies that include the concept of family systematically.