Utilizing data from multiple family members: A within-family approach

Dealing with data from multiple family members often presents problems for researchers. Many of the techniques available for dealing with such data are problematic, for a number of reasons. All of them confound these problems with the fact that they are applied evenly across families; there is no means for combining data from multiple family members that does so in a way that is unique to each family studied. The present article uses Q factor analysis to propose one way to do so. The technique is explained and illustrated using a four-person family (mother, father, and two adolescent children).