• 한국노년학
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.797-813
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyze the trends and to achieve in-depth understanding about the research on families in later life. The journal articles related to the elderly and family studies published between 1980 and 2008 were analyzed for theories, research subjects and methodology. A total of 181 research articles were published focused on the elderly and families during this period of time. The results are as follows; there has been a steady increase in the number of research articles analyzing the elderly and families since 1980. However, there was little effort to integrate empirical findings with theories. With regards to the methodology, the majority of the studies used quantitative methods, although the number of the qualitative studies increased after 1990. The size of samples in most of the quantitative studies was large enough to test inferential statistic techniques. The research subjects such as family relations(parent-adult child, grandparent-grandchildren), family conflict, support system were studied in depth; however, the practical use of these research findings in welfare policies and service programs was not so effective. In future, researchers should be expected to play important roles in the practical fields and the policy implementation process utilizing their research findings.