Withing this study researchers conducted qualitative interviews with both parents of household (25 households in Serbia and 25 in Montenegro). The interview covered different areas of family life and parenting. They also conducted a content analysis of online media in the Serbian language. It was prepared as a structural complement to qualitative online research. Content related to parenting, children raising and growing up has been analyzed.
The main issue that research team was faced are related to predefining the family in terms of the operationalexplanation that precedes the sampling stage. Family is operationally predefined as a nuclear unit consisting of two parents of different sex/gender and their minor children living in the same household, and referring to the modern nuclear family. Selecting a group to research is difficult and binding task, as we had to make a choice of whom to speak to in a limited frame of qualitative research design in respect to the territorial integrity of the sample Aiming to investigate the socialisation models and perceptions of the still dominant family structure, the researchers chose to speak to people from this particular group. The logic behind choosing the middle class is somewhat similar – due to the limitations of the numbers in the sample, we had to renounce some aspects, and to make a cut-off line above and below the middle class. The Serbian society is transitional or soon to be post transitional, and researchers choose for the sample to use the transition definition of the middle class, that is defined by the legal and the grey economy income (the Serbian invention of the “grey” economy, whilst this particular economy colour practitioners do not pay taxes, but also do not have an income coming from criminal operations, other than tax evasion that is). Additional to income, they considered the middle class in Serbia and in Montenegro lifestyle factors, including the (financial) ability to reach the needed institutions and services for the daily functioning of a family, assessed average ability to cover the monthly expenses of the household, and a potential small investment power (including being able to afford going on vacation, having extra classes for the children, owning all needed house hold items, and appliances, etc). The original sample was planned to be 25 families in each country, which meant 50 interviewed pairs (mothers and fathers) in each sample. The final sample in Serbia included 25 families, from six municipalities, having urban vs. rural division as a second level divider, with 14 families living in urban areas, and 11 in rural areas. The sample in Montenegro had 27 families, from seven municipalities, with 17 families living in urban areas, and 10 in rural areas. Slight differences in the quotas came from the geographical specifics of the observed countries. Serbian population is in majority grouping in the regional centres, and the surrounding villages, and in Montenegro, the existence of the long sea coast is influencing the urban representation in the sample. The main concern regarding the sample was in ensuring the possibility to spot different parenting strategies in regional terms, as well as the country and the genders of the children, and they are noted as such, so that the research team is content with the outcome of the sampling.
Methods of bias control the researchers used in the field included using different trained researchers to conduct the interviews, gender matching in the Serbian sample between the male and female interview partner and the interviewer. Other than the data collecting, the transcribing was done by several different people, and was sample-controlled before the initial coding. The coding procedure was team controlled (the person doing the coding was not doing the critical reading of the codebook, but received feedback from the team members working on the other parts of the project).
