OBJECTIVES: This is a descriptive and exploratory research, having the family as the guiding theme, which aimed to identify and characterize theoretical and methodological aspects of research conducted during graduate studies at Brazilian nursing schools. METHODS: The sample consisted of 45 studies. Data were collected with a semi-structured instrument from March to June, 2002. RESULTS: The results revealed that the majority of studies (66.6%) were conducted at Federal University of Santa Catarina, a great part of them (26.7%) were defended in 2000 and used nursing theories as theoretical or conceptual framework (40.0%). The majority of the data (68.9%) were collected in the family homes. Family care (44.6%) and the relationship among family members (34.0%) were the themes of most studies. These themes were grouped into six categories. CONCLUSIONS: Although the family as a theme for research has been used in many studies over the years, most research has focused on descriptive and exploratory investigations. These studies normally addressed broad purposes and used approaches emerging from researcher' professional experience. Most studies have used family homes as the background for the investigation.
Knowledge; Nursing; Family
