Family recovery after vascular surgery. Twenty-one families were observed in a 3-month study to assess family coping with major vascular surgery and recovery. Analysis of family measures data (the Family APGAR, the Family Inventory of Resource for Management, and the Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales) was combined with grounded theory method to assess family responses over time and recovery outcomes. Containment emerged as the major conceptual category of the grounded theory. Containment refers to a constellation of constructed meanings for events and behavioral responses used by families to regulate the impact of the surgical crisis and reduce family disruption. This "contained" coping pattern was manifested in families' avoidant behaviors and narrow definitions of the problem: that is, they defined their situation in terms of the surgical repair as cure rather than palliative intervention for a chronic, progressive disease. Situational factors such as the insidious development of the illness and the primary focus of care providers in the hospital on surgical care (allowing families' narrow definitions of their situation to remain unchallenged) also contributed to containment. Containment resulted in poor risk factor management as a major recovery outcome. Isolation and family conflict were evident throughout the recovery period. Concerns generated by continued evidence of morbidity during recovery contributed to a developing awareness of underlying disease, and diminishing containment when this growing awareness was openly shared within the family. Significant findings of the family measures analysis were compared with the grounded theory of the qualitative data. Each corroborated the other in key dimensions. 