Adolescent's and Parents' Reasoning about Actual Family Conflict

TLDR

Adolescent individuation and parent‑child conflict during adolescence form the broader context for this study. The study aimed to assess reasoning about family conflict using a distinct domain perspective on social‑cognitive development. The authors interviewed 102 fifth‑through‑twelfth‑grade students and their parents, having each describe actual conflicts, justify their positions, and reason from the other’s perspective. Parents reported fewer conflicts than children, families agreed conflicts were mundane but disagreed on interpretation, with adolescents rejecting parents’ conventional views and reasoning in terms of personal choice, and boys’ understanding of parents’ perspectives improved with age while girls’ understanding remained lower in early adolescence.

Abstract

This study employed a distinct domain perspective on social-cognitive development to assess reasoning about issues of family conflict. Subjects were 102 fifth through twelfth graders from 2-parent families and their parents. Individually interviewed family members described actual family conflicts and, for each, justified their position on the dispute and reasoned about them from the other's perspective. Parents generated fewer conflicts than did children. Preadolescent to late adolescent families generally agreed that conflicts occurred over the mundane, everyday details of family life, but they did not agree on their interpretation. Adolescents understood but rejected their parents' conventional interpretations of conflicts, reasoning instead in terms of personal choice. Boys' understanding of their parents' conventional perspectives increased significantly with age, whereas girls' understanding was significantly lower in early adolescence, as compared to pre- or late adolescence. The results are discussed in terms of adolescent individuation and parent-child conflict during adolescence.