Conflict Resolution among Preschool Peers: Behavioral Strategies and their Contribution to Individual and Mutual Benefit

• In Event: Peer Play as Developmental Context for Preschool Children’s Social and Emotional Competences

Abstract

Peer play and interaction are fundamental learning contexts, especially for socio-emotional development. In case of conflicts children need to learn how to solve them and develop suitable behavioral strategies. From an egocentric perspective, a conflict resolution can either be consistent with personal desires and interests or not. Hence, it represents an individual win or lose for the child. From a more holistic perspective, however, a conflict resolution can be evaluated in terms of constructiveness, i.e., to what extend interests were negotiated and balanced between conflict partners. The developmental trend favors increasing constructive conflict resolutions with age (Laursen, Finkelstein, & Betts, 2001), as it is concurrent with increasing socio-cognitive and socio-emotional competences. Regarding conflict strategies, Pieng & Okamoto (2020) differentiated self-oriented strategies, i.e., strategies that foster the child’s own interests, from other-oriented strategies, i.e., strategies that take into account the opponents’ perspective.
The present study contrasts how these two types of conflict resolution strategies contribute to individual win as well as to constructive conflict resolution in naturally occurring conflict situations between peers. It is hypothesized that self-oriented strategies promote the individual win of a conflict and reduce the constructiveness of an outcome. In contrast, other-oriented strategies are assumed to support constructive conflict resolutions and to reduce an individual win. Furthermore, constructive conflict solution is expected to be associated with higher age of children and higher socio-emotional competences.
Video recordings from everyday life in German preschools provided the raw data corpus. Unsupervised conflict episodes of target children during peer play and interaction were identified in the material and coded for behavioral strategies and conflict resolution in terms of individual win/lose as well as constructiveness. Double-coding of 17 children by two independent raters yielded sufficient reliability of the coding scheme. By now, 368 episodes (min = 3, max = 42 per child) from 21 children (Mage = 59.81 months; SD = 8.58; 8 females) have been analyzed. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) regression analyses were used to account for the nested structure of episodes in target children. The two types of conflict outcome (win/lose; constructive closure) were the respective dependent variables; child age, gender as well as prosocial and problem behavior ratings by preschool teachers served as covariates. Analyses of the currently coded data revealed differential contributions of conflict strategies to the respective outcomes. Surprisingly, both self- and other-oriented strategies were negatively associated with constructive conflict resolution. Self-oriented strategies were similarly negatively associated with the individual win of a conflict. Furthermore, younger age was associated with individual win as well as with constructive conflict resolution. Moreover, there was more individual win and more constructive resolution by girls. Regarding the socio-emotional ratings, only prosocial behavior was significantly associated with constructive conflict resolution.
These preliminary results draw an inconclusive picture and need further elaboration. With ongoing data coding we will further enlarge the sample and hence amplify the results to be presented at the conference. Implications concern the promotion of beneficial behavioral strategies to enrich peer play and interaction.

Authors

• Paula Döge, Free University of Bolzano
  Presenting Author

• Judith Silkenbeumer, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

• Manfred Holodynski, University of Münster

• Luisa Marie Lüken, University of Münster

• Joscha Kärtner, University of Münser