Children\u27s understanding of conflict : a developmental perspective.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to learn how children between the ages of five and nine construct their understanding of conflict and how to resolve it, how their cognitive development both reflects and shapes this understanding, and how their ideas about conflict develop over time. Open-ended interviews were conducted with two children from each of four grades (K-3) in a Boston Public School in order to elicit the children\u27s ideas about conflict, solutions to conflict, and negotiation. Two drawings of conflicts were used, one in each of two separate interviews, one depicting a conflict over an object, the other an interpersonal conflict. Five cognitive dimensions were used to analyze the interview data. Children\u27s understanding of conflict, solutions to conflict, and negotiation, and the gradual changes in children\u27s thinking over time were analyzed. The five dimensions were: concrete to abstract; from one idea to coordination of multiple ideas; static to dynamic thinking; transductive to logical causal reasoning; and, from one to more than one point of view. The results of this analysis show that with age there was a general progression of the eight children\u27s understanding of conflict, solutions to conflict, and negotiation as they advanced along the five cognitive dimensions. Children\u27s understanding of conflict progressed from more concrete to abstract, and from more discrete and momentary to increasingly embedded in a context of time and other events, ideas and feelings. Children\u27s understanding of solutions to conflict also progressed from concrete to more abstract. In addition, there was an increasing capacity to think of greater numbers of possible solutions to conflict, especially positive solutions, as children moved along the cognitive dimensions. Children\u27s understanding of negotiation progressed from concrete to more abstract, including increasingly complex psychological processes. Children showed a progression in their ability to understand negotiation as a complex process related to both conflicts and solutions. Gender and individual differences among children emerged from the data in addition to developmental differences