Citation

Fisher CB, Johnson BL. Int. J. Behav. Devel. 1990; 13(1): 31-48.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/016502549001300103

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Family conflict is an inevitable outgrowth of the social and psychological differences intrinsic to lineage relationships. The present work demonstrates that a blending of family sociology and social cognitive perspectives leads to a fuller understanding of developmental changes in children's reports of intergenerational conflict. Statements from stories on family conflict told by 192 children from grades 2, 5, 8, 10, and freshman college were coded using six conflict categories derived from Bengtson's model of intergenerational solidarity and Selman and Youniss' work on the development of interpersonal understanding. In general, family conflict themes of childhood were concerned with failure of children to fulfil social obligations, the inadequacy of parental helping behaviours and, to a lesser degree, children's disappointment in the frequency of parent-child association. In adolescence, family conflict themes emerged that reflected concern with failure of parents to provide affectional support, the inadequate fulfilment of both filial and parental role expectations, and lack of consensus on familial and societal values.

Language: en