Parent – adolescent conflict style and conflict outcome : Age and gender differences 2

The present paper focuses on age and gender differences in parent – adolescent conflict styles (compromise and aggressive) and conflict outcomes (frustration, escalation and intimacy). Data were gathered by the Slovenian version of the ‘When we disagree’ scale, which was completed by 514 adolescents (54% female; 14 – 19 years old, split into two age groups). Results revealed significant differences between the adolescents’ perceptions of their own conflict style, and their mother/father conflict styles. Mothers were more often perceived to have either more aggressive or more compromising conflict styles in comparison to adolescents’ own stiles or fathers’ styles. Analyzing adolescents’ age differences, middle aged adolescents reported higher level of mother’s aggressiveness, higher levels of frustration and escalation in conflicts with mothers, as well as higher frustration in conflicts with fathers in comparison to their younger peers. Gender differences in style and outcome of conflicts revealed a more complex pattern: girls exhibited more compromising conflict style with mother and more aggressive conflict style with fathers than boys; there were no gender differences in parent – adolescent conflict outcomes. The established differences could inform policies, and help tailoring conflict resolution programs for this specific age group.

When adolescents start to strive for more autonomy in relation with their parents, also the changes in family conflicts occur (Honess et al., 1997;Van Doorn, Branje, & Meeus, 2011).Meta-analytical study (Laursen, Coy, & Collins, 1998) differentiated the increase of the parent -adolescent conflict in two characteristics of conflict (1) frequency or in (2) intensity of conflicts.Therefore, when describing the nature and incidence of conflict change in parent -adolescent relationships, it is important to consider the question, how the conflict is defined and measured.Hence, we first explain the way conflict was operationalized in current study.styles.In particular, these findings were supported theoretically (e.g., see Steinberg's distance hypothesis, 1987) and empirically (see Smetana, You, & Hanson, 1991).

Age differences in parent -adolescent conflict
Theoretical models.Literature suggests four theoretical models aimed to describe reasons for parent -adolescent conflict and changes throughout the adolescence.The neoanalytical model (Bloss, 1979;Holmbeck, 1996) explained the psychological rearrangement of adolescent's relations as a result of physical maturity, which caused the revival of oedipal desires.From the perspective of neoanalytical model, parent -adolescent conflict is a normative process of harmonization of mutual relations, used to reduce the adolescent's internal anxiety.Similarly, socio -biological model (Steinberg, 1987) substantiates the increased level of conflicts in parent -adolescent relations with the adolescent's puberty onset.The newly emerging tensions are presented as part of so-called "distance hypothesis" (Steinberg, 1990), and described as a greater emotional distance in parent -adolescent relation, which could lead to more frequent conflicts.Socio-cognitive developmental model also considered the starting point of conflict in the adolescent developmental changes themselves.Model explained the increase in parent -adolescent conflict as a consequence of adolescent's cognitive reorganization (Adams & Laursen, 2007;Goossens, 2006;Grotevant & Cooper, 1985;Steinberg, 1990) and their aspirations for greater equality in the relationship with their parents (e. g.Chan, Brown, & von Bank, 2015;Rote & Smetana, 2015).Socio-relational model is based on theory of exchange in relationships (Kelly et al., 1983).In adolescence, the exchanges are usually with parents and friends and are characterized by the highest level of interconnectedness and interdependence (Argyle & Furnham, 1982).Laursen and Collins (1994) stated that increased parent -adolescent conflict according to the model, varied more as a result of the quality of the relations themselves and the situations in which conflicts arises, than as a consequence of the puberty onset or changes in adolescent's age.

Empirical findings.
From recent studies of parent -adolescent conflict, it seems clear that the age differences of conflict result from the very nature of conflicts (conflict styles), and also in the use of conflict resolution styles of adolescent and parents (Van Doorn et al., 2011).Authors claim (Van Doorn et al., 2011), that the conflict resolution styles, for example, positive problem solving, use of conflict engagement and use of withdrawal in conflict, change from early to late adolescence.According to a meta-analytical review (Branje, Laursen, & Collins, 2013;De Goede, Branje, & Meeus 2009;Jensen-Campbell & Graziano, 2000;Laursen et al., 1998) there are at least two important conclusions which can be drawn from recent studies i.e.: (1) conflicts are most frequent during early adolescence and decline gradually thereafter; (2) conflicts seem to be more intense during middle adolescence than during early adolescence.We can conclude that research on parent-adolescent conflicts have consistently demonstrated the important role of conflict in the renegotiation of family roles and relationships, from more hierarchical, vertical relationships in the early adolescence to more egalitarian, horizontal relationships in late adolescence (Cicognani & Zani, 2009;Goossens, 2006;Grotevant & Cooper, 1985;Steinberg, 1990;Van Doorn et al., 2011).

Gender differences in parent -adolescent conflict
The results of previous research considering gender differences (e. g.Russell & Saebel, 1997) are not consistent.On one hand, some authors (Russell & Saebel, 1997) suggested that gender differences in some domains of parent -adolescent relations are related to puberty changes and different social expectations and allowances for boys and girls (Laursen et al., 1998;Steinberg, 1990).For example, Honess and Lintern (1990) report that girls are encouraged to value closeness and intimacy within the family, and consequently, they find it harder to move toward their own autonomy.Also some other research (Deković, Noom, & Meeus, 1997) argued, that girls are promoted and encouraged to maintain the mutual closeness among family members, emphasizing the trend towards intimacy and trust in order to fulfill their socialization role.But nevertheless, girls also develop the need to establish their own autonomy.Consequently, some of the studies reported that girls' conflicts with their parents increased during middle adolescence (Cicognani & Zani, 2009), using destructive conflict resolution styles more frequently (Branje, van Doorn, van der Valk, & Meeus, 2009;Brooks-Gunn & Zahaykevich, 1989;Montemayor, 1983).In line with this duality of supporting the closeness in family and striving for autonomy at the same time, some of the research (Demo, 1991;Ellis-Schwabe & Thornburg, 1986;Flannery, Montemayor, Eberly, & Torquati, 1993;Steinberg, 1990) reported the inconsistence: on one hand, conflicts are more frequent and intense in families with boys, but on the other hand, research claimed that girls use more destructive conflict styles and aggressive behavior than boys (Branje et al., 2009;Brooks-Gunn & Zahaykevich, 1989;Montemayor, 1983).

The current study
The aim of the current study was to establish whether there are age and gender differences in parent-adolescent conflicts.
First, we examined the question of the perspective (adolescent's selfperception vs. parent's conflict style).We focused on differences in adolescents' perceptions of their own conflict resolution styles, compared to adolescent's estimation of parents' conflict resolution styles.
The second and main research question was, whether the age and gender (or age X gender interaction) were significant factors in parent -adolescent conflicts.

Participants and procedure
The research included 514 participants (54.5 % female) who attended five secondary schools across Slovenia.On average, adolescents were 16.4 years old (interval 14-19 years).For the purposes of current study, the sample was split into three subgroups, according to three percentiles, into group of younger (M = 15.00,SD = 0.00), middle -aged adolescent (M= 16.43,SD = 0.45) and older adolescents (M = 18.00,SD = 0.00).According to the final data of the 2002 Population Census, the sample families used in our study was representative of families in Slovenia typically (SURS, 2002).

Measures
Parent -adolescent conflicts were measured using the Slovenian version of the 'When we disagree' scale (WWD, Honess et al., 1997).The WWD includes four sections for conflict resolution style -(1) description of father, (2) description of self toward father, (3) description of mother and (4) a description of self toward mother -and two sections for conflict outcome (outcomes with father; outcomes with mother) (Cicognani & Zani, 2009).The WWD measures two types of conflict: compromise (five items; e.g., 'She/he tries to smooth things over') and aggression (seven items; e.g., 'She/ he becomes sarcastic') and three different outcomes: frustration (six items; e.g., 'I end up feeling annoyed or angry'), escalation (five items; e.g., 'We start out disagreeing on one thing and end up arguing about lots of things') and intimacy (seven items; e.g., 'We end up agreeing that it's OK to disagree') (Cicognani & Zani, 2009;Honess et al., 1997).
In Section 1, the adolescents were to evaluate conflict style in relation to their fathers, then in relation to their mothers ('Describe your father's behavior: How well does each of the following statements describe YOUR FATHER /MOTHER when you and he disagree about something which is important to both of you?').In Section 2, the adolescents were asked to think about own conflict styles in relation to fathers/ mothers.Section had the same structure as the first, but the questions involved 'I' rather than 'he'; for example, 'I try to avoid talking about it'.To answer the conflict style subscales, adolescents used a 4-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 2 = not too well, 3 = fairly well, 4 = very well).With regard to conflict outcomes, the adolescents evaluated conflict outcomes with fathers and then with mothers ('Different things can happen when two people have a serious disagreement.How often does each of these things happen when YOU and YOUR FATHER / MOTHER disagree about something which is important to both of you?').To answer the conflict outcomes subscales, the adolescents used a 5-point Likert scale (1 = never, 5 = very often).
The Cronbach's alpha test proved all subscales were reliable: values for compromise range from .79 to .92, and from .81 to 93 for aggression.For the outcome subscales, the range of Cronbach's alpha was equally sufficient: for frustration, it ranged from .86 to .91; for escalation, from .77 to .87; and for intimacy, from .77 to .85.

Descriptives and correlations for conflict style and conflict outcomes
The means and the standard deviations of variables in the present study are shown in Table 1.The correlations among mother's, father's and adolescent's conflict styles are shown in Table 2.The correlations (Table 2) showed that adolescents who reported their own conflict style as more compromising, also reported more intense compromise in parents' conflict style (Pearson's coefficients for compromise ranged from .66 to .70,p <0.01)The same was revealed for aggressive conflict style (correlations ranged from .72 to.79, p <0.01).Compromise conflict behavior of fathers and adolescents was positively and significantly correlated, but the correlation was lower than the correlation in compromise between mothers and adolescents.The same was true for aggressive conflict behavior between adolescents and fathers and adolescent and mothers.

Differences in perspective: self -perceptions of conflict style of adolescent in comparison to perceptions of conflict style of parents
In order to test the hypothesis about the differences in adolescents' selfperceptions vs. perceptions of parents' conflict resolution styles, we performed ANOVA with repeated measures separately for compromise behavior and separately for aggressive behavior.
The first ANOVA with repeated measures was conducted to compare the average intensity of four compromise behaviors (adolescent -mother's, mother's, adolescent -father's, father's compromise).There was a significant difference in average compromise behavior in adolescent -parent conflicts (Wilks' Lambda = 0.89, F (3, 477) = 19.97,p <0.001).In order to clarify the differences, post hoc pairwise comparisons were performed (descriptives in Table 3).There were significant differences in post hoc test for mean difference comparison between father's and mother's compromise (dM = -0.24,p <.05), between adolescentfather's and mother's compromise behavior (dM = -0.24,p <.05) and between mother's and adolescent-mother's compromise behavior (dM = 0.23, p <.05).On the contrary, in the cases of post hoc tests for mean difference comparison between father and adolescent -father s' compromise (dM = 0.002, p> .05)and between father's and adolescent -mother's compromise behavior (dM = -0.001,p> .05)no significant differences were shown.To sum up, adolescents perceive their mothers to be significantly more compromising in comparison to their fathers or to themselves.But in relation between adolescent and fathers, adolescent do not report any significant differences in compromise conflict style.
Analyzing the differences in average intensity of aggressive conflict style used in parent-adolescents relations, we performed ANOVA with repeated measures for four levels of aggressive behavior (father's, adolescent -father's, mother's and adolescent -mother's aggressive conflict style).In general, there were significant differences in average expressed intensity of aggressive conflict style in adolescent -parent conflict (Wilks' Lambda = 0.89, F (3, 465) = 17.39,p <0.001).Post hoc mean difference comparisons (descriptives in Table 3) revealed significant differences in use of aggressive conflict style between father's and adolescent -father's behavior (dM = 0.145, p <.001), between father's and mother's behavior (dM = -0.213,p <0.001), between father's and adolescent -mother's behavior (dM = -0.150,p <0.001) and between mother's and adolescent -mother's behavior (dM = 0.063, p <0.05).The differences between adolescent -father's and mother's (dM = -0.068,p> 0.05) and between adolescent -father's and adolescent -mother's behavior (dM = -0.005,p> 0.05) were not significant.We can sum up that adolescents reported their mothers to be the most aggressive in parent -adolescent conflicts: mothers are believed to be more aggressive than fathers and also more aggressive than adolescent themselves.In conflicts with father, adolescent perceived themselves to be more aggressive than their fathers.

Age and gender differences in conflict styles in adolescent -parent conflict
To examine the differences in conflict styles between mother and adolescents/ father and adolescent considering the age and gender of adolescents and age X gender interaction, the MANOVA analyses were conducted.
First, MANOVA for 8 conflict styles for adolescent -father relations (compromise, aggression) and adolescent -mother relations (compromise, aggression) X 2 sex and 3 age groups (younger, middle and older adolescents) was performed.Due to complexity of data, only descriptives for significant differences of MANOVA analyses are presented (see Table 4 and 5).Results showed the significant gender differences in compromise conflict style in relation between adolescents and mothers (Table 4), specifically in mothers' and adolescents -mothers' compromise behavior.Post hoc pairwise comparisons (descriptives in Table 5) revealed that female adolescents reported significantly more ambiguous conflict behavior.Female adolescents described mothers' (dM = 0.316, p <0.05) and their adolescents -mothers' conflict style (dM = 0.10, p <0.05) as more compromising than male adolescents did.In relations to fathers, female adolescents reported being more aggressive than male adolescents (dM = 0.154, p <0.05).Results showed no significant differences in aggressive conflict style with mothers or compromise conflict style with fathers according to adolescents' gender.
More detailed analyses of differences in conflict style according to the adolescents' age surprisingly showed only some differences in aggressive conflict style between adolescents and mothers.Post hoc means comparisons analysis (see Table 6) exposed the highest level of aggressive adolescents'mothers' interaction for middle adolescents.The latter in comparison to younger adolescents perceived mothers' aggressive conflict style (dM = 0.266, p <0.01) and their own aggressive conflict style as more intense (dM = 0.213, p <0.05).

Age and gender differences in conflict outcomes of parent -adolescent conflict
To examine the conflict outcome differences in separate parental dyads (between mothers and adolescents or fathers and adolescents) considering the age and gender of adolescents, and age X gender interaction, MANOVA was performed.
MANOVA for 3 conflict outcomes for fathers (frustration, escalation and intimacy) and 3 conflict outcomes for mothers (frustration, escalation and intimacy) X 2 sex and 3 age groups (younger, middle and older adolescents) was performed.Due to complexity of data, means and standard deviations only for significant differences of MANOVA are presented (see Table 8).Results (Table 7) indicated no gender differences and only age differences in conflict outcome of adolescents -parent conflict.In relations with fathers, there were significant differences among younger, middle-aged and older adolescents in frustration conflict outcome.On the other hand, in relation with mothers there were significant age differences in all conflict outcomes: frustration, escalation and intimacy (Table 7).In order to decrease the complexity of the results obtained, only the descriptives for significant conflict outcome age differences are presented (Table 8).Results indicated no age and gender interaction effect for conflict style (table 4) and for conflict outcome (table 7).Conflict outcome (descriptives in Table 8) in relations with fathers according to the age groups was significantly different only in frustration, where middle adolescents vs. younger (dM = 0.288, p <0.01) and older adolescents vs. younger (dM = 0.365, p <0.01) reported significantly more frequent frustration.In conflict with mothers, adolescent of different age groups reported different level of frustration, escalation and intimacy.In the case of frustration conflict outcome with mothers, middle (dM = 0.343, p <0.05) and older adolescents (dM = 0.332, p <0.05) reported this outcome to be more frequent in comparison to younger adolescents.The latter was established for escalation, i.e. middle adolescents reported their conflict to escalate more frequently in comparison to their younger peers (dM = 0.326, p <0.05).On contrary, only older adolescents in comparison to middle aged peers claimed that their conflict with mothers mostly ended up as increased intimacy (dM = 0.227, p <0.05).

Differences in perspective: self -perceptions of adolescents' conflict style in comparison to perceptions of parents' conflict style
In general, the differences between conflict self-perceptions and perceptions of parental conflict style were significant.Adolescents reported mothers being more compromising than themselves or fathers and also being more aggressive than others.Results go in line with previous studies (e. g.Honess et. al, 1997), which suggested that there is an important difference between conflict self-perceptions and perceptions of parental behavior in family conflicts.The finding that adolescents reported less compromising conflict style in relation with mothers is consistent with prior studies (Cooper & Ayers-Lopez, 1985;Van Doorn et al., 2011), where similar adolescents -mother conflict relations were reported.Nevertheless, the argument about the differences in adolescents' conflict self-perceptions can be theoretically supported through the Selman' s (1980) socio -cognitive developmental model, which suggested that adolescents developing greater self-understanding and understanding the thoughts and subjective perspectives of others, still remain relatively unsuccessful in developing their own perspectives in conflicts.Therefore, they could be more critical of their own behavior in conflict (Zupančič, 2004).
Another interesting result was the ambiguous and ambivalent mothers' conflict position with adolescents -reporting increased closeness and increased aggressiveness at the same time.There could be at least two reasons for mothers' conflict ambivalence: (1) the mere frequency of interaction itself produces more emotionally intense mother -adolescent conflicts and therefore more reallife possibilities to experience a wider range of emotions; and (2) adolescents' tendency to increase closeness and preserve a positive relationship with their mothers, as they are for them the most important person in the family (Čotar Konrad, 2005;Laursen, Wilder, Noack, & Williams, 2000), but at the same time, adolescents' progressive need to become more independent and autonomous in general.
According to results of current study, no gender X age interaction has been revealed.Consequently, discussion considering gender differences in conflict styles and outcomes, and age differences in conflict styles and outcomes will be presented separately.

Gender differences in conflict styles and conflict outcomes in parentadolescent conflict
Partly confirming our hypothesis, we found significant male vs. female differences in compromise adolescent -mother conflict style and aggressive adolescent -father conflict style, in favor of female adolescents.Considering gender differences, we can assume higher intensity conflicts for female adolescents in relation to both parents: more compromising conflict style with mother and more aggressive conflict style with fathers.No gender differences in parent -adolescent conflict outcome were revealed.
Nevertheless, our results and some new studies (e. g.Van Doorn et al., 2011;Jensen-Campbell & Graziano, 2000) established more clarity: increase in compromising conflict behavior only in daughter-mother relationship, not in daughter -father nor adolescent -father relationship was founded.To sum up, realignment process between adolescents and fathers might be just less turbulent, or there are fewer conflicts between them and thus fewer opportunities to learn handling conflict constructively.

Age differences in conflict styles and conflict outcomes in parentadolescent conflict
Based on previous studies (e.g.Van Doorn et al., 2011), we expected more destructive conflict styles and outcomes from early adolescence till middle adolescence, and more constructive conflict styles and outcomes to manifest in late adolescence.Partly confirming our hypothesis, we found age differences only in adolescents -mother aggressive conflict style: middle aged adolescents in comparison to younger adolescents reported higher level of own and mothers' aggressive conflict style.No adolescent -father conflict style age differences were revealed.Considering conflict outcomes, in adolescentmother relationship major age differences were reported.Namely, middle -aged adolescents in comparison to younger peers reported higher levels of frustration and escalation in relations with mothers.On contrary, older adolescents in comparison to middle-aged adolescents reported higher levels of intimacy after conflict with mothers.In relation with fathers, results of age differences only in frustration conflict outcomes were showed: younger adolescents in comparison to middle -aged and to older adolescents reported higher levels of frustration.
Similarly to gender differences discussed above, age differences in adolescent -mother conflict style and outcomes indicated specific mothersadolescents' relationship, specifically with in middle -aged subgroup.
Further on, the results of this study, in line with other empirical results (Smetana, Daddis, & Chuang, 2003), suggested that conflict styles and outcomes do not change linearly with age, but rather, that the relationship between age and conflict behavior is curved like an inverted 'U'.This means that the highest levels of aggressive behavior, escalation and frustration were reported in middle adolescence.But since we present a cross sectional study and not longitudinal study, the question of trajectory should be considered in future research.
The results are also partly consistent with the distance hypothesis (Steinberg, 1990), which suggested the intensification of conflict emerges on the trajectory from early to middle adolescence as a consequence of puberty onset (Smetana et al., 2003).While several different studies and theoretical approaches (Smetana, 2005;Steinberg, 2001) have tried to explain the changes in conflict during the transition from childhood to adolescence and then into late adolescence, there is still no clear understanding of why these changes in that period occur.
The results revealed another interesting finding about specific mother -adolescent conflict, which goes in line with some empirical findings made by Steinberg (1987), who argues that onset of puberty often correlates with an increased amount of conflict, especially in relationships between males / females adolescents with their mother, but not necessarily with their father.Namely, the characteristics of these specific relationships were described as less psychologically supportive, less expressive of positive affection and intimacy, and are typical especially for the mother-daughter dyad (Collins, 1990;Collins & Russel, 1991;Holmbeck, Paikoff, & Brooks-Gunn, 1995).
To sum up, all relevant theoretical perspectives and empirical data, as well as our results, show that despite the inconsistent information with regard to conflict onset, conflicts play an important role in creating a path for adolescents' individuation from their parents, and in facilitating the transformation of family relationships across the adolescent years (Cicognani & Zani, 2009;Grotevant & Cooper, 1985;Steinberg, 1990).Even more, the described pattern of adolescents -mother relations in conflicts could reveal dominant role for mothers and only submissive role for father in adolescents' development.In seeking their autonomy, adolescent reported intensive engagement of mothers in conflicts, in compromise or aggressive direction.Moreover, the results suggested that adolescent -mother relationships are more intense and engaged, consequently might become mature at earlier point in time than adolescent -father conflicts.But in order to empirically support the statement, further research is needed.However, some data about the nature of conflict style and outcomes in relation with fathers, might suggest that fathers might catch up eventually.This question is certainly the suggestion for future research in the area.

Limitations and future directions
Important limitation of this study seems to be the methodological question of using self-reported measures.On one hand, some authors argue that on the basis of the empirically supported intergenerational stake theory (Giarrusso, Feng, & Bengston, 2004) we can assume that none of the family members involved can provide an objective description of family relationships.Despite that, research (Fletcher, Steinberg, & Williams-Wheeler, 2004;Schwarz, Barton-Henry, & Pruzinsky, 1985) claim that adolescents' subjective perceptions of parenting styles (vs.parents' perceptions) have a higher predictive value for adolescent internal and external behaviors.Nevertheless, including parents' perceptions in current research would improve the objective value of descriptions of family conflict.Moreover, further research is needed in order to test the instrument validity of the Slovenian sample of adolescents.Although our study provided in some of the characteristics of conflict resolution styles in parent -adolescent relations, the questions of measurement of conflict still arise.In present study, conflict was measured by its intensity and quality.But considering theoretical definition of conflict (Shantz, 1987), inadequate focus on only one of the characteristic of conflict might distort and misrepresent the features and functions of conflict, namely, the question of increase in parent -adolescent relations.
Moreover, our cross sectional study did not address some of trajectory and developmental issues of nature of parent -adolescent conflict (possible changes in sibling system effects, marital effects on parent -adolescent conflicts, peak in conflict frequency for firstborn, second-born child, etc. (Van Doorn et al., 2011).Consequently, longitudinal research would be necessary to establish the role of developmental factors in the trajectory of conflict in larger family system as well.

Table 3
Means and standard deviations for compromise and aggressive conflict styles in adolescent -parent conflict

Table 5
Descriptives of significant gender differences in conflict style of MANOVA

Table 6
Descriptives of significant age groups differences in conflict style of MANOVA

Table 7
MANOVA results for age and gender differences in conflict outcome