A cross-national comparison of children's behavior with their friends in situations of potential conflict

Dyads of 8- and 9-year-old friends and nonfriends in Central Italy and Engl ish Canada were observed while participating in two structured tasks design ed to simulate everyday situations of potential conflict. In discussing how they might share a single chocolate egg with a toy inside, Italian youngst ers made fewer proposals in all, but nonetheless were able to achieve a gre ater discrepancy between initial and final negotiating positions. Friends s pent almost twice as much time as nonfriends in these discussions; friends also displayed greater novelty and compromise in their counterproposals. It alian girls made significantly fewer proposals and counterproposals than ot her participants in the study. When participating in a fast-paced car race, Canadian children committed significantly more infractions of the rules. I talian friends were more involved in the race and maintained respect for th e rules better than Italian nonfriends, but there were no significant diffe rences between friends and nonfriends in Canada. These results are interpre ted in light of known differences between the cultures.