Hd. Johnson et al., Changes in adolescents' conflict responses associated with consecutive presentation of hypothetical conflict situations, J ADOLESCEN, 24(5), 2001, pp. 647-655
The advantages of using hypothetical situations are one reason they have be
en widely used to examine adolescents' responses to conflict situations. On
e frequently used research protocol involves presenting several conflict sc
enarios to participants during a single session. However, in real-life situ
ations multiple conflicts rarely occur within short periods of time, and th
e nature of this presentation may be associated with changes in adolescents
' reports of conflict behavior. Trend analyses of emotional, conflict goal,
and conflict tactic responses from grade 8, 10, 12, and college students t
o consecutively presented conflict situations showed that responses were as
sociated with presentation of the hypothetical situations. Findings reveale
d an increase in reports of assertive conflict behaviors and a decrease in
reports of constructive conflict behaviors with successive situation presen
tation. Results from the current study suggest that researchers must consid
er trends in responses when examining findings from successive situation pr
esentation methodologies because adolescent reports of conflict behavior ma
y change as situation presentation proceeds. (C) 2001 The Association for P
rofessionals in Services for Adolescents.