Exploring Causes and Consequences of University Students’ Conflicts. A Scoping Review

Aim. Numerous studies have examined the reasons behind conflicts among pre-university students; nevertheless, there is a dearth of literature on disputes involving university students. This paper seeks to explore through a scoping review the motivations and consequences of disputes among university students. Methods. This scoping review uses the Google Scholar database to explore 41 peer-reviewed studies and carefully analyses their empirical data. Scoping studies are often carried out with the aim of locating and cataloguing the existing data pertaining to disputes amongst university students in various countries across the world. “disputes”, “conflicts”, “university students” were the main search terms and phrases that yielded an enormous number of distinct, peer-reviewed papers. Results. Studies showed that interpersonal factors, institutional climate, social context as well as cultural factors influence the disputes where university students are involved. It also identified that disputes related to the university students can have not only negative consequences, but also positive ones. Conclusions. There will be a valuable source of information for universities as they create institutional services meant to support students on dispute resolution. The study made the recommendation that a psycho-sociological viewpoint can be used in order to thoroughly examine and comprehend the causes and consequences of disputes related to the university students. The research also makes the case for the necessity for additional research to be conducted in order to comprehend the numerous factors that contribute to disagreements among university students in specific contexts.