Starting and Stopping Spontaneous Family Conflicts

This study examines how nondistressed families manage spontaneous verbal conflicts that occur during family dinners in the home. The focus is on who starts the conflicts, how long they are continued, and how they are brought to a close. The involvement of basic family roles (i.e., mother, father, son, daughter) in conflict management is described. Overall, conflict initiation was evenly distributed across family roles. The extension of conflict was constrained by a constant probability of a next conflict move occurring. Most of the conflicts ended with no resolution. Mothers were most active in closing off conflicts.