Bargaining and interdependence: Common parent‐offspring conflict resolution strategies among Chon Chuuk and their implications for suicidal behavior

The anthropology of Pacific cultures spotlights social conflict as a proximate cause of suicide. Ethnographic accounts suggest that suicidal behaviors are high‐cost conflict‐resolution strategies. We investigate parent‐child conflicts and the strategies adolescents and young adults use to resolve them, using concepts from human behavioral ecology to interpret results from in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 58 Chon Chuuk participants. One strategy for resolving conflicts in one's favor is to impose costs through the threat or use of violence, but an alternative strategy for those who lack social power or formidability involves social withdrawal, or withholding cooperation, until the interdependent parties reach an agreement. The Chuukese term amwunumwun refers to a spectrum of social withdrawal, including avoidance, running away, and suicide. Strategies involving withholding cooperation were the most reported child behavioral response. As predicted, low‐cost strategies, such as negotiation, were associated with nonsevere conflicts (e.g., playing with friends), whereas high‐cost withholding cooperation, such as running away, was associated with severe conflicts (e.g., labor exploitation). Importantly, withholding cooperation was often, but not always, associated with outcomes favoring the child. We propose that withholding cooperation is a culturally ubiquitous strategy, ranging from avoidance to suicidality, used by the powerless to achieve more favorable outcomes. [adolescence, parent‐offspring conflict, suicide, Micronesia] Resumen La antropología de las culturas del Pacífico ilumina el conflicto social como una causa próxima del suicidio. Narrativas etnográficas sugieren que los comportamientos suicidas son estrategias de resolución de conflictos de alto costo. Investigamos los conflictos padres‐hijos y las estrategias que adolescentes y adultos jóvenes utilizan para resolverlos, usando conceptos de la ecología de la conducta humana para interpretar los resultados de entrevistas en profundidad, semiestructuradas con 58 participantes de Chon Chuuk. Una estrategia para resolver conflictos en favor de uno es imponer costos a través de la amenaza o el uso de violencia, pero una estrategia alternativa para aquellos que carecen de poder social o magnificencia envuelve el aislamiento social o el negarse a cooperar hasta que las partes interdependientes logran un acuerdo. El término chuukense amwunumwun se refiere a un espectro del aislamiento social, que