A Cross-Cultural Study of Observed Conflicts Between Young Children

Young children (5 to 6 years old) from an individualistic (the Netherlands) culture and a collectivistic (South of Spain: Andalusia) culture were videotaped during leisure time on their school playground. Based on the perspective of individualism-collectivism (IND-COL), cultural differences were expected with respect to observed conflict behaviors. Conflict episodes were analyzed with respect to conflict issues, strategies, and outcomes. In Andalusia, an unexpected high number of conflicts were observed, about three times higher than in the Netherlands. As expected, Andalusian children turned out to be more concerned with control of play and behavior and Dutch children more with control of objects and space. With respect to strategy use, Andalusian children used negotiation more often than Dutch children. The latter included more often nonverbal and directive ingredients in their strategies. Dutch children ended their conflicts by means of social or physical rupture much more often than Andalusian children. The latter preferred to continue the interaction, even if this required submission to others’ wishes. Results are discussed from the perspective of IND-COL, with particular emphasis on four characteristics of studies of peer conflicts: definition of conflict, method of data collection, age of participants, and social setting of the participants.