Culture and the Development of Conflict Resolution Style

Previous descriptive studies of development of cooperation and competition among United States and Mexican children have sampled a limited age range and relied predominantly on behavioral experimental game measures with a very limited number of response alternatives. In this experiment, open-ended verbal conflict resolution questions were asked of Anglo American, Mexican American, and Mexican children. Content analysis of children's responses indicated that previous conclusions regarding Mexican-United States differences were supported at early childhood age ranges. However, with increasing age, all children responded more to imaginary conflict situations with conflict, so cultural differences diminished with age. Further, on the verbal conflict resolution questions, Mexican American and Anglo American children did not differ, possibly indicating differences in what is assessed by the verbal conflict resolution questions and experimental games.