A Model of Adult Friendship Conflict Management

Abstract

Friendship is one of the most frequently listed forms of love (i.e., understood as affection and intimacy in interpersonal relationships; Fehr & Russell, 1991). However, increased time spent together, and more personal disclosure allows the opportunity for conflict to occur within the friendship (Fehr, 1996). Conflict in adult friendships has not received as much attention as other interpersonal types of conflicts (e.g., romantic conflict). Following past work on interpersonal conflicts and serial arguments (Bevan et al., 2008; Cionea et al., 2019a; Hample & Cionea, 2012), this dissertation examined a model of adult friendship conflict management in which the goals friends reported pursuing, the tactics they used (i.e., integrative, distributive, and avoidance tactics), and the outcomes (i.e., perceived resolvability, rumination, and change in relational satisfaction) they reported from the conflict were connected in a structural equation model (SEM).Using a cross-sectional survey approach, a pilot study (N = 2,118) was first conducted to identify individuals that had engaged in a friendship conflict in the past six months. The main study (N = 625) then tested the proposed SEM, following a confirmatory factor analysis. Results revealed acceptable model fit and provided support for several of the proposed hypotheses. Integrative tactics were positively predicted by the goal of mutual understanding and negatively predicted by the goals to change the other person and dominance in the conflict. Distributive tactics were positively predicted by the goals to change the other person and hurt other to benefit self and negatively predicted by the goal of mutual understanding. Avoidance tactics were positively predicted of the goals of hurt other to benefit self and relational termination and negatively predicted by the goals to change the other person and negative relational expressiveness. Perceived resolvability as well as increased relational satisfaction were positively predicted by the use of integrative tactics and negatively predicted by distributive and avoidance tactics. Rumination was positively predicted by integrative and distributive tactics, whereas change in relational satisfaction was positively predicted by integrative tactics and negatively predicted by distributive and avoidance tactics. Taken together, these results offer insight into friends’ use of conflict goals, tactics, and outcomes, offering promising support for a process model of conflict management in adults’ friendship. Such a model can help differentiate adult friendship conflicts from young adult friendship conflict, romantic conflicts, and family relationships.