Conflict resolution in peer cultures : – Children’s perspectives on negotiating and solving social situations with their peers

Abstract: This study aims to explore children’s perspectives on conflict resolution within their peer groups. Children’s peer groups and cultures are a crucial setting for social and emotional development and can be reflective of broader peer cultures. This is an area of great importance within child studies and has been influenced by Corsaro’s ideas around children’s social worlds (Corsaro, 2009:321). More specifically, this study is built around the following research questions: 1) What do children perceive as positive ways to solve a conflict? 2) What do children perceive as negative ways to solve a conflict? 3) How do children perceive the role of adults in conflict resolution? Previous literature provides an insight into this topic that comes often through the adult lens (Jones, 2020: 479). This study aimed to include direct child participation in research, allowing agency and voice in the research made about them (Corsaro, 2009:321). To address the research questions, a qualitative study with twelve children in their second year of school, around the ages of seven and eight, was conducted. The children were given an opportunity to talk about their perspectives and viewpoints by engaging in discussions, by using arts-based methods and creating visual materials in the forms of mind-maps and lists as are common within Participation Visual Methods (PVM) research.The written data that was derived from the creative methods was analysed using thematic analysis, with the direct observations and visual drawings used to support our interpretations. The main themes that arose from this study can be explained using verbal, non-verbal and ambiguous strategies for resolving conflicts. Further subthemes such as displaying pro-social behaviours, apologising, compromising, and hostile expressions were identified through our data analysis. This study contributes to sociocultural research in child studies. This study grants insight into child-centred research about navigating conflicts as fundamental components of human relations.