Managing Interpersonal Conflict: Adolescents With and Without Intellectual Disabilities
Abstract
Social Information Processing (SIP) informs the way we engage in social problem solving, such as conflict management. Although research has shown that adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) struggle more with the components of SIP when compared to typically developing peers, very little research has examined how adolescents with ID experience conflict with peers. This study examines the way adolescents with and without ID report experiencing and responding to conflict with best friends and non-friends utilizing their own rather than hypothetical scenarios. Nineteen adolescents (14 adolescents without ID and 5 with ID) were interviewed about their own real-life conflict experiences with best friends and non-friends using questions from the Social Problem-Solving Test-Mild Intellectual Disabilities. Interviews were qualitatively coded using a thematic analysis. Findings indicate that (a) adolescents with ID perceived less hostile intentions compared to adolescents without ID, (b) adolescents with ID described more submissive responses to conflict in both best friend and non-friend conflict situations compared to adolescents without ID, (c) adolescents with ID reported engaging in active conflict management strategies as often as adolescents without ID in the context of non-friend conflicts, and (d) adolescents with ID relied more heavily on adult and peer support to manage conflict compared to adolescents without ID. This study demonstrates that adolescents with ID are able to manage conflict independently, and will benefit from adult support in learning how to do so. Importantly, this study is the first to examine how adolescents with and without ID engage in SIP steps in the context of their own experiences.