Examining the relationships between conflict tactics, social support, locus of control orientation, and daily hassles

Date

1989-08

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

This study examined whether the type of conflict tactics used by a parent toward his/her child was related to locus of control orientation, frequency and intensity of daily hassles, and frequency and type of social support received. The influence of social desirability on parental report of intervention tactics used during parent-child conflict situations was also investigated.

The subject population consisted of 112 Parents Anonymous members (94 females, 16 males, 2 unspecified). The parents completed a brief demographic questionnaire followed by five self-report measures: the Locus of Control Scale, the Hassles Scale, the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors, the Conflict Tactics Scales, and the Personal Reaction Inventory. Statistical analyses included the Pearson correlation coefficient, the analysis of variance, and the test.

The results suggested that the use of reasoning tactics was significantly associated with the amount of social support received. Verbal aggression and violence were directly affected by the frequency of hassles. Locus of control orientation was found to have an inverse correlation with reasoning, a positive correlation with verbal aggression, and an interactive effect with intensity of hassles in predicting the use of violence tactics. The frequency and intensity of hassles were found to exert independent effects on conflict tactics, and provides a cogent argument for more refined definitions of stress in future research. Finally, high social desirability response sets resulted in an underreporting of conflict tactics and has important ramifications for future research.

Description

Keywords

Parent and child, Interpersonal conflict

Citation