Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications [1 ed.] 9781619424258, 9781612093765

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Copyright © 2011. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova Science

Copyright © 2011. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova

FAMILY ISSUES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

FAMILY CONFLICTS

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PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND MEDICAL IMPLICATIONS

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Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova

FAMILY ISSUES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

FAMILY CONFLICTS

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PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND MEDICAL IMPLICATIONS

JAMES P. FLANAGAN AND

ALEXANDER M. MUNOS EDITORS

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova

Copyright © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Family conflicts : psychological, social and medical implications / editors, James P. Flanagan and Alexander M. Munos. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN:  (eBook) 1. Families. 2. Interpersonal conflict. I. Flanagan, James P. II. Munos, Alexander M. HQ728.F31173 2010 646.7'801--dc22 2010051554

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. †New York Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova

CONTENTS Preface Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

vii First, Mothers; Second, Administrators: Perceived Work-Family Interface in Women Principals J. M. Coronel, Mª J Carrasco, and E. Moreno “But who Said that you Eat When you Want and What you Want?” Verbal Conflicts at Dinnertime and Strategic Moves among Family Members Francesco Arcidiacono Are Family Conflicts Associated with Antenatal Depressive Symptoms Among Mainland Chinese Women? Ying Lau Parental Ratings of Children‟s Behavior in Relation to Parental Psychological Symptoms and Interparental Conflict Jessica C. Hankinson and Vicky Phares Changes in the Importance of Work Goals according to Gender over the Course of Time Moshe Sharabi and Itzhak Harpaz

Index

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99 115

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PREFACE This new book presents topical research in the study of the psychological and social aspects of family conflicts. Topics discussed include perceived work-family conflict among women principals; the association between antenatal depressive symptoms and family conflict and children's behavior in relation to parental psychological symptoms. Chapter 1 – This study to acknowledge perceived work-life interface in women principals as a factor affecting women‟s decision to become school principals and the influence they play as women advance from the field of teaching to the principalship in Spain. Data was collected from 206 questionnaires distributed to female participants who were principals at the pre-school and primary school levels within the region of Andalusia. Results indicate that family responsibilities and child care continues guiding the career choices and goal revisions of women. Child care issues are more important than promoting to management positions. Women consider acceding to the principalship later in life, when children are older and familial roles are modified. Findings help explain women's decisions to wait for a better time to advance to the principalship at schools. Chapter 2 – The aim of this chapter is to analyze verbal conflicts between parents and children through the analysis of family dinnertime conversations. Previous studies on disputes have indicated that verbal conflicts could be educational instruments of interaction and tools of socialization in the family context. During the everyday interactions at home, family members engage themselves in several activities of disputing, debate, conflicting, with different objectives and results. The aim of this chapter is to capture parents and children during their interaction at dinnertime, and to observe ethnographically the verbal

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James P. Flanagan and Alexander M. Munos

conflicts around different topics of discussion. Adopting a conversational and discursive approach as a guiding analytical concept, we propose different levels of analysis of the strategic moves of family members. This chapter draws from videotaped recordings of Italian middle class family dinners selected as being dual career ones with two children. The data have been fully transcribed and codified following the approach of Conversation Analysis. The data have been analyzed both at a quantitative and qualitative level. The results show the central place of verbal conflicts in the family context as particular cultural strategies of relationships between parents and children. The study underlines the relations between different aspects of conflicts and the pragmatic implications as strategic moves for all family members at dinnertime conversations. Chapter 3 – A total of 1,609 women were recruited from four regional public hospitals to participate in a study using an exploratory cross-sectional design. This is the first study investigated the prevalence and correlates of antenatal depressive symptoms among Chinese women from Chengdu during their second trimester of pregnancy in mainland China. The women were identified as having depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Marital conflict and parent-in-law conflict were assessed using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Stryker Adjustment Checklist, respectively. The vulnerable factors of depressive symptoms were explored in terms of their demo-socio-economic, obstetric, and Chinese family relational aspects. The prevalence rates of mild to severe and severe antenatal depressive symptoms were 35.9% (n = 578) and 7.3% (n = 118), respectively. The logistic regression analysis revealed that participants who had been married for a shorter time (aOR = 1.338), who had a single source of financial support (aOR = 1.407), who had a poor marital relationship (aOR = 2.347), and who had a poor mother-in-law relationship (aOR = 1.399) were more likely to have mild to severe depressive symptoms (p < 0.05). Participants who were younger (aOR = 1.661), who had lived in Chengdu for a shorter period of time (aOR = 2.296), who had been married for a shorter time (aOR = 1.596), who had a single source of financial support (aOR = 1.846), and who had a poor marital relationship (aOR = 2.572) were more likely to have severe depressive symptoms (p < 0.05). The findings provide important information to help in the reduction of antenatal depressive symptoms among the Chengdu population. The implications and limitations of these findings, and directions for future research, are discussed. Chapter 4 – Objective: This study examined mothers‟ and fathers‟ ratings of their own child‟s emotional/behavioral problems and those of a child whom they

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Preface

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did not know in relation to parental psychological symptoms and interparental conflict Design: Seventy-nine mothers and seventy-one fathers were randomly assigned to watch a video of a child actor and were asked to rate the child actor‟s behavior, their psychological symptoms, their level of interparental conflict, and their child‟s behavior. Results: Analyses showed that mothers‟ and fathers‟ level of psychological symptoms and level of interparental conflict were not related to the ratings of the child actor‟s behavior. However, mothers‟ and fathers‟ psychological symptoms were significantly related to ratings of their own child‟s behavior problems. In addition, there were significant correlations between mothers‟ ratings of the child actor and their own child‟s behavior. Conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that parental psychological symptoms are related to their ratings of their own children but not other children‟s behavior. Results are discussed in the context of the assessment process for children‟s emotional/behavioral problems. Chapter 5 – This unique research presents findings of a cross sectional study carried out between 1981 and 2006. This is a follow-up research regarding "meaning of work" studies carried out in 1981 and 1993, which examines the importance of work goals (variety, interest, good pay, interpersonal relations, job security, etc.) in Israel according to gender. The participants are representative samples of the Israeli labor force in 1981 (n=973), 1993 (n=942) and 2006 (n=909). The results indicate that in the last 25 years there have been substantial changes in the importance of work goals where women‟s values have become more and more similar to these of men. Both men and women have showed an increase in the importance they have attached to instrumental goals of good pay and job security over the course of time. Nevertheless, women have made the most dramatic change towards instrumental goals and have closed the traditional gaps between them and men. This increase in the importance of good pay and job security reflects the increase of working importance among women. Despite this change, women still regard convenient work hours as more important than men. The findings disclose an increased potential for work-family conflict among Israeli women in the last decade since women view work as more and more important in their lives but still see themselves as responsible for traditional domestic family activities (e.g. raising children) more than men. These arguments can lead to the assumption that gender socialization and social expectations in the family domain have not changed over the years.

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In: Family Conflicts Editors: J. P. Flanagan and A. M. Munos

ISBN 978-1-61209-376-5 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

FIRST, MOTHERS; SECOND, ADMINISTRATORS: PERCEIVED WORKFAMILY INTERFACE IN WOMEN PRINCIPALS J. M. Coronel*, Mª J Carrasco, and E. Moreno

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Department of Education, School of Education, University of Huelva Campus de El Carmen s/n 21004 Huelva, Spain

ABSTRACT This study to acknowledge perceived work-life interface in women principals as a factor affecting women‟s decision to become school principals and the influence they play as women advance from the field of teaching to the principalship in Spain. Data was collected from 206 questionnaires distributed to female participants who were principals at the pre-school and primary school levels within the region of Andalusia. Results indicate that family responsibilities and child care continues guiding the career choices and goal revisions of women. Child care issues are more important than promoting to management positions. Women consider acceding to the principalship later in life, when children are older and familial roles are modified. Findings help explain women's decisions to wait for a better time to advance to the principalship at schools.

*

Email: [email protected]

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno

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INTRODUCTION Although in pre-modern societies women conventionally undertook paid work, the dual-income family is one of the major social innovations of the late 20th century (Houston, 2005). Before the 1980s, the work-family balancing acts were conceptualized as a “woman problem” and it was assumed that men integrated their work and family roles without any conflict. However, globalization significantly affects workers, families, and cultures everywhere. In the past 25 years, there have been immense changes in the work and family domains. Family life and gender relations have undergone many changes in the western world. Change is even apparent in the structures and process of families. Structures of family are increased diversely with lone parent-hood as the fastest growing family form. With child care almost entirely marketized, lower-income families depend mostly on networks of kin, friends, neighbours or children‟s selfcare. Extended family responsibilities for child care, along with increased use of nursery and crèche facilities and after-school clubs (where they exist), the employment of nannies or informal arrangements between working mothers, all indicate diversity of structural conditions and patterns (Evetts, 2000). Societal beliefs about gender roles are challenged when men and women make career and family choices that go against traditional norms or stereotypes. Individuals who assume nontraditional roles often face discrimination and encounter obstacles to achieving success and satisfaction in their roles. Conversely, when men and women are not constrained by narrowly defined gender roles, they have more freedom to pursue the lifestyle that is best for themselves and for their families (Perrone, Wright, & Vance Jackson, 2009). Many studies highlight life course and work (e.g. Marshall, Heinz & Verma, 2001; Cunningham, 2007). Major changes have taken place in the role of women and in gender attitudes. The structures and processes of the family in western industrial or post-industrial societies have had a clear controlling influence on the gendering careers (Evetts, 2000; Hank & Jürges, 2007). In family life, men‟s contribution to household chores has more that doubled; however, women, even those who work full-time year-round, still maintain primary responsibility for the home and child care (Baxter, 2005; Keene & Quadagno, 2004; Wharton & BlairLoy, 2006). Despite the fact that women increasingly work outside the home, family responsibilities and child care continues guiding the career choices and goal revisions of women. They alter career goal to fit life needs. Career choices were greatly influenced by other life choices and reflect an adaptive approach, frequently influenced by the need to accommodate others and circumstances in their lives (Hite & McDonald, 2003). Occupational choices are not made in

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isolation of other life choices, such as the decision to marry and have children, and the decision to balance one‟s occupational behaviours with one‟s other life roles (Eccles, 1994). Work–family balance is an underdeveloped concept, despite widespread use in the work–family literature (Greenhaus & Allen, in press; Grzywacz & Carlson, 2007), and frequently research focuses on the conflict experienced by working mothers (Hill, 2007). Beyond the familiar circus metaphors of „juggling‟ and „balancing‟, beyond the work/family binaries itself, the intersection of family and work is much more complex than is commonly thought. In this context, for several decades, substantive research is made to understand the work-family interface and the causes and consequences of work-family conflict (WFC). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985, p. 77) have defined the work-family conflict as “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressure from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect”. Because of this incompatibility, participation in one role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the other (Greenhaus & Powell, 2003; Greenhaus, Collins and Shaw, 2003). WFC occurs when participation in a work activity interferes with participation in a competing family activity, or when work stress has a negative effect on behavior within the family domain. Conversely, family-to-work conflict occurs when participation in a family activity interferes with participation in a competing work activity, or when family stress has a negative effect on performance in the work role. Work-to family conflict is associated with a desire for fewer hours of work when women have preschool children (Reynolds & Aletraris, 2007). Work-family interference occurs far more regularly than family-work interference. Yet this situation may not occur with great frequency in the real world, where individuals generally have more latitude in adjusting schedules and arrangements in the family domain than in the work domain (Greenhaus & Powell, 2003). Work-family conflict (WFC) has been noted as a particular concern and the most studied correlate in research, and has generally been recognized as bidirectional (Frone, Russell and Cooper, 1992a). Although the model proposed by Frone et al. does not include job flexibility, we generally follow the assumption that characteristics related to the level of family participation (responsibility for children, responsibility for elders, and married) will be directly and positively related to the family-work conflict and that characteristics related to level of participation in the job (i.e. management responsibility) will be directly and positively related to work-family conflict. However, these two roles have differential permeability –family roles tend to be less structured and formalized and, thus, more permeable to other role requirements (Eagle, Miles & Icenogle, 1997). Recently, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) or

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Carlson, Grzywacz and Zivnuska, (2009), have offered a more integrative perspective and proposed a theoretical model of work-family enrichment whereby experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role. Theories like the social exchange theory and the theory of interdependence have been applied to analyze work-family conflict and have contributed to put emphasis on patterns of interaction and social dynamics (Lobel, 1991; Lambert, 2000; Nordernmark, 2002). There is also evidence that work-to-family conflict is more strongly related to job satisfaction (Cron, 2001; Grandey, Cordeiro & Crouter, 2005). Implicit or explicitly, role spillover is another factor in research on workfamily interface (Keene & Reynolds, 2005). Family responsibilities making more difficult to meet job obligations or workplace limits spent with family. Tensions created between roles and obligations of being a mother or a spouse, on the one hand, and an employee on the other, reserves special attention (Frone, Russell & Cooper, 1992a; 1992b). When family demands negatively affect job performance, mothers than fathers experienced negative family-to work spillover. The presence of preschool-aged children increased this situation (Pedersen, et al., 2007). Cleary, spillover and balance are linked (Keene & Quadagno, 2004).

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Work-Family Interface and Gender Theory Research on the work-family interface has traditionally taken a role theory (Eagly, 1987) or/and expectation states theory (Berger et al., 1980) perspective to determine the effect of multiple role engagement on life satisfaction and psychological well-being. Women are more likely to see the family role as part of their social identity than men (Bem, 1993). Psychological differences resulting from male and female socialization at an early age can generate less selfconfidence and a low level of perceived self-efficacy. The gender model suggests that gender roles have been socially determined (Eagly, Wood, Diekman, 2000). Using the socialization perspective to examine employee involvement at work as opposed to family would tend to support men focusing more on the workplace and women focusing more on the home. Haar & O‟Driscoll (2005) support this socialization theoretical perspective in their study with 100 New Zealand employees of local government organizations. When work impinges on family demands, women are more likely to develop a negative attitude towards work than men because women are more likely to see their job as threatening a central social role. Such explanations locate the problem within women (internal barriers), and fail to address larger societal and ideological issues (Adkinson, 1981; Betz & Hackett, 1997).

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Work-Family Interface and Societal Values A second focus puts emphasis on external barriers and the ways in which women operate within society. It is evident that culture influences the nature of the work-family interface (Hill, Yang, Hawkins & Ferris, 2004). The sociopolitical dimension focuses on the traditions and culture of a region or country which women are “obliged” to accept. The increase of more “liberal” attitudes toward gender roles and a less traditional division of domestic labor throughout European countries as a whole have contributed to radically improve women‟s situation (Crompton, Brockman & Lyonette, 2005; Lovenduski, & Stephenson, 1999; Plantenga & Remery, 2005; Straub, 2007; Tang & Cousins, 2005). In an attempt to eliminate structural barriers on women‟s advancement they launched work family practices such as, flexi-time, shorter working hours, job sharing, teleworking, child care services and special maternity leave arrangements. However, is far more difficult for women to find a balance between family and work than for men (Lyness & Brumit, 2005). Even though the rates of women‟s participation as labor force have increased in the past half century, women still maintain the primary responsibility for the home and childcare. Spain has one of the highest growth rates of female labor participation in Europe (from 23 per cent in 1964 to 68 per cent in 1998 for women aged 25 to 44 years), but this rate is still low in comparison with male labor participation (Alfageme, et. al, 2006; Carnicer, Martínez & Pérez, 2004). Cultural traditions in most southern European countries, for which family is certainly a very strong institution, and work schedule (a working day with a long break for lunch) have contributed to make work and family difficult to combine. In Spain, the process that affected most capitalist societies –characterized by a period of flourishing economy that transformed the essence of female work- did not take place at the very same time. Women used to do the household chores, a time-consuming and demanding task and, consequently, they were incorporated into the labor force as secondary and non-qualified workers. This situation started to change due to social factors such as: a) the more intensive investment in human capital that young people made in the 1970‟s, which allowed them to apply for more qualified and better paid jobs; b) the changes in family structures and the decrease of birth rates, quite intensive by the end of the 1970‟s, when the number of people directly dependent on women at home was reduced; and c) the transfer of some of the activity dedicated to reproduction to new production spheres (Frau, 1998). In Spain women have earned their right to actively participate in social, political and economical life on equal terms with men (Gómez, 2004; Cabrera, 2005). However, the social context demands from women more dedication to

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housework and the family than from men, and this provokes higher levels of overload and interference in the former. Spanish women have primary responsibility in housekeeping and childcare, and are discriminated in their possibilities of promotion. For that reason, they may experience more workfamily conflict. Only recently have there been advances in work-family programs and policies implemented by state government (Ministry of Public Institutions, 2006). Tinklin, Croxford, Duckin & Frame (2005) carried out a longitudinal study on roles and social expectations. In 2000, work is a much more important element in women‟s life. Although we have progressed in equality issues, we cannot forget that women have entered the labor market with lower salaries and status. Hence, working towards egalitarian conducts and rights and a balanced female quota in management positions are still goals to be achieved. Among other reasons, changes can be explained by rising divorce rates and the increase in lone parental families coupled with women‟s entry en masse into the workforce. They have eroded traditional expectations of the male as the breadwinner and the person with primary responsibility in the labor world. The study examines the attitudes of 200 Scottish young people at the end of the 20th century on questions related to gender and their own aspirations for the future. Between 1971 and 1981, the percentage of women who thought they could get as much satisfaction from having a career as from having a family raised from 27% to 50%. Young people consider it is important to get good qualifications at school and being successful in their careers.

Work-Family Interface, Managerial Status and Workplace Cultures The impact of managerial status and workplace cultures on variables related to work family interface presents an interesting situation. Managing both work and family responsibilities is a familiar experience for many employees. Much of the research has attempted to help us understand why women still are segregated into certain jobs, and why women still find it difficult to reach the upper-echelons in organizations. The presence of women in decision-making positions and power structures is not proportional to the global number of women with a job. Women continue to increase their share of managerial positions, but the rate of progress is slow, uneven and sometimes discouraging. Women are markedly underrepresented in management compared to their overall share of employment. In addition, they continue to have more difficulty obtaining top jobs than they do

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lower down the hierarchy. In spite of this situation, the immersion of women with young children in the labor market is not short of having doubled in 20 years. Organizational work culture can be, however, a useful theoretical lens through which to explore gender discrimination and can provide valuable insight into the development, maintenance, and transformation of discriminatory practices (Gherardi, 1995; Mills, 2002). Current masculine discourses in paternalistic work culture privilege rationalities, invoking an obsessive preoccupation with control (Mumby & Putnam, 1992). Thus, organisational cultures have created obstacles to women‟s progress and their access to management positions (Gherardi, 1995; Evetts, 2000; Rutherford, 2001; Burke & Nelson, 2002; Hite and McDonald, 2003; McDonald, Brown and Bradley, 2005). Not only does this unfair treatment strain advancement opportunities and compensation for women, but it also increases work stress and reduces general well-being at work (Perrewé & Nelson, 2004). Organizational Theory maintains an essentially masculine ideology. Questions that relate to the role of women have been practically absent or have been treated as irrelevant historically and in academic discourse. Translated into practice, women's issues are often ignored in the workplace and their efforts undervalued (Alvesson & Due Billing, 1997; Calás & Smircich, 1996; Ely, Foldy & Scully, 2003; Mills & Marjosola, 2002; Nicholson, 1996). Glass ceilings remain and there are now glass walls (Burke & Nelson, 2002). Women in organizations are not paid as much as men, are not as visible, are still facing structural and cultural barriers. Some concepts such as „work–family policies‟ and „employer work–life supports‟ are increasingly part of everyday discourse in employing organizations and in most industrialized societies. They are complex, ambiguous in meaning, and evolving in practice, rationales, and cultural acceptance (Kossek, Lewis, and Hammer, 2010). McDonald, Brown and Bradley (2005) explored organizational cultures and their relationship to work-life policies and proposed five dimensions of work-life culture that reflect elements of organizational environments which either encourage the uptake of work-life policies: 1) lack of managerial support for work-life balance; 2) perceptions of negative career consequences; 3) organizational time expectations; 4) the gendered nature of policy utilization; and 5) perceptions of unfairness by employees with limited non-work responsibilities. Not only does this unfair treatment strain advancement opportunities and compensation for women, but it also increases work stress and reduces general well being at work (Perrewé & Nelson, 2004; Sahibzada et al., 2005). Although national governments are becoming more aware and supportive of the problems of work-life balance, and organizational discourses of flexible

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working and work–life balance are current debates (Cook, 2009; Hill, et. al, 2008; Lynness, & Brumit, 2005; Smithson & Stokoe, 2005), an increase in competitiveness and intensification at workplaces may be working against more “positive” policy supports (Cromptom, Brockman & Lyonette, 2005). Career goals are often adapted to meet other life circumstances; and family responsibilities, job security, and organizational support systems influence career success and satisfaction. Women in Western industrialized countries have made significant career advancements but barriers that necessitate organizational intervention still remain (Kottke & Agars, 2005; Callan, 2007). According to Gómez (2004), women who are deeply involved in their professions still have to make heroic acts. Many companies claim, through their departments of Human Resources, that they have outstanding programs of support for their employees so that they have a better disposition to take care of their family responsibilities. However, employees – especially in the case of women– decide not to make use of them, since they know it would mean the end of their progress within the company. To introduce measures is not the only task companies should put into practice. A true change in the culture of the company must take place and that is the very difficult thing to achieve.

Women in Educational Management Internationally, since the 1980s, there has been an increase in research on gender and school administration, which has documented women‟s experiences in management (Asplund, 1998; Coleman, 2003; Drake & Owen, 1998; Fennell, 2005; Hall, 1996) and has attempted to identify and categorize some of the barriers impeding the progress of women‟s careers in educational administration and leadership (Coleman, 2004; Cubillo & Brown, 2003; Hall, 1996). Studies on management process (Gatenby & Humphries, 1999; Young & McLeod, 2001), women‟s experiences in academic contexts (Raddon, 2002), career development (Perna, 2005); women in administration (Shakeshaft, 1987; Skrla, 2000); studies with women teachers (Cinamon & Rich, 2005) or women principals (Smulyan, 2000; Eckman, 2004) have pointed the impact of work-family interface and family issues in women‟s workplace. Women continue to assume a great deal of responsibility towards the household, provoking a manifest inequality in status, academic rank, administrative responsibilities and advancement opportunities. Moreover, the emergence of educational corporate cultures produces multiple obstacles, resistances and expectations that women must face in management

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(Whitehead, 2001). At present, the assimilation and inculcation of the codes and orthodoxies of the new managerialism are becoming a normal practice in educational institutions (Davies, 2003). In Spain, teaching has traditionally been seen as a "suitable" job for women. Females hold more positions within the classroom in comparison to males, especially in the early grades. However, despite the large number of women in the profession, they are greatly under-represented in administrative positions. In 2004, Spain had a total of 199,971 women as opposed to 59,272 men in preschool and primary education teaching positions, while 70 percent of men held the position of principal as opposed to only 30 percent of women (Instituto de Estadística de Andalucía, 2006). Prerequisites for candidature to the principalship are the same for both women and men. Criteria include having spent five years in the workplace, having completed an in-service course, and having a predefined placement. In summary, the amount of research published on this topic, the changing nature of work and the constantly evolving role of women in managerial positions likely have affected the work-home relationship in the recent decade, justifying the need for continued research. These circumstances created the need for a study that explored the situation of women managers in educational environments in Spain. The study described herein represents part of a wider project that examine barriers perceived by women acceding to the principalship and women‟s leadership styles and proposed educational management policies for school improvement in the Andalusian region of Spain. In this article we present the findings from the first descriptive stage of research which focused on perceived work-family interface in women principals in their advancement to the principalship.

METHOD Participants and Procedure Using systematic and random sampling procedure, a sample of 350 female principals from each of the eight Andalusian provinces was drawn. We first contacted the selected female principals by telephone. We obtained the selfadministered questionnaires from those who finally participated. Of the 350 questionnaires, we received 206 responses, accounting for a 58.8% response rate. Table 1, presents a synthesis of demographic, personal and professional data from the participants in this study. The questionnaire had been previously pre-tested

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno

among university colleagues and women principals. A cover letter stating the purpose of the research accompanied each questionnaire, and it encouraged voluntary participation, assured women about the anonymity of their answers and thanked them for their cooperation. The questionnaire contained four sections: A) Demographic Information (21 items); B) Opinions Regarding the Principalship (13 items); C) Factors Impeding the Advancement to the Principalship (44 items); and D) Observations and Final Comments.

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Section A Demographic Information, sought descriptive data relating to school context, professional, family and personal data. Table 1 displays much of the information gathered from this section. Section B Opinions Regarding the Principalship, used a multiple choice format and addressed several issues. Specifically, the reasons for the low representation of women in leadership and the influence of family responsibilities; issues about discrimination and its relationship with the dedication to the family, and the degree in which the domestic and familiar activities affected their professional performance. Section C Factors Impeding the Advancement to the Principalship, participants responded to items using a 6-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree). This scale contained six subscales. Two of them were specifically discussed: role conflict and maternity support policies. Section D Observations and final comments, asked participants to add relevant information not covered in the closed questions. Space was provided at the end so that the principals surveyed could add information about any issue that, in their opinion, was not dealt with earlier in the questionnaire. This section gathered open-ended comments and permitted us to extend the data and probe further than we may have thought to inquire. It offered space for reflecting and writing opinions or suggestions that, according to the principals, was necessary. Therefore, the format of the questionnaire ranged in answers from the use of rating scales, the arrangement of statements, and the marking of sentences or expressions, to free expression in writing.

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For the statistical analysis in Sections A, B, and C, we used descriptive and contrast statistics. Section D was analyzed qualitatively. Individual data sets were broken down into categories that allowed us to inductively identify units of information in the sentences, and the extraction, description and interpretation of identified textual categories provided an “emergence of regularities” (Lincoln & Guba, 1986, p. 350).

FINDINGS

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Section A: Demographic Information In general, (see Table 1) women surveyed are headmistresses in relatively small schools (with an average of 14 units), where female colleagues predominate over men; frequently, they teach the last stage of Primary school. They are teachers with a vast experience (around 24 years) who, in many cases, have previously carried out other positions within the direction. To a large extent, they were appointed by the Educational Authority, though 42% of them were chosen by vote. As far as personal and family information is concerned, nearly 90% of the surveyed principals are over 40 years old. Most of them live with a partner or are married. Approximately one quarter of them have civil status other than "married" (i.e., single, divorced/separated or widowed). Three quarters have one or more children, though, on average, they have two children. However, many of them (26.5%) have no children or no one dependent on them. Only a few of the participants state they take care of their mothers. This freedom from familial duties (50% of the surveyed women have no children or only one) can be considered a favorable circumstance for the position. To this we have to add the fact that many of these women have older children (the option “older than 12” almost reaches 68%), which do not require as much attention when compared to younger children (only 13% state “children under 7”). Of those surveyed 60% confirm they receive external help for completing domestic tasks, whereas, a high number of these women 40% do not. These data are remarkable if we consider that women declares that the collaboration of their partners and children at home is “enough” in only 39.5% of the cases while the rest answered they received “some” or “little” or “no” help at all.

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno Table 1. Participant Demographic and Contextual Information

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Personal and Familial Characteristics Age Group 20-29 years of age 00.50%

50.00%

30-39 years of age

9.90%

40-49 years of age

44.10%

50 years or more

45.50%

Marital Status Single

12.90%

With a mate or married

77.20%

Divorced or separated

7.90%

Widowed

2.00%

Children at home or Dependents None

26.50%

1 child

23.00%

2 children

36.70%

3 or more children

12.80%

Other dependent

1.00%

Age of Youngest Child Less than 3 years

1.40%

3-6 years of age

12.10%

7-12 years of age

18.60%

Older than 12 years

67.90%

Domestic Help Yes

59.90%

No

40.10% Help with Household Responsibilities from Mate or Children Little or none 14.20% Some

46.30%

A lot

39.50%

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First, Mothers; Second, Administrators Professional Information Regarding Female Principals and their Schools Type of School Urban

44.30%

Rural

35.80%

Suburban

19.90%

Number of Classrooms Average

13.69%

Faculty Profile Average number of females

14.38

Average number of males

4.8

Educational Level Where Located Pre-primary

25

Primary

75

Years of Teaching Experience Average

23.99

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Previous Positions Held Office manager

54.70% (avg. of years 4.99;SD 4.25)

Secretary

42.8% (avg. of years 4.30;SD 3.99)

Other positions

73.30% (avg. of years 4.54;SD 5.54)

Years of Experience as Principal Average

7.43 Years as Principal in School Where They are Now Average 6.32 Method of Advancing to Principalship Proposed by administration

5740.00%

Elected and proposed by colleagues

1170.00%

Self-proposed and then elected

30.90%

Competition in the Election Process Only candidate

72.00%

Male colleague competing

17.40%

Female colleague competing

10.60%

SD = Standard Deviation Family Conflicts: Psychological, Social and Medical Implications : Psychological, Social and Medical Implications, Nova

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno

Most of them are middle-aged women (usually over 40) who live with a partner and have 1 or 2 siblings, normally over 12 (76%). Statistically, this difference is very significant if we observe the value of Chi-square (7, 17 according to Yates‟ correction), with a level of confidence of 99% (p=.007). Their family commitments allow them to reach the minimums for conciliating their professional and personal lives. Besides, it must be pointed out that most directors arrange some kind of domestic assistance. These services can be provided by people from outside the family unit or by means of their relatives‟ collaboration.

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Section B: Opinions Regarding the Principalship The affected variables regarding time dedicated to administrative duties were as follows: Personal Time Outside of School (M = 3.40) and Teaching Activity (M = 3.19). The personal time of women (for leisure, education, civic participation...) is affected or reduced substantially. Teaching activity is the second variable most affected by the dedication to the principalship. On the other hand, Family Responsibilities (M = 2.63) were less affected. Being a women principal does not mean under any circumstances, abandon or put aside its role as a family member (mother and / or spouse). Homework and family do not affect her professional activity, and have little impact on their job performance. When women have access to the principalship, family responsibilities are already "managed".

Section C: Factors Impeding the Advancement to the Principalship Maternity Support Policies (M = 2.56) is a variable influencing them when thinking about acceding to the principalship. It is important to note that in Spain, Maternity Support Policies are policies that refer to government support for mothers so that they can, for example, be with children at home with a reduced workload, or leave the workplace to breastfeed. However, scores of Item 4: Governmental support sufficient 3.14 (SD. 1.76); Item 8: Economic support exists 1.81 (SD. 1.28), and Item 10: More support is needed 2.81 (SD. 1.75) express women‟s desires of more support policies for motherhood. Role Conflict (M = 2.70) is another variable affects women principals‟ opinions. Item 1: Promotion important even if takes away time 1.70 (SD. 1.29); Item 5: Home takes time away from work 4.80 (SD. 1.58), and Item 9: Promotion is more important that home/family 1.58 (SD. 1.03) reflects the importance of perceived workfamily interface in women principals. Both categories point out the development

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of the mother role as the main obstacle to advancement due to the high level of dedication it requires.

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Section D: Observations and Final Comments In this section, the most highlighted aspects were those problems derived from the need to reconcile work and family life. Women principals commented on the difficulties of achieving balance between family and work, with a good part of their comments sharing the following sentiment expressed by one principal: “When children grow up and, consequently, they have more time, that will be the moment for thinking over advancing to the principalship. It is better not to think about it when you have children.” (School Principal, 24). The results highlight the consistency and universality of the opinions shown in the questionnaire. There were no significant differences statistically after an ANOVA analysis in relation to work-family interface among subgroups. We can only estimate some difference in the variable Age of children. The principals with small children (younger than 12) scored higher in number of hours dedicated to Contact with the Family (T=-2.63, p=.01), (1.66) vs. (2.36). The age of children (over or under 12) appears as a variable that explains some women principals‟ opinions on the principalship. For example, the time dedicated to the family (lesser in the case of women principals with older children); or attitudes towards female management as a conditioning factor in acceding to the principalship (more negative in the case of women principals with younger children). This finding is consistent with Moore, Grunberg & Greenberg (2007) that explore the impact of child age in balancing work and home.

DISCUSSION First Mothers; Second Principals Role conflict is the barrier with the greatest effect on the road to advancing to the principalship. Once the women are principals, however, role conflict becomes a secondary issue. Taking care of household responsibilities takes some time away from the profession. This is time that female principals are not ready to give up in exchange for potential professional promotions. Therefore, being promoted is not more important than dedication to family. It can be verified that the domestic space (family care and household) is a barrier to acceding to the principalship and

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno

to other professional achievements, but, unlike others, it is a “barrier” that implies a choice made by women, not an external imposition. It could perhaps be better described as a “self-imposed” barrier. Promotion is not something they aspire to since it implies a re-structuring of their family time. Family matters such as marriage and children influence aspirations and achievements within women‟s goals (Hite & McDonald, 2003). Participants find a more favorable context to consider professional promotion and the principalship when children have grown up and are less dependent. According to Wilson (2003), women seem to accept their own oppression because they are socialized to believe they are different. When family demands affected their job performance negatively, women made more adjustments to their workloads – such as refusing overtime or turning down assignments – for the sake of their families. Female principals do not appear ready to compromise their familial roles even considering the possible implications that go along with that decision, such as the loss of potential promotions. This finding seems to be consistent with prior research (e.g. Keene and Reynolds, 2005; Osnowitz, 2005; Perrone, Webb & Blalock, 2005). Women‟s responsibility toward the household is disproportionate. These results support that when work is seen as interfering with the time and energy need at home, working parents, especially working mothers, become dissatisfied with their jobs (Grandey, Cordeiro & Crouter, 2005). We also found similarities with the works by Eckman (2004), Riehl & Bird (1997) and Shakeshaft (1987). These studies show that women accede to the principalship at an older age than men and have more educational experience by the time they reach their first term in the position. Therefore, they reach administrative levels later in life than men. Female administrators tend to have an average of 10 more years of teaching experience than men and thus are older than most men when they enter these positions. Additionally, mobility was affected by marital status (single women showed more predisposition). As well, Metz (2005) has shown the interaction of marital status and children: having children weakens the relationship between working hours and administrative advancement. Studies within the Spanish context have found that the presence of infants at home decreases the participation within the labor market. Most female managers and professionals consider that motherhood delayed their career advancement (Gómez, 2004; Martínez, 2002). Rising divorce rates and the increase in lone parent families coupled with women‟s entry into the workforce have eroded traditional expectations of social stereotypes such as men as “breadwinners” and women as “housekeepers”. However, in this study, theses stereotypes continue exerting a remarkable influence. Our results match other studies‟ (Perrone, Webb & Blalock, 2005)

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when indicating that women have a more active role in parenting and housework. Women principals do not seem ready to renounce to their implication in the family scope in exchange for promotion in their profession. Likewise, we emphasize the role of organizational culture in the way in which women perceive their opportunities of development. Results indicate that career goals are often adapted to meet other life circumstances; and that family responsibilities, job security, and organizational support systems influence career success and satisfaction. McDonald, Brown & Bradley, (2005) suggests fertility is lower in countries where an “institutional lag” is most severe, because these institutions have not adapted to changing work-family circumstances. Spain is an illustrative example of this situation. The decrease in fertility has been inversely proportional to the rate of women at work. In 1986, women did not go beyond 35% in the job market and the average of children by women in a fertile age was 1,5. In 2002, more than 50% of women were working but the rate of fertility was lowered to 1,25. 50% of women answered that they did delay the arrival of their first child because of economic reasons (48,4%) and professional reasons (51,6%). 39% answered that they do not have the number of children they would like to have. 47% of the women surveyed still thinks that being a mother affected their professional career (Gómez, 2004). When work is seen as interfering with the time and energy needed at home, working mothers become dissatisfied with their jobs. In addition to the delays related to the household, it is necessary to emphasize that women tend to view career success as linked to task accomplishment and expertise. Therefore, they reach management later than men. Cron‟s study about job satisfaction (1991) revealed that cohesion in the early life cycle and adaptability in the late life cycle were found to be significant predictors. Increased satisfaction was also shown as the three life-cycle stages progressed. The concept of work-life balance salutes women‟s disadvantages –not just because the workplace will not adapt to accommodate flexible work patterns, but also because the home environment is proving highly resistant to reform as well. The division of labor at home remains a problem difficult to tackle (Overell, 2005).

CONCLUDING COMMENTS Work-family interface affect significantly women principals‟ decisions on their access to the principalship. Children‟s age and their own professional experience appear as variables shaping their decisions towards being raised to a

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J. M. Coronel, Mª J. Carrasco and E. Moreno

higher position. Only middle-age directors can consider promotion once they have overcome a series of barriers they perceive as “natural”. In the sectors studied here, family prevails over work when considering promotion. The concept of personal-professional balance acknowledges women‟s disadvantages not just because the workplace will not adapt to accommodate flexible work patterns, but also because the home environment is proving high resistance to reform as well. The division of labor at home remains a problem difficult to tackle. In Spain we now have a more favorable social and political context for gender research. It is necessary to study governmental policies regarding labor contexts as they relate to collectives such as women teachers to avoid keeping the division of labor at home and to stop delays in women's professional career advancements. We posit that more reasons exist than those associated with work-family conflict, that are characteristics of the workplace, to explain the absence of women in the principalship. In Spain, there are two factors that may help understand this situation: 1) the existence of an organizational culture that values teaching over administrative activities negatively impacts the decision to accede to the principalship. In every aspect, teaching is more important from a professional point of view and more rewarding from the personal viewpoint. Problems appear in properly balancing teaching and administration, which makes them consider the possibility of spending a shorter amount of time in the principalship. Principals regret the "abandonment" of teaching and miss the direct and daily contact with students. They have been trained to be teachers, not principals. After some years spent in the principalship, women generally go back to teaching. Although greater job autonomy is one of the most beneficial arrangements for workers‟ sense of balance, most participants in this study point out that educational management and the effort and energy required for this type of work compensate neither professionally nor personally. 2) Several complexities of the existing model of principalship. Spain is one of only two OECD countries where school principals are elected from – and also partly by – the teaching staff and will return to being one of the teachers after the period of office. Prerequisites for candidature to the principalship are the same for both women and men. Still, more than one third of the schools did not have teachers ready to run as candidates. A subject that needs greater examination is the way women define professional success and its relation to other aspects of their lives, so that certain inconsistencies in the research results on work-family interface and professional and personal satisfaction can be explained.

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Now that governmental policies have taken a glance at labor contexts, it is necessary to study the impact of such policies and the results obtained as to avoid keeping the division of labor at home (Fernandez y Tobio, 2006). Both aspects are mutual dependents. Both men and women should have fulfilling lives at work and at home. Also, we believe it is necessary to develop educational administration programs that are more relevant for women and to offer opportunities for advancement early on in their educational careers. Luckily, the integration of women in the labor market is not just unstoppable: its consolidation has become one of the most important revolutions of 21st century. These changes must be inscribed in a wider social change, resulting from sustainable economic development, the expansion of market relations, the impulse of the Welfare State and the recognition of citizenship rights, also for women, who will contribute to transform the social perception of the role they must accomplish.

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Houston, D. (Ed.) (2005). Work-life balance in the 21 st. Century. Economic and Social Research Council Future of Work Series. Palgrave: MacMillan. Instituto de Estadística de Andalucía [Andalousian Institute for Statistics](2006). Andalucía Datos Básicos: Perspectivas de Género[Andalucia. Basics Data: A gender perspective]. Seville, Spain. Keene, J.R. & Quadagno, J. (2004). Predictors of perceived work-family balance: Gender difference or gender similarity? Sociological Perspectives, 47 (1), 123. Keene, J.R. & Reynolds, J. (2005). The job cost of family demands: Gender differences in negative family-to-work spillover. Journal of Family Issues, 26 (3), 275-299. Kossek, E.E., Lewis, S. & Hammer, L.B. (2010). Work–life initiatives and organizational change: Overcoming mixed messages to move from the margin to the mainstream. Human Relations, 63(1), 3-19. Kottke, J.L., & Agars, M.D. (2005). Understanding the processes that facilitate and hinder efforts to advance women in organizations. Career Development International, 10 (3), 190-202. Lambert, S. (2000). Added benefits: the link between work-life benefits and organizational citizenship behaviour. The Academic of Management Journal, 43 (5), 801-815. Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1986). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Lobel, S. (1991). Allocation of investment in work and family roles: Alternatives theories and implications for research. Academic of Management Review, 16 (3), 507-521. Lovenduski, J. et Stephenson, S. (1999). Les femmes dans les processus de decisión en Europe: Un rapport sur la recherche. Luxembourg: Office des publications officielles des Communautés européens, 64 págs. Lyness, K.S. & Brumit, M. (2005). The relationships of national gender equality and organizational support with work-family balance: A study of European managers. Human Relations, 58 (1), 33-60. Marshall, V., Heinz, W. & Verman, A. ( 2001). (Eds.). Restructuring work and life course. Toronto: University Press. Martínez, M. (2002). Oferta de trabajo femenina en España : un modelo empírico aplicado a mujeres casadas. [Supply of female labor in Spain: an empirical model applied to married women].Cuadernos Económicos de ICE, 66, 129152. McDonald, P., Brown, K. & Bradley, L. (2005). Explanations for the provisionutilisations gap in work–life policy. Women in Management Review, 20 (1/2), 37-56.

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Chapter 2

“BUT WHO SAID THAT YOU EAT WHEN YOU WANT AND WHAT YOU WANT?” VERBAL CONFLICTS AT DINNERTIME AND STRATEGIC MOVES AMONG FAMILY MEMBERS Francesco Arcidiacono Copyright © 2011. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

ABSTRACT The aim of this chapter is to analyze verbal conflicts between parents and children through the analysis of family dinnertime conversations. Previous studies on disputes have indicated that verbal conflicts could be educational instruments of interaction and tools of socialization in the family context. During the everyday interactions at home, family members engage themselves in several activities of disputing, debate, conflicting, with different objectives and results. The aim of this chapter is to capture parents and children during their interaction at dinnertime, and to observe ethnographically the verbal conflicts around different topics of discussion. Adopting a conversational and discursive approach as a guiding analytical concept, we propose different levels of analysis of the strategic moves of family members. This chapter draws from videotaped recordings of Italian middle class family dinners selected as being dual career ones with two children. The data have been fully transcribed and codified following the approach of Conversation Analysis. The data have been analyzed both at a quantitative

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Francesco Arcidiacono and qualitative level. The results show the central place of verbal conflicts in the family context as particular cultural strategies of relationships between parents and children. The study underlines the relations between different aspects of conflicts and the pragmatic implications as strategic moves for all family members at dinnertime conversations.

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INTRODUCTION The study of verbal conflicts focuses mainly on disagreement concerning opinions and social roles. Within a sociolinguistic tradition, the structure of verbal conflicts (Grimshaw, 1990) and the sequential organization of conversations have been considered in relation to the linguistic choices and moves that participants made during an interaction. All these aspects contribute to define the context of the situation and the social roles that people assume during a conflict. However, a main role in developing conflicts is played by language, because it expresses referential contents, attitudes, and emotions. Language reveals the various elements of conflicts in the organization of the communicative exchanges at a prosodic, lexical and syntactic level. Conflict situations entail also the turn-taking competition during the conversation underlining differences in participants‟ point of view. Conversations and verbal conflicts are connected by the fact they occur during everyday interactions and they cannot be considered separately. Usually a conflict appears during a conversation in which somebody (the protagonist) verbally engages with somebody else (the antagonist). But at the same time it can be the verbal interaction that allows an occasion to find elements of contrast and the possibility to conflict. This is particularly true within the everyday family interactions. In fact, family members engage themselves in several activities of disputing, debate, conflicting, with different goals and results. The aim of this chapter is to focus on parents-children verbal conflicts, through the analysis of family conversations at dinner table. We intend to observe the conflict developed around different topics of discussion and the strategic communicative moves of the participants. For this purpose, we will adopt argumentative and discursive approaches as guiding analytical concepts.

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WHAT IS A VERBAL CONFLICT? The word “conflict” refers to different terms, often used as synonymous, such as dispute, disagreement, and questioning (Vuchinich, 1984; Coombs, 1987; Shantz, Hobart, 1989). However, the characteristics of a verbal conflict have been well described by Eisenberg and Garvey (1981). They proposed the notion of “adversative episode” to designate a discursive sequence characterized by an initial event, an initial opposition (rejection, disagreement), and a reaction to the opposition. In particular, the initial opposition is a necessary but not sufficient condition within the adversative episode, because it may be complied with, ignored, or responded to in a playful way. A specific interactional move is necessary to transform an initial, potential opposition into an adversative episode. In fact, as suggested by Maynard (1985), only if a conflicting response to an initial oppositional move occurs, the first oppositional move retrospectively marks the beginning of a conflict. The adversative episode implies at least a three-step sequence within a conversation between at least two participants. When the first speaker requests something, makes an assertion or action, this move can be considered an antecedent event or arguable action if the second speaker, in his/her turn, shows an initial opposition to the move of the interlocutor (for example by a negative response, a refusal, a denial, an objection). Then, the first speaker can disagree with the second speaker, acting a counter-opposition (for example rejecting the point of view or the argument of the other person, or insisting and supporting his own first claim). Verbal conflicts can be characterized by three main dimensions. The first is the “orientation”, defined as serious and non-serious. Actions are framed as either serious or playful by the meta-messages accompanying them. These framings are just as important as the messages themselves in determining how an interaction will unfold. The second dimension is the “modality”, distinguished in mitigated and aggravated (Garvey, Shantz, 1992). The modality can be modulated by the fact that speakers can either mitigate speech actions to avoid creating offence or use more aggravated forms of speech actions. Opposition can thus vary in its intensity: speakers can disagree with one another in mitigated or modulated ways or in a more aggravated or unmodulated fashion (Labov, Fanshel, 1977). Another dimension concerns the conflict‟s termination that is collaboratively and sequentially achieved by participants. Vuchinich (1990) has defined different possibilities of “closing”. In a stand-off, participants continue to keep opposing positions, without submitting: disputants drop the conflict without any kind of resolution. By submission, a mutual establishment of dominant and compliant

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parties is possible when a person tacitly accepts the position taken by the other party. A compromise implies a concession in which “a participant offers a position that is between the opposing positions that define the dispute” (Vuchinich, 1990, p. 127). Another type of closing concerns the possibility that one participant withdraws entirely from the interaction. Of course, a verbal conflict may also be closed by a combination of different termination formats.

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CONFLITS WITHIN EVERYDAY FAMILY INTERACTIONS In the family context, conflicts can contribute to improve conversational, social and cognitive skills of adults and children (Pontecorvo, 1987). In fact, within a multiparty setting, family members can show not only negative attitudes during adversative episodes, but also cooperative moves and positive emotions. Conflicts are tools that aim at acquiring a social knowledge of rules (Hartup, Laursen, 1993) and different studies on the structure of conflict reveal the social and cultural values of socialization implied by discursive processes in the conflict events (Farris, 2000; Kyratzis, Guo, 2001). Verbal conflicts within the family context are elements that people can use to construct the family borders from a psychological, sociological and linguistic point of view. The strategic moves of family members during verbal conflicts determine the possibility to model and to re-define the context of interaction (Gumperz, 1982). Using language to conflict, parents and children express referential contents, attitudes, and emotions, revealing different elements in the organization of the communicative exchanges. Due to the specific character of the family context, it is relevant to consider the conditions in which the building of a conflict is possible in the argumentative activities carried out by family members. Family conversation is a setting to investigate the interpersonal and social practices of interaction, following the idea that the context is not a container but a constituent of the communicative process (Rigotti, Rocci, 2006). For this reason, we intend to focus on the argumentative moves of family members during verbal conflicts that occur within the frame of their everyday interactions. To assume the notion of framing implies that during verbal conflicts participants recognize continuously what they are doing and what they have to do with the interlocutors. This capacity is a resource for family members because they can deal with disagreements by means of reasonable argumentative exchanges. The specificity of the family conversation represents, in relation to other more institutionalised contexts, a setting largely characterized by interpersonal relationships and a

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relatively freedom concerning issues that can be tackled (Arcidiacono, Pontecorvo, Greco Morasso, 2009).

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STRATEGIC MOVES DURING VERBAL CONFLITS: TWO APPROACHES In this chapter, we refer to two possible ways to study the verbal conflict between parents and children at dinnertime conversations. We intend to integrate the approaches of Conversation and Discourse Analysis and the model of the critical argumentative discussion, in order to reach a comprehensive account of the strategic moves occurring during verbal conflicts in the context of family interactions. The first approach, including the Conversation Analysis (Sacks, Schegloff, Jefferson, 1974) and the Discourse Analysis (McKinlay, Potter, Wetherell, 1993), studies social phenomena in the actual context of life as they occur spontaneously during interactions. As conversation is the common discursive practice in everyday interactions (Ochs, 1988), its study represents “a general approach to the analysis of the social action” (Heritage, 1984, p. 299). Conversation and Discourse Analyses are based on the observation, description and examination of natural data, collected by ethnographical methods that replace other research methodologies in psychology and social sciences. In order to identify and to describe the sequential patterns of discourse produced by people, it is necessary to assume the participants‟ own perspective (Edwards, Stokoe, 2004). Researchers have to identify relevant phenomena observed during conversations and to organize a collection of excerpts of similar instances (Pontecorvo, Fasulo, Sterponi, 2001) in order to show what participants are doing during their spontaneous interactions. Within the discursive approach, participants‟ accounts are always occasioned in the context of discourse‟s production and address the concerns of people engaged in the interaction. In other words, accounts are considered as alternative versions of people‟s experiences, and not as definite facts about their lives. The detailed study of the discursive practices provides thus insights on how participants structure the ordinary talk, how define themselves and others within everyday interactions, and how people socially function. The second approach, namely the model of the critical discussion (van Eemeren, Grotendorst, 1984; 2004), elicits the essential constituents of an argumentative discussion. As the verbal conflict is a situation that calls people to strategically argue and defend their own positions, we assume that this approach

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can work as a guideline to identify participants‟ moves from an argumentative point of view. The core of the model is to permit the interpretation of real-life interactions in terms of their correspondence to an ideal model of the critical discussion. Four sequential stages are foreseen. At the beginning, there is a “confrontation stage” in which the difference of opinions is made explicit. Then, in the “opening stage” the common ground shared by the participants emerges and people can engage in providing arguments in support of their own point of view (this is the real “argumentative stage”). The final step is the “concluding stage”: it concerns the phase through which participants conclude their critical discussion. These two approaches can offer a complete view on how argumentation shapes the communicative practices occurring in families and, more specifically, how it fosters a critical attitude in the process of verbal conflicts carried out in this context.

METHODOLOGY AND DATA

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Research Study and Participant Families In this section, we present the study of parents-children verbal conflicts as part of a larger research project on family interactions (Pontecorvo, 1996; Pontecorvo, Arcidiacono, 2007). The general aim of the project has been the observation and the analysis of the socialization processes that occur at dinnertime conversations. Participant families were selected on the grounds of the following criteria: the presence of both parents; the presence of a child aged from 3 to 6; and the presence of an elder sibling. In total, 23 Italian middle class families participated to the project. Researchers met all families in a preliminary phase, to inform them about the general lines of the research and the procedures. The collection of the data was based on video-recordings of family dinners. During the first visit, a researcher was present in order to place the camera and to instruct the participants on how to use the technology. The video-recordings following the first one were done by the family autonomously, when the researchers were not present. Each family has videotaped their dinnertime 3 times, over a 20-day period; the first videotaped dinner was not used for the aims of the research, in order to familiarize the participants with the camera and it was left to the family. Actually, the general data corpus is constituted by the recordings of 76 dinners. All dinnertime conversations were fully transcribed, according to the conventions suggested by Jefferson (1985). Specifically, the list of symbols used in the excerpts of this

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chapter is presented in the appendix 1. All transcriptions were revised by two researchers (reaching a high level of consent) and then coded. The unit of analysis has been the “topic” of discourse: we have considered the topic as the subject of a sequence of no less than three consecutive turns of at least two different speakers.

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Aims and Criteria of Analysis We assume that parents-children conflicts are possible educational tools of interaction and means of cultural socialization during the everyday family exchanges at home (Arcidiacono, Pontecorvo, 2009). Our aim is to observe the verbal conflict as it emerges within the interactions occurring in family spontaneous conversations. In particular, we intend to analyze the participants‟ conversational moves in these specific situations, in order to reveal the relationships (at a quantitative and qualitative level) between parents and children. The hypotheses we take into consideration concern: a) the consistent presence of conflict sequences between parents and children during family conversations at home; b) the higher frequency of conflicts solicited by parents versus children; c) the higher involvement of children in conflict situations in response to parents‟ “statements” than in response to adults‟ “requests”. As criteria of analysis, we have selected all the turns of talk involved in the conversational sequences of conflicts occurring in family interactions. We have considered that it was only possible to understand each turn with respect to the previous and following turn. In fact, as suggested by Schegloff (1990) “sequence […] (is) another candidate type of unit, the practices of which can underline the production of clumps of talk. The organization of sequences is an organization of actions, actions accomplished through talk-in-interaction, which can provide to a spate of conduct coherence and order which is analytically distinct from the notion of topic” (p. 53).

DATA ANALYSIS We have selected situations of verbal conflicts which fall into the dimensions elicited in literature (as described above) in terms of orientation, modality and closing. In order to understand each situation, we have tried to specify the participants, their roles, and the linguistic structures of the argumentative interactions. We also have distinguished two possible directions of the conflict exchange: the first one concerns the process of problematization solicited by

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parents with respect to children; the second one considers the possibility that children activate the conflict, through a problematization of the parents‟ statements or actions. As shown in a previous study (Menghini, Gnisci, Pontecorvo, 2000), problematization is a critical process that poses others‟ knowledge as a problem, allowing new viewpoints, reflection, and consciousness. In this sense, participants engage in conflict through a problematization of an action or an assertion of any other member of the family. In the next part of the chapter, we will consider two levels of analysis: a general overview of a quantitative study based on the use of log-linear models; and a qualitative analysis more devoted to a specific interpretation of family conversational sequences. The intention is to combine both levels, assuming a continuum between quantitative and qualitative methods (Denzin, 1978).

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Models of Adversative Episodes: A Log-Linear Analysis The first level of analysis will tend to explain the large structure of verbal conflicts in terms of adversative episodes. The implied dimensions are firstly the orientation (serious or non-serious), the modality (mitigated or aggravated), and the closing of a conflict (stand-off and withdrawal, submission, compromise and a third person‟s intervention). Then, we will consider the nature of the verbal conflict as an answer referred to turns of requests, directives or evaluative statements during conversation. As pointed out by Edwards (1997), directives accomplish a range of functions, operating at various levels of interaction: the argumentative use of directives is an oppositional move by which a speaker attempts to get the addressee to do or prevents him/her from doing something. Directives have both a retrospective function (challenging the opponent‟s preceding activity) and a prospective function (determining the opponent‟s subsequent action). In this sense we distinguish the argumentative strategies in terms of justification (meant as an account, in which the defendant accepts responsibility for the act in question, but denies the negative quality associated with it by the accuser), negation, and insistence. In the corpus of data, we have identified a total of 109 episodes of conflict: it emerges that in a large part (75.3% of episodes) parents problematize children, without relevant differences between mothers and fathers (respectively 38.6% and 36.7% of cases). Children activate conflicts preferably addressing to the father than to the mother (13.7% versus 11%). This tendency shows a preference to problematize the member of the other generation who is not the actor that addresses the problem (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Direction of problematization among participants.

Referring to the three dimensions of verbal conflicts, the orientation of adversative episodes is largely serious (80% of cases), the modality is aggravated (67% of cases), and the more frequent closing is the stand-off/withdrawal (46% versus 30.2% of compromise/third person‟s intervention; and 23% of submission). Concerning the nature of the conversational interventions during conflicts, in the 60.6% of cases there are reactions to statements versus 39.4% of cases in which people react to requests. The observed strategies of argumentation show only slightly more justifications (31.2%) than insistences (30.3%) or negations (28.5%). For what concerns the number of conflict topics identifiable in the data, the frequencies reveal a less presence of conflict topics (10.2% out of the total number of general topics) occurring during the observed interactions. To understand this result, we have to consider that it is really difficult to have a precise correspondence between a conflict topic (understood as a sequence in which the subject of discourse is a conflict event) and a sequence of verbal conflict in terms of adversative episode (that becomes a conflict sequence). Mainly on the grounds of this observation, it is more significant to consider the frequency of conflict turns with respect to the total number of turns during a dinnertime conversation. Looking at this parameter, it emerges again a less frequency of conflict turns (13.6% of the total turns of conversations) between parents and children. In general, we have identified a kind of conflict episode characterized by a serious orientation and an aggravated modality: it seems that participants engage in a conflict in order to answer to a statement sequence and they support it by the use of justification. Concerning the closing, participants generally use the stand-off/withdrawal strategies. A more detailed level of quantitative analysis has been applied in order to verify the inferential relation between variables. We have used a log-linear analysis (Multipath Frequency Analysis) to test the main effects and the effects of

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the interaction between the variables (Rojewski, Bakeman, 1997). As highlighted by Bakeman and Gottman (1986), in applying the sequential log-linear analysis “the investigators defines a set of hierarchical models […] the simplest model – the null or equiprobable model – contains no terms at all and generates the same expected value for each cell in the contingency table. The most complex model – the saturated model – contains sufficient terms to generate expected values for each cell that are identical to the values actually observed. The idea is to find the least complex model that nonetheless generates expected values not too discrepant from the observed ones, as determined by a goodness-of-fit-test” (pp. 194-195). Through the use of the statistical program BMDP Dynamic version 7.0 (Brown, 1983), a design 2x2x3 has been constructed in order to test the variables and to verify the association between factors and levels. We have used G² as the associated statistical test. The following conditions have been established: variable 1 is the orientation (O) of the conflict, with 2 levels (serious / nonserious); variable 2 is the modality (M) of the conflict, with 2 levels (mitigated / aggravated); variable 3 is the closing (C) of the conflict, with 3 levels (stand-off + withdrawal / submission / compromise + third person‟s intervention). Two possible cases (Arcidiacono, 2009; in press) have been considered: a) when parents problematize their children; b) when children problematize their parents. In the first case, the data analysis (see Table 1) shows that the model offering the best adaptation is the bi-dimensional model [OM][OC][MC]. Table 1. Association option for all terms of order less than or equal to 3

Effect O. M. C. OM. OC. MC. OMC.

D.F. 1 1 2 1 2 2 2

Partial association CHISQ Prob 32.83 0 13.48 0.0002 2.51 0.2854 12.69 0.0004 12.54 0.0019 21.16 0 0.43 0.8047

Iter

D.F.

2 2 2

1 2 2

Marginal association CHISQ Prob Iter

10.94 10.8 19.41

0.0009 0.0045 0.0001

2 2 2

The observation of standard residuals and estimate parameters reveals an association between serious orientation and aggravated modality (z12(11)= 2.656, p