Family Interaction, Coalition, Disagreement, and Compromise in Problem, Normal, and Synthetic Family Triads

摘要

Three types of family triad were compared in two experimental situations. Problem families consisted of father, mother, and delinquent adolescent son. Normal families consisted of father, mother, and nondelinquent son. Synthetic families consisted of father, mother, and son from different natural families. These triads were matched closely on several demographic characteristics. There were 12 triads of each type. The two situations were (1) a competitive board game, as used in previous studies, and (2) a decision-making task in which individuals' initial differences were revealed so that pre-discussion agreement and post-discussion compromise could be ascertained on questions of special relevance to family life. There were important differences among the families in both situations. There were no overall differences in accommodative strategy in the board game, but significant differences in many specific aspects of play. On the questionnaire the synthetic families were in most disagreement initially and compromised most in reaching final consensus. Similar results occurred for the problem families, which were not significantly different from the normal families. In both types of authentic families the father-mother pairs were in closest agreement, whereas in the synthetic families the mother-son pairs were in closest agreement. The son compromised the most in all three types of families. The mother compromised the least in the normal families. The mother's role seemed crucial but different in the three types of triads. (Author)