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Conflict resolution strategies of Hong Kong aggressive youth

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Abstract

Employing the Hong Kong Teenage Nonviolence Test, this study investigated 120 Hong Kong adolescents’ endorsement of various conflict resolution strategies as a function of gender and type of aggression. Results revealed all participants endorsed a moderately high level of using Empathy and Satyagraha (insistence on the truth) when faced with conflict. Moreover, the reactive-proactive aggressive youth reported a moderate degree of utilizing Physical-Psychological Violence to resolve conflict, while reactive aggressors and non-aggressors revealed a minimal amount of using this strategy. Additional studies are needed to further explore the relationship between aggression and various conflict resolution strategies. The findings can inform mental health professionals interested in designing programs to promote or reinforce protective or buffering factors (e.g., conflict resolution strategies) linked with proactive and reactive aggression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, 47306, USA

    Lawrence H. Gerstein

  2. Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling, Ball State University, Teachers College 605, Muncie, IN, 47306, USA

    Ashley Hutchison & Yuichung Chan

  3. Department Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Annis Lai-Chu Fung

Authors
  1. Lawrence H. Gerstein
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  2. Ashley Hutchison
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  3. Yuichung Chan
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  4. Annis Lai-Chu Fung
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Correspondence to Lawrence H. Gerstein.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Although the student participants in this study did not provide their assent (not required in Hong Kong for a study like the current one) to participate, their parents gave written permission for their children to be involved in the project.

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Gerstein, L.H., Hutchison, A., Chan, Y. et al. Conflict resolution strategies of Hong Kong aggressive youth. Curr Psychol 40, 3300–3308 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00233-w

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