INTERPERSONAL NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES RELATED TO HYPOTHETICAL CONFLICT DILEMMAS AMONG STUDENTS IN FIFTH GRADE

Abstract

All children face a large number of conflicting dilemmas in their development. Therefore, it is very important how children react in such conflict situations, that is, what strategies they apply. The research was conducted with one hundred fifth-grade students in three cities: Bitola Primary School “Kole Kaninski”, Gostivar Primary School “Goce Delchev” and Berovo Primary School “Dedo Iljo Maleshevski”. The questionnaire “Concepts about Peace, War and Strategies to Attain Peace” by Ilse Hakvoort, a psychologist from the Netherlands (Hakvoort, I. 1996), was applied, along with four hypothetical conflict dilemmas: Taking, Quarrel, Boy and Soldier. The comparative analysis was done according to the children's gender, place of residence, ethnicity, mother's employment and father's employment. While, only among children from Bitola and according to the level of mental maturity, assessed with the RPM test. According to the data obtained from this research and the analysis performed, we can conclude that there are different interpersonal negotiation strategies among fifth grade students, depending on the type of conflict dilemma. However, in the same conflict dilemmas, there are significant differences in interpersonal negotiation strategies regarding the gender of the children, place of residence, ethnicity, and employment of the mother.