Family conflict is an inevitable outgrowth of the social and psychological
differences intrinsic to lineage relationships. The present work demonstrates that a
blending of family sociology and social cognitive perspectives leads to a fuller
understanding of developmental changes in children's reports of intergenerational
conflict. Statements from stories on family conflict told by 192 children from
grades 2, 5, 8, 10, and freshman college were coded using six conflict categories
derived from Bengtson's model of intergenerational solidarity and Selman and
Youniss' work on the development of interpersonal understanding. In general, family
conflict themes of childhood were concerned with failure of children to fulfil
social obligations, the inadequacy of parental helping behaviours and, to a lesser
degree, children's disappointment in the frequency of parent-child association. In
adolescence, family conflict themes emerged that reflected concern with failure of
parents to provide affectional support, the inadequate fulfilment of both filial and
parental role expectations, and lack of consensus on familial and societal values.
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