Recognised in a Quarrel? Positioning of the Child and Parent in Children's and Young People's Stories of Child–Parent Conflicts

Abstract

How children are cared for, how their agentic rights are respected and in what ways they are esteemed as contributors to intergenerational relationships are important questions to consider in child-related research. Especially in child–parent conflicts, the child's rights and the parent's responsibilities have been argued to be somewhat contradictory: parents have a duty to raise and protect their children, and children have the right to express and have their views considered and taken seriously. The present study, conducted in Finland, examines how children and young people describe and make sense of child–parent conflicts. The vignette method was used to collect 58 written narratives of child–parent conflicts via an internet-based platform. Narrative analysis, inspired by positioning theory, revealed variety in the child's positioning within the generational order in the children's and young people's conflict stories. We identified four storylines: (1) subordinate child and controlling parent, (2) defiant child and undermined parent, (3) compliant child and demanding parent and (4) reconciling child and respectful parent. Additionally, we analysed the children's and young people's evaluations of the narrated events. In the evaluations, they defended the party over whom power was used in the conflict. Overall, the study revealed varying interpretations of child–parent conflicts and the positions assigned to the child and parent. Importantly, the stories showed children understand how to negotiate and build reconciliation in child–parent conflicts. Thus, children have democratic skills that can be further developed through everyday interactions.