Parental leadership roles & conflict management: Developing family resiliency through parent-child reconciliation

Separate theories of leadership roles and parenting styles have been richly developed and explored, but the relationship between the two is an area in need of further research. The various skills garnered through leadership experience can be instrumental for parents in managing and resolving family conflict, thereby increasing family resiliency. The willingness to address conflict directly versus the avoidance of conflict has been summarized into specific patterns that all groups, including families, progress through; however, the degree to which parents initiate reconciliatory actions needs further detailed analysis. Additionally, insight on the importance of parents modeling positive coping strategies will be derived through proper conflict management as a learned adaptive behavior for children. The intent of this grounded theory qualitative study was to explore potential overlap between leadership roles and parenting styles, and how the use of constructive conflict management strategies develops family resiliency. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, this overlap between leadership, parenting, and conflict management was analyzed. Each participant provided a response to open-ended questions regarding their leadership experience, role as a leader in their family, and their perception of family conflict. Next they described how they would respond to hypothetical scenarios incorporating various degrees and approaches to conflict. All the responses were coded and analyzed for themes that resulted in a new theory on family resiliency based on parents' use of minor levels of conflict to teach children the life skills necessary to cope with greater confrontational situations, such as crises or potentially traumatic events