Bargaining and interdependence: Common parent-offspring conflict resolution strategies among Chon Chuuk and their implications for suicidal behavior

Abstract

The anthropology of Pacific cultures spotlights social conflict as a proximate cause of suicide. Ethnographic accounts suggest that suicidal behaviors are high-cost conflict-resolution strategies. We investigate parent-child conflicts and the strategies adolescents and young adults use to resolve them, using concepts from human behavioral ecology to interpret results from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 58 Chon Chuuk participants. One strategy for resolving conflicts in one's favor is to impose costs through the threat or use of violence, but an alternative strategy for those who lack social power or formidability involves social withdrawal, or withholding cooperation, until the interdependent parties reach an agreement. The Chuukese term amwunumwun refers to a spectrum of social withdrawal, including avoidance, running away, and suicide. Strategies involving withholding cooperation were the most reported child behavioral response. As predicted, low-cost strategies, such as negotiation, were associated with nonsevere conflicts (e.g., playing with friends), whereas high-cost withholding cooperation, such as running away, was associated with severe conflicts (e.g., labor exploitation). Importantly, withholding cooperation was often, but not always, associated with outcomes favoring the child. We propose that withholding cooperation is a culturally ubiquitous strategy, ranging from avoidance to suicidality, used by the powerless to achieve more favorable outcomes. [adolescence, parent-offspring conflict, suicide, Micronesia].