STILOVI UPRAVLJANJA KONFLIKTIMA KOD MLADIH
YOUNG ADULTS CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES

Summary/Abstract: Conflicts today have a significantly complex structure than before, so conflict management is more complex. Conflicts are often an unavoidable form of interaction and represent an extremely good opportunity to practice, and implement important competencies. They aim to improve and enhance relationships, regulate emotional states, and define personal autonomy through determining of one's own boundaries. It is considered important to educate young adults about conflict management skills. The basic problem of the paper was to examine which conflict management styles young adults use, including differences in gender, age and relation with school success, while the aim of the paper was to raise awareness of the importance of developing skills and styles that lead to more successful conflict management. The study consisted of young adults (16 to 19 years old). The study included 823 respondents (48.96% male; 51.04% female). ROCI II (Rahim, 1983) and a sociodemographic questionnaire prepared for this research were used. The results showed that young people use different conflict management styles like: domination (M = 23.46; SD = 5), problem-solving orientation (M = 25.74 SD = 5.33), avoidance (M = 24.73; SD = 5) , compromise (M = 24.82; SD = 5) and appeasement (M = 24.01; SD = 5.16). When examining age differences in conflict management styles, no statistically significant differences were found in most conflict management styles (style of domination, avoidance, concession, compromise), except in the problem-solving style (F (3,820) = 2,656, p<0.05). Also, when it comes to gender, no significant difference was found in conflict management styles except in problemoriented management style (t (821) = - 3.544, p<0.01) where girls achieve better results. A significant connection of the style aimed at solving problems with school success was found only when it comes to the conflict management styles connection with school success (r =. 124, p = .000). The results indicate that young people need to be taught more styles that are aimed towards problem solving and seeking compromise while dominance, avoidance, and conflicts concessions can further deepen conflicts.

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