Covert Conflict Research Articles

A travel in the narrative turn of the consciousness of a diaspora ghost in The Hounding of David Oluwale

Abstract There is a sense in which African Diasporic contemporary narrative-centred drama helps in the reconceptualization of images, identity and the perception of ‘self’ against the ‘others’ within the totality of the experiences of the individual that form the sum of his/her consciousness. And, if we agree with Jean-Paul Sartre that consciousness is intentionality, it means that such images, identity, conceptualization and perception are prompts for narrative performance action and counter-action. In essence, narrative consciousness is not a mere dormant awareness and recreation of a state of being; it is perhaps an agent provocateur of crisis that often motivates characters to destructive actions. This is what we see in the recreation of Oluwole’s life in The Hounding of David Oluwale. The tragic end of Oluwole appears to have a link to the consciousness of his black ‘self’ against that of the white ‘others’, and this seems to, even now, underscore the uneasy life of the new African Diasporas in their host communities. It appears that there is an inherently sustained overt and covert conflict in the relationship between the Diasporas and their host. It is for this reason that one feels that the understanding of the narrative consciousness of the playwright and that of the characters in the play in existential dialectical terms is necessary as we continue to engage with the challenges of the life of the African Diasporas. This article, therefore, analyses the consciousness of the African Diaspora ‘selves’ against the ‘others’ of their hosts as reflected in the play.

Factors associated with unsettled relationships between residents and care staff in long-term care facility

IntroductionUnsettled relationships (UR) understood as open or covert conflicts among residents or between residents and staff play a significant role in patient's well-being in long-term care facility (LTCF) as well as in staff's job satisfaction. Material and methodsThe aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and identify factors associated with UR among residents (RR), URs between residents and staff (RS) and staff's frustration in contact with resident (SF). This cross-sectional study was conducted over 288 residents in one of the biggest Polish LTCF, using the interRAI-LTCF questionnaire and logistic regression analysis. Results and conclusionsIn our study, UR were observed in 28.8% of LTCF residents, with the highest frequency of RR (20.5%), followed by RS (19.4%) and SF (17.4%). We found that men demonstrated higher than women risk of the analyzed UR. Interestingly, moderate to severe cognitive impairment decreased the odds of RR and SF. We used to think that dementia and psychiatric diseases are the main predictors of conflict behaviors in LTCF setting. However, our findings show that behavioral, psychotic and depressive symptoms are the major factors which enhance the risk of UR in LTCF. Hence, we recommend clinicians to focus on better detecting, monitoring and controlling these symptoms to prevent the URs in LTCF. The second important study results is that some somatic diseases may also independently increase the risk of UR between the residents and the staff.

Factors Linked with Coparenting Support and Conflict After Divorce

ABSTRACTWe examined the relationship between personal and interpersonal indicators of postdivorce adjustment and dimensions of coparenting (support, overt conflict, covert conflict) using data from 176 recently divorced mothers. Mothers’ satisfaction with the divorce decree, perceptions of fathers as important for child development, and being satisfied with fathers’ parenting were associated with more supportive coparenting. Mothers’ satisfaction with the divorce decree and fathers’ parenting were associated with less overt conflict. Factors differed for mothers’ reports of their own and their former spouses’ use of covert conflict behaviors, with these factors linked to satisfaction with the divorce decree and perceived stress, respectively.

Email adaptation for conflict handling: A case study of cross‐border inter‐organisational partnership in East Asia

AbstractThis paper explores the context of email‐based communication in an established but fragile, inter‐organisational partnership, which was often overlain with conflict. Drawing upon adaptation theory, this study explores how participants adapt to the use of email to handle conflict. Extensive data were obtained during a 6‐month field study of a case of cross‐border inter‐organisational collaboration in East Asia. We observed that the individuals involved in the cross‐border partnership used email as a lean form of communication to stop covert conflict from explicitly emerging. In contrast to prior research on the leanness of email in managing conflict, we found that under the described conflict situation the very leanness of email was appreciated and thus, exploited by those concerned to manage the conflict situation. Specifically, we identified 4 key conflict‐triggered adaptation strategies, namely, interaction avoidance, disempowering, blame‐protection, and image‐sheltering that drove the ways in which email was adapted to maintain organisational partnerships under conflict.

Intercultural Conflict in Groups

This article provides a critical review of interdisciplinary literature on intercultural conflict management. The authors provide theoretical frameworks and evidence-based strategies to help group counselors more effectively identify and address potential sources of overt and covert intercultural conflict in groups. Using practical examples and integrated case studies, we examine the dynamics of intercultural conflict in groups, effective and ineffective group leader interventions, and implications for research and the practice of group work.

Relational Aggression and Self-Reported Spousal Health: A Longitudinal Analysis

Previous research indicates that overt marital conflict is a risk factor for poor spousal health. However, there are no studies, to date, that examine the impact of covert conflict on spousal health. Recent research associates relational aggression, a form of covert aggressive behavior, with lower marital quality and stability. Links between relational aggression and health would add to the growing body of literature suggesting that marriage relationships impact health over time. The purpose of this study was to further understand the impact of two dimensions of relational aggression, social sabotage and love withdrawal, among married couples on health. Dyadic data from married couples (n = 331) living in the US were examined over a 5 year period of time using structural equation modeling. Results of the Actor Partner Interdependence Model indicated that wives and husbands who reported experiencing social sabotage at the beginning of the study reported a decrease in health over the 5 years of the study. No actor effects were found for the dimension of love withdrawal. One significant partner effect was found, with wives who reported experiencing love withdrawal from their husbands at the beginning of the study having husbands who experienced a decrease in health over the course of the study.

Patient–physician relationships in second opinion encounters – The physicians’ perspective

Theories on the patient–physician relationship have evolved within the last decades to portray a nuanced picture of the traditional patient–physician “dyad”. Shifts in social, economic, and technological contexts in which the physician–patient encounters are taking place raised the need for more complex frameworks to study patient–physician encounters. One example of a change to this dyad is the increasing use of second opinions. The second opinion is a ratification tool that critically influences diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. There are scarce data on the patient–physician relationship in second opinions, specifically from the physician’s perspective. We studied the physicians’ attitudes toward second opinion encounters. We interviewed 35 orthopedic surgeons and neurologists in Israel, and performed a qualitative analysis of the data using the Grounded Theory approach. The findings exemplify how physicians struggle between their perceived professional image and their vulnerability, as they are sometimes disappointed, offended, embarrassed and resent their patients, and how they strive to preserve their professional authority and autonomy through allegedly ‘paternalistic’ behavior. The physicians portrayed their patients as striving to conceal the two physicians from each other, creating two dyads that rarely develop into a triad. Along the asymmetry inherent to the patient–physician relationship, we found that physicians and assumedly their patients share symmetric motives and behaviors. We identify two continuums that physicians, and apparently their patients, experience between their different sources of power (whether professional or consumerist), creating a covert conflict over power and control, and between loyalty and autonomy. Finally, we suggested a humanistic approach to understanding physician and patient behavior, based on mutual recognition of needs. Physicians and patients can benefit from communicating openly, positively and respectfully in second opinion encounters. Perceiving the second opinion as a legitimate and empowering tool, that strengthens and widens the patient–physician relationship, instead of weakening it, may result in greater satisfaction on both sides, both for the clinical decision and for a healthy patient–physician relationship.

Families in Trouble: Bridging the Gaps Among Child, Adult, and Couple Functioning

This special issue grew out of the efforts of an expert work group at a Klaus-Grawe Think-Tank Meeting convened by the Klaus-Grawe Foundation October 2010 in Switzerland. The meeting focused on critical aspects of children, adults, and couples in relation to family adjustment, mental health, and well-being. Psychological distress is a frequent experience for many children and adults who are living in a family system, even though such distress does not necessarily lead to a diagnosis implicating above-threshold psychopathology. Much research has focused on psychopathology in the individual. This includes individual adults as well as individual children and adolescents. In fact, this orientation toward the individual in clinical research and services is also supported by a system of clinical training that requires that clinical decisionmaking focus on either adults or children. Moreover, within the adult domain, clinicians when building their competencies to deliver services might have to choose whether to concentrate on individuals or on couples. These separations are at times unfortunate, as illustrated by two brief case examples. In the first example, imagine that you are a child psychologist providing services to a mother who presents one of her two children for assessment and potential treatment. The primary complaint refers to the child’s behavior, conceptualized as oppositional-defiant with some symptoms of conduct disorder. In assessing the child and the family, you become aware of the fact that the parents fight with each other, with the most frequent topic of conflict being the child’s behavior problems. The mother laments that her husband has withdrawn from the family, leaving her to deal with the child problem on her own. She reports symptoms of depression, which at times fulfill criteria for a major depressive episode. She has thought about seeking individual treatment for her low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. The child is likely going to be the focus of the intervention because the mother presented the child’s problems as central to her concerns. However, the mother might also receive individual treatment for depression or seek couple counseling. Each intervention might be delivered by a different treatment provider although the dynamics of the problems seem to be interrelated. In a second example, a couple sees a clinician who is in private practice. The couple reports about a generally distressed relationship in which both partners often experience overt and covert conflicts surrounding a number of topics (such as financial expenses, chores, role distribution, and intimacy). During the assessment and evaluation, the woman discloses depressive symptoms, while the man indicates alcohol abuse. The couple has two children, both under the age of 18. The younger child is quite anxious in social situations, and both children on occasion have witnessed couple conflicts. In cases like this, some of this information might not even be uncovered because the effects of other members of the family on the individual patient (and vice versa) might not be considered explicitly during assessment and case conceptualization. NIH T32 Behavioral-Biomedical Interface Program: http://www.sc.edu/bbip/.

Interparental Conflict Styles and Parenting Behaviors: Associations With Overt and Relational Aggression Among Chinese Children

This study examined how interparental conflict styles related to Chinese children’s overt and relational aggression directly and indirectly through parenting behaviors. Mothers (n = 670) and fathers (n = 570) reported their overt and covert interparental conflict styles and different parenting behaviors. Children’s (n = 671) aggression was assessed by peer nominations. Consistent with previous research, coercive control and psychological control showed positive associations with children’s overt and relational aggression, which varied by parent-child gender. The significant indirect effects of interparental conflict styles showed that paternal overt conflict was positively related to boys’ aggression mediating through paternal coercive control and that maternal covert conflict was positively related to boys’ aggression mediating through psychological control. Discussions regarding parent-child gender moderations and implications of the findings in the Chinese cultural context are provided.

Marital conflict and adolescent outcomes: A cross-ethnic group comparison of Latino and European American youth

Available research indicates a link between marital conflict and youth outcomes; however, relatively few studies examine these relationships in Latinos, the largest U.S. ethnic group. The present study examines this relationship in both Latino and European American families. Self-report data measuring externalizing and internalizing youth behaviors, along with overt and covert marital conflict, were used in analyses of 788 Latino and 751 European American adolescents. Results support current literature indicating a strong link between marital conflict and youth outcomes, regardless of ethnic group. These associations are similarly related for the differential effects of overt and covert marital conflict on externalizing and internalizing behaviors. However, overt conflict was significantly more predictive of internalizing behaviors than covert conflict. These results yield valuable information for clinical intervention and further research.

The Political Economy of Covert Conflict and its Implications on Developing Democratic Systems of Governance in Africa

This paper aims to conceptualize the impact of ‘covert conflict’ on human security. Human security is understood to include key components of sustainable development, namely: political, social, economic, environmental and the traditional security spheres. Drawing on a literature overview of these issues a common denominator framework is formulated to identify core weaknesses and threats in the development of a human security governance system in Africa. Primary causes outlined in the study's covert matrix include: lack of civil society participation in government review processes; poverty and unequal distribution of income and wealth; uncontrolled and unaccountable exploitation of natural resources; lack of financial capital investment in social development; the institutionalisation of preferential entitlements; rights and privileges; and identity vs. issue based politics. paper concludes by proposing a systemic model to understand the inter-related nature of corruption, organised crime, money laundering, illicit natural resource exploitation and trade, and terrorism: The Covert Conflict Political Economy Systems Model.

Psychiatric Hospital Nursing Staff's Experiences of Participating in Group-Based Clinical Supervision: An Interview Study

Group-based clinical supervision is commonly offered as a stress-reducing intervention in psychiatric settings, but nurses often feel ambivalent about participating. This study aimed at exploring psychiatric nurses’ experiences of participating in group-based supervision and identifying psychosocial reasons for their ambivalence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 psychiatric nurses at a Danish university hospital. The results indicated that participation in clinical supervision was difficult for the nurses because of an uncomfortable exposure to the professional community. The sense of exposure was caused by the particular interactional organisation during the sessions, which brought to light pre-existing but covert conflicts among the nurses.

When There Is Conflict

This study examined direct and indirect associations between overt and covert interparental conflict (IPC), parent—child conflict, and their links to youth problem behaviors. Data were collected from a sample of 641 school-age youth, ages 12 to 18 years, using a school-based survey. Analyses yielded direct positive linkages from overt IPC to antisocial behavior and from covert IPC to depression and antisocial behavior. When parent—child conflict was added to the model, significant direct associations were again observed between covert conflict and depression, with significant indirect effects through increased parent—child conflict. Likewise, significant direct associations were observed between overt conflict and antisocial behavior, with significant indirect effects through increased parent—child conflict. Although there was little variance in the findings when contextualized, youth ratings of religiosity were moderately and negatively associated with antisocial behavior. These findings document distinct pathways in the spillover of IPC to parent—child relations and youth well-being.

Factor structure and individual patterns of DSM-IV conduct disorder criteria in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

We investigated the factor structure of the DSM-IV conduct disorder (CD) diagnostic criteria and typical individual patterns of CD subscales in an adolescent inpatient population using detailed hospital records of a Norwegian nationwide sample of 1087 adolescent psychiatric inpatients scored for the 15 DSM-IV CD criteria. Varimax rotated principal components and full-information factor analyses of 12 CD criteria were carried out separately for boys and girls employing two methods. Standardized values on three subscales of CD criteria were subjected to Ward's method of hierarchical cluster analyses followed by k-means relocation employing a double cross-replication design. Similar factor structures emerged regardless of factoring method and gender. With the exception of Criteria 8 (“Fire setting”) and 14 (“Run away from home”) the factor loadings for both genders were in accordance with Loeber's tripartite model, with Aggression, Delinquency, and Rule Breaking factors largely corresponding to Loeber's overt, covert and authority conflict pathways. A five-cluster solution proved highly replicable and interpretable. One cluster gathered adolescents without CD, and the remaining four described groups with different conceptually meaningful constellations of CD criteria, which were not equally prevalent in each gender. Delinquency appeared in all symptomatic clusters. The cluster analytic results highlighted typical forms of expressions of conduct problems, and the fact that these forms may not be equally prevalent in girls and boys even while the underlying structure of conduct problems may be similar across genders. Future research should address the prediction of specific outcomes from CD criteria subscales or constellations.

Interparental Conflict as Intrusive Family Process

SUMMARY A rapidly growing body of research indicates that marital conflict, often referred to as interparental conflict (IPC), 'spills over' into family processes, and thus has negative impact on child development. With increasing clarity, this research documents the spillover phenomenon as intrusive to children both in terms of discrete and broad indices of child well-being, and also through IPC's links to ineffective and intrusive parenting. In addition, new research suggests that covert conflict styles are particularly intrusive-and potentially coercive-to children due to IPC's linkages with parental psychological control. Taken together, these findings underscore the need for integrative interventions that address the components of the spillover model; that is, interventions that help parents deal well with conflict and that support good parenting, and interventions that assist children in coping with the difficulties of IPC.

Marital Conflict, Children's Representations of Family Relationships, and Children's Dispositions Towards Peer Conflict Strategies

AbstractThe links among marital relations and children's representations were examined. Forty‐seven children between the ages of 5 and 8 completed the Family Stories Task (FAST) to obtain their narrative representations of family relations and performed a variation of a puppet procedure (Mize & Ladd, 1988) to assess children's dispositions towards peer conflict strategies. Their parents completed a set of questionnaires regarding marital quality. Results demonstrated relations between marital conflict and children's dispositions towards peer conflict strategies in conflict situations. Children's more negative dispositions towards peer conflict and aggressive behavior in the peer conflict scenarios were each associated with more overt conflict behaviors by mothers and fathers, respectively, and more covert conflict behavior by mothers. In addition, children's internal representations of parent–child relations served as a mediator between marital conflict and children's notions about conflict behavior towards peers.

Familial Impacts on Adolescent Aggression and Depression in Colombia

This study examines how parental conflict and parenting influence aggression and depression by adolescents in Colombia, a country characterized by high societal violence, that provides an interesting backdrop for our analysis of familial conflict. Drawing upon socialization and parenting perspectives, we model the effects of overt and covert parental conflict on adolescent outcomes as mediated by parenting behaviors. Data were gathered by questionnaires completed by 493 high school students in Bogota, Colombia. Findings suggest that family interaction plays a role in adolescent aggression and depression. However, rather than a strong direct effect of overt parental conflict on aggression through social learning, we find a more influential association of overt conflict with parenting, which, in turn, is related to aggression. Covert parental conflict and parental support are more directly associated with depression. Controls for gender, family structure, family socioeconomic status, and authority relations in the family are also included.

Covert Political Conflict in Organizations: Challenges from Below

▪ Abstract This review considers a class of political activity that has largely been ignored by researchers extending social movement theory into organizations: covert political conflict. Although much of the literature we discuss focuses on contemporary corporations where the bulk of research on covert conflict has occurred, we also explore studies of covert conflict in a range of historical and organizational contexts that fall outside the contemporary work world. As we define it, covert political conflict encompasses four interrelated elements: contestation of institutionalized power and authority, perceptions of collective injury, social occlusion, and officially forbidden forms of dissent. Beyond these elements, covert conflict varies in its material and symbolic forms, collective dimensions, social visibility, and outcomes. We also examine explanatory approaches for covert conflict at the micro, organizational, field, and macro levels of analysis. Finally, we suggest a number of areas for future research on covert conflict that include developing theoretical frameworks across multiple levels of analysis, stronger linkages between organization theory and the study of covert conflict, strategies for measuring outcomes (including the emergence of overt political voice and organizational change), and new methods for empirical inquiry.

Danish Drug Policy— An Ambivalent Balance between Repression and Welfare

This article maps recent developments in drug policy in Denmark: control, treatment, prevention, and harm reduction. Prevailing issues have been the introduction of a Danish heroin experiment, injection rooms and other harm reduction measures, moral panics around street level phenomena, and a renewed discussion of the relative roles of law enforcement and treatment/harm reduction. The power positions of the actors--police, politicians, administrators, and users' representatives--have shifted over time. A covert conflict between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health has resulted in an uneasy balance on the political and policy level and confusion about guidelines and practices. There have been oscillations between optimism and pessimism in the law enforcement and treatment sectors. Ritualistic invocations of prohibition, prevention, and treatment coupled with ideological opposition have not been able to stem increasing acceptance of harm reduction--a modified version of the Scandinavian welfare approach.

A Latent Growth Curve Model of Delinquent Activity Among Adolescents

Latent growth curve (LGM) modeling of a 4-wave longitudinal dataset was conducted to examine a segment of the age-related, quadratic curve for adolescent delinquent activity. A quadratic (inverted U-shaped) LGM model was supported for the sample of 1,016 adolescents and indicated a temporal pattern across the 4 waves of an increase in delinquent activity, a plateau or asymptote, and then an initial deceleration. A time-invariant predictor model was specified to account for variation in intraindividual change in delinquency. Male gender, lower family support, greater peer alcohol use, more stressful life events, and lower grades significantly predicted the intercept; a (less) difficult temperament predicted the linear growth parameter; and lower peer alcohol use, a less difficult temperament, and higher grades predicted the quadratic component that was associated with a deceleration in delinquency. Person-centered analyses for a subgroup of adolescents engaged in persistently high, versatile delinquent activity indicated that these adolescents had temperamentally higher activity levels, lower positive affect, greater inflexibility, more overt and covert conflict with best friends, more childhood conduct problems, and greater current substance use.