Beyond Conflicts: Origin and Types of Issues Leading to Argumentative Discussions during Family Mealtimes

(Forthcoming) Bova, A., & Arcidiacono, F. Beyond Conflicts: Origin and Types of Issues Leading to Argumentative Discussions during Family Mealtimes. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict

36 Pages Posted: 29 Jul 2014 Last revised: 14 Nov 2018

See all articles by Antonio Bova

Antonio Bova

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan

Francesco Arcidiacono

University of Neuchatel

Date Written: 2015

Abstract

This paper sets out to investigate the issues leading parents to engage in argumentative discussions with their children during mealtimes. Within a data corpus of 30 video-recorded meals of 10 middle to upper-middle-class Swiss and Italian families with a high socio-cultural level, 107 argumentative discussions between parents and children aged from 3 to 9 years old were selected. The approach for the analysis is based on the pragma-dialectical ideal model of a critical discussion. The results show that family argumentative discussions unfold around issues that are generated both by parental prescriptions and by children’s requests. The parental prescriptions largely concern context-bound activities such as having to eat a certain food or the teaching of correct table manners. The issues triggered by children’s requests refer to a wide range of activities, mainly related to the activity of mealtimes, but also related to the children’s behavior outside the family context. These results indicate that argumentative interactions between parents and children are not mere conflictual episodes that must be avoided, but they essentially have a broader educational function.

Keywords: parent-child conflicts, prescriptions, requests, argumentation, mealtimes

Suggested Citation

Bova, Antonio and Arcidiacono, Francesco, Beyond Conflicts: Origin and Types of Issues Leading to Argumentative Discussions during Family Mealtimes (2015). (Forthcoming) Bova, A., & Arcidiacono, F. Beyond Conflicts: Origin and Types of Issues Leading to Argumentative Discussions during Family Mealtimes. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2472841

Antonio Bova (Contact Author)

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan ( email )

Largo Gemelli, 1
Via Necchi 9
Milan, MI 20123
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://docenti.unicatt.it/ita/antonio_bova/

Francesco Arcidiacono

University of Neuchatel ( email )

1, A.-L. Breguet
Neuchatel, CH-2000
Switzerland

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