Interpersonal conflict and meaning making in early adulthood: a self-regulation perspective

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore meaning making in response to interpersonal conflict in a group of young adults. A self-regulatory perspective was taken to explore and elaborate on current approaches to meaning making. Participants were 127 young adults aged between 19 and 30. Interactive Qualitative Analysis was applied to first identify significant factors that play a role in interpersonal conflict, and second to develop a conceptual model based on perceived relations between these factors. A model with 11 themes in which 43.6% of the total number of relational pairs explained 71.8% of the variance, was developed. Findings support current approaches to meaning making as a dynamic self-regulated process, while new avenues for exploring meaning making as part of a larger complex system of psychological processes emerged.