Contents and conversational modes in adolescents. Debating group conflicts and partner violence

Adolescence as a period is associated to the extension of social relationships and networks, and, inherently, to an increase of conflicts and situations of violence. Therefore, our aim is to analyse the discursive management of group conflicts and partner violence in adolescents, exploring conversational modes and contents that articulate conversation during the discussion of controversial situations. Using an analytical approach that combines statistical and qualitative techniques, we studied the discourse produced by 42 boys and girls (aged 14 to 17 years), during group discussion of dilemmas. The results evidence the combined effect of the variables type of group and type of dilemma on the conversational modes of conflict management, with a predominance of the disputative form (impositions, commands.) when boys and girls discuss together about an episode of gender violence. Regarding the contents, there are larger thematic differences between boys and girls to partner violence, providing some evidence of the situated character of the discourse; so, boys do not recognize maltreatment while girls take responsibility. Finally, some considerations for applied practice are presented.