Adolescents' interpersonal conflict and management approach : a study of young people attending Mosta Youth Centres

Abstract

Dealing constructively with conflict is imperative for the development of adolescents. Conflict management approaches, like other social skills, are internalised within the individual, through a process which starts from the day of birth, reaching a peek in adolescence. It is significantly relevant that adolescents develop positive personal skills which will enable them to widen their understanding about the nature of conflict and subsequently helps them towards its resolution. The intervention of professional people at a tender age will furnish young people with constructive life skills. Youth centres offer the opportunity of a safe environment away from the family's shelter, where young people enter into communications, correspondence, conflict and also 'increase their orientation with peers as a shift towards interpersonal objects appropriate to adult roles' Blas (1979:23). Youth centres encourage interpersonal relations along with conflicts, enabling young people to evaluate themselves and their actions, through the assistance of youth leaders, their peers and also their own selves.