Managing conflict: Interactional strategies of learning handicapped and nonhandicapped adolescent girls.

Naturalistic observations of learning handicapped and nonhandicapped high school girls were conducted to explore differences in the types and effectiveness of interaction strategies used during troubled peer contacts. Findings indicated that learning handicapped girls engaged in more conflict than nonhandicapped females and that this conflict generally involved dominance/submission themes and was managed in ways which increased the probability of future conflict. Conflict involving nonhandicapped girls mostly focused on selfishness or low tolerance for peer's habits and was handled in ways which lowered the likelihood of future disagreements. Implications of these findings with regard to the social standing of the learning handicapped girls in the school setting is discussed.