Abstract

Multiple studies have shown that culture, religiosity, and gender influence people’s behavior in managing their conflict; however, there has been little investigation of the impact of the acculturation process on these variables utilized by second generation Arab Muslim immigrants in the United States. My study follows a sequential explanatory model with a mixed methods approach, and specifically explores the conflict management styles utilized by second generation Arab Muslim immigrants in the U.S. and how their culture, gender, and religiosity contribute to these processes. Data was collected by conducting 112 online surveys and 12 face-to-face semi-structured interviews, with the sample population stemming from the Arab Muslim communities in Columbia, Kansas City, and St. Louis, Missouri. Binary logistic regression and Chi-square tests were used to analyze this quantitative data through SPSS while thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The resulting analysis showed that second generation immigrants tended to be more individualistic, have a lower level of religiosity, and utilize and utilize dominating as a conflict management style to handle their interpersonal conflict. Level of religiosity had a significant relationship with the obliging, compromising, integrating, avoiding, and dominating conflict management styles. Gender had a significant association with the obliging, compromising, avoiding, and dominating conflict management styles. Finally, culture had a significant predictive relationship with obliging, integrating, compromising, and dominating conflict management styles.

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