Cooperation and conflict in family decision making

This study addresses the family dynamics of the decision
making process, in particular the issues of cooperation and conflict,
in both two parent and lone parent families. Thirty individual and
family-group interviews were held (five two-parent families and
twenty-five lone parent families). The families all had low incomes,
heightening the importance placed on the consumer decision making
process. Findings are considered in relation to the interaction between
couples as well as parent-child interaction. Overall, cooperation
was a more prominent theme than conflict amongst the families and
collectivist values tended to dominate.