Living Together, Clashing Apart: Demographic Factors Predicting Intra-Group Conflict among Hostelized Students

The current research examined the predictive effects of various demographic variables on intra-group conflict among university students, residing in university hostels. The researchers used a cross-sectional research design and randomly selected 200 undergraduate and graduate students (age 19 above) for this convenient sampling technique was used. The researchers used Jehn (1995) scale to collect data on intragroup conflict and the data were analyzed using Neural Network analysis via SPSS v.25. Results of the normalized importance value for Age (100%) and Education Level (84.2%) were the most significant demographic factors contributing to conflict variance, followed by Duration of Stay at Hostel (42.0%), Gender (25.3%), and finally Residence Type (Urban vs. Rural), which was least predictive (5.6%) of conflict. These findings indicate dominance of developmental maturity and education levels in shaping intragroup conflicts.