Other famed metahumans may make fun of his disco ball of a helmet and he may struggle with how best to turn his reputation around, but Adebayo is firm in her belief in the goodness of her often-bumbling muscled friend.
They're synonyms, although 'struggle against' has more of a connotation of a bigger battle against the idea that one struggles with. One can 'struggle with' an addiction but a 'struggle against' addiction suggests that the struggle is much tougher to overcome.
Another main difference is that 'struggle with' can be used to describe sharing the same struggle with someone else, as in 'I struggled with her', although this sentence can also mean that you're struggling against her. This ambiguity means that the writer must write appropriate context before the sentence lest he confuse the reader. A way to avoid this is by rewriting 'I struggled with her' to 'we both struggled with'.
The results show that 'against' is used for formidable opponents or societal/political ideals, e.g. 'struggle against a common [enemy], struggle against a nation, struggle against a system'. 'With' is used when the object of struggle is more local or personal.
There also exist some useful alternatives, for example 'versus'. 'Struggle versus' could be a nice middle-of-the-road alternative to 'with' or 'against'; it's not so antagonistic as 'against' and not so vague as 'with'.
Another option is between, which is more useful when the struggle of the opposing forces is more equally matched and the opposing forces fall inside the same classification, e.g. the 'struggle between good and evil, struggle between me and you, struggle between many countries'. The advantage of 'between' is that it can be used to describe a struggle encompassing more than two opposing forces, whereas 'with' and 'against' can only be used for two opposing forces.
Anthony Abbott struggled against every policy position the Gillard minority government took, simply because it belonged to the Gillard government and with little heed for the merits or otherwise of the policy in question.
I don't think this answer is contrary to Will Kunkel's Answer; struggles with tend to be struggles to reconcile something with your own notion of your own being; once you struggle against something, you have rejected it as being not in keeping with your own being, beliefs or ideals and are not therefore seeking to reconcile it with these latter.
Adults feel that, when a child desires power, he wants to take some of our power. Because we do not want to lose control of the classroom or home, we embroil ourselves in power struggles born of our refusal to surrender our power. Adults need to understand that the child does not want our power. He merely wants some of his own.
Much of what I learned about dealing with children with attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) and children who need power, I learned from a young girl named Michelle. She was a wonderful kid, but was extremely troubled, argumentative, and combative. She had marked difficulty with peers and would constantly challenge the authority of the adults in her life. She challenged every decision or direction given to her by an adult.
One Friday afternoon, as students began to file out of the room at the end of the day, I asked Michelle to come to my desk. I told her that we were going to start studying New Zealand on Monday, and asked whether there was anything she would like to learn about it. She wondered if lambs were hurt when their wool was sheared, and is the southern part of New Zealand colder than the northern part?
This means sitting or standing near the child at times when his behavior becomes a problem (transitions or tests). Do not use proximity in a threatening or intimidating way. Stand near the child and you will often find that your closeness will have a calming effect on him.
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