Following the signing of peace agreements, post-accord societies often remain deeply divided across group lines. There is a need to identify antecedents of youth's support for peace and establish more constructive intergroup relations. This article explored the effect of out-group trust, intergroup forgiveness, and social identity on support for…

Identifying developmental patterns in intergroup contact and its relation with bias is crucial for improving prevention strategies around intergroup relations. This study applied time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) to examine age-based changes in relations between contact and bias in a divided community that included 667 youth (M age = 15.74, SD…

Counterbalancing the narrative of youth as either helpless victims or ruthless perpetrators, a new generation of research in conflict settings focuses on their peacebuilding potential, including constructs such as prosocial behaviors and civic engagement. Previous research on the impact of political violence on prosocial behaviors in mixed,…

Adolescents are often exposed to the lasting effects of political conflict. Complementing existing research on negative outcomes in these settings, this article focuses on the role of the family (N = 731 mother/adolescent dyads, 51% female, M = 14.72, SD = 1.99, years old at Time 1) in promoting constructive youth outcomes in response to perceived…

The protective role of strength of group identity was examined for youth in a context of protracted political conflict. Participants included 814 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 13.61, SD = 1.99 at Time 1) participating in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, the results show that the effect of…

This study further explored the impact of sectarian violence and children's emotional insecurity about community on child maladjustment using a 4-wave longitudinal design. The study included 999 mother-child dyads in Belfast, Northern Ireland (482 boys, 517 girls). Across the 4 waves, child mean age was 12.19 (SD = 1.82), 13.24 (SD = 1.83), 13.61…

This study explores the associations between mothers' religiosity, and families' and children's functioning in a stratified random sample of 695 Catholic and Protestant mother-child dyads in socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a region which has experienced centuries of sectarian conflict between Protestant Unionists and…

This study examines the influence of social ecological risks within the domains of parenting, family environment, and community in the prediction of educational outcomes for 770 adolescents (49% boys, 51% girls, "M"?=?13.6 years, "SD"?=?2.0) living in a setting of protracted political conflict, specifically working class areas…

Understanding the impact of political violence on child maladjustment is a matter of international concern. Recent research has advanced a social ecological explanation for relations between political violence and child adjustment. However, conclusions are qualified by the lack of longitudinal tests. Toward examining pathways longitudinally,…

Relatively little research has examined the relations between growing up in a community with a history of protracted violent political conflict and subsequent generations' well-being. The current article examines relations between mothers' self-report of the impact that the historical political violence in Northern Ireland (known as the Troubles)…

Evidence has emerged for emotional security as an explanatory variable linking marital conflict to children's adjustment. Further evidence suggests parental psychopathology is a key factor in child development. To advance understanding of the pathways by which these family risk factors impact children's development, the mediational role of…