Political violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland: Testing pathways in a social-ecological model including single-and two-parent families

Abstract

Moving beyond simply documenting that political violence negatively impacts children, we tested a social-ecological hypothesis for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Participants were 700 mother-child (M = 12.1 years, SD = 1.8) dyads from 18 working-class, socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including single- and two-parent families. Sectarian community violence was associated with elevated family conflict and children's reduced security about multiple aspects of their social environment (i.e., family, parent-child relations, and community), with links to child adjustment problems and reductions in prosocial behavior. By comparison, and consistent with expectations, links with negative family processes, child regulatory problems, and child outcomes were less consistent for nonsectarian community violence. Support was found for a social-ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes among both single- and two-parent families, with evidence that emotional security and adjustment problems were more negatively affected in single-parent families. The implications for understanding social ecologies of political violence and children's functioning are discussed.

Figure 1

Testing pathways in a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Dashed lines indicate paths that are not significant. R² values are reported for each significant pathway. SAB = Sectarian Antisocial Behavior; NAB = Nonsectarian Antisocial Behavior. Fit indices: χ² = 7.467, df = 2, p < .05, χ²/df = 3.733, NFI = .996, CFI = .997, and RMSEA = .063 *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Figure 2

Comparisons of pathways in the social ecological model for single and two parent families. Solid lines denote paths that are significant for both groups, dashed lines denote paths only significant for single parent families, and dotted lines denote paths only significant for two parent families. R² values are reported for each significant pathway. SAB = Sectarian Antisocial Behavior; NAB = Nonsectarian Antisocial Behavior. Fit indices: χ² = 8.340, df = 4, p > .05, χ²/df = 2.085, NFI = .996, CFI = .998, and RMSEA = .040. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.