Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jun;8(2):82-89.
doi: 10.1111/cdep.12067. Epub 2014 Mar 19.

A Social-Ecological, Process-Oriented Perspective on Political Violence and Child Development

E Mark Cummings  1 , Marcie Goeke-Morey  2 , Christine E Merrilees  3 , Laura K Taylor  4 , Peter A Shirlow  5
Affiliations

A Social-Ecological, Process-Oriented Perspective on Political Violence and Child Development

E Mark Cummings et al. Child Dev Perspect. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Youths' risk for adjustment problems in contexts of political violence is well-documented. However, outcomes vary widely, with many children functioning well. Accordingly, moving beyond further documenting the risk for many negative outcomes associated with living in contexts of political violence, a second generation of research is moving towards identifying the mechanisms and conditions that contribute to children's adjustment. Increasing support is emerging for understanding effects on children in terms of changes in the social contexts in which children live, and in the psychological processes engaged by these social ecologies. Selected themes are considered, including (a) the need to study multiple levels of the social ecology, (b) differentiating between the effects of exposure to contexts of political versus non-political violence, and (c) theories about explanatory processes. Selected research pertinent to these directions is reviewed, including findings from a six-wave longitudinal study on political violence and children in Northern Ireland.

Keywords: Child adjustment; Community violence; Emotional security; Family conflict; Political violence; Social ecological model.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Theoretical framework for social ecology of political violence in Northern Ireland. Adapted from Cummings et al. (2009).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tests of the conceptual model of the role of children’s emotional security in relations between community violence and child adjustment. SAB sectarian antisocial behavior; NAB nonsectarian antisocial behavior; SDQ Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Standardized path coefficients reported. Error variances omitted from the model. *p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Testing a social ecological model of relations between political violence and child outcomes. SAB = sectarian antisocial behavior; NAB= nonsectarian antisocial behavior; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Standardized path coefficients are reported. Solid lines denote significant paths; dashed lines indicate nonsignificant paths. *p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Three-way Interaction: The Moderating Roles of Ethno-Political Group Membership and Strength of Ethno-political Identity on the Relation between Sectarian Antisocial Behavior and Emotion Problems.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Barber BK. Annual research review: The experience of youth with political conflict—Challenging notions of resilience and encouraging research refinement. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2013;54:461–473. - PubMed
    1. Bar-Tal D, Jacobson D. A psychological perspective on security. Applied Psychology: An International Review. 1998;47(1):59–71.
    1. Betancourt TS, Brennan RT, Rubin-Smith J, Fitzmaurice GM, Gilman SE. Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers: A longitudinal study of risk, protective factors and mental health. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2010;49:606–615. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Betancourt TS, McBain R, Newnham EA, Brennan RT. Trajectories of internalizing problems in war-affected Sierra Leonean youth: Examining conflict and postconflict factors. Child Development. 2013;84(2):455–470. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bleich A, Gelkopf M, Solomon Z. Exposure to terrorism, stress-related mental health symptoms, and coping behaviors among a nationally representative sample in Israel. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association. 2003;290:612–620. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources