2-046 - Developmental and Social-Ecological Perspectives on Children, Political Violence and Armed Conflict

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The impact of political violence and armed conflict on children’s adjustment are an increasing concern worldwide across multiple disciplines, as reflected by priorities of the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and SRCD (Masten, 2014). According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (2009), over one billion children under the age of eighteen are growing up in these contexts. Although negative outcomes are extensively reported, longitudinal research is scarce. Accordingly, limited progress is evident towards (a) articulating the developmental and psychological processes underlying youth development, including the role of multiple levels of the social ecology, and (b) developing effective interventions. This symposium presents papers addressing these concerns across multiple contexts of political violence and armed conflict.

Four research groups employing longitudinal research designs addressing issues of theory or application will present current work. The first paper, following a social-ecological model, examines prospective relations between exposure to political violence and aggressive behavior among Israeli and Palestinian youth. The second paper, also following a social-ecological model, prospectively examines emotional insecurity about the community as a mediator of youth adjustment in Northern Ireland from a within-person perspective assessed across five time points. The third paper explores the interplay of individual and community factors and mental health consequences among youth formerly enlisted in war-related activities in Sierra Leone. Finally, a school-based intervention to improve children’s outcomes in the face of sustained political violence and armed conflict in the post-war Democratic Republic of the Congo is presented, including evaluation after one year of intervention.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chairs

• E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame

• Eric F Dubow, Bowling Green State Univ

Individual Presentations

• Emotional Insecurity about the Community as a Within-Person Mediator of Relations between Political Violence and Child Adjustment - Presenting Author: E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame; Christine Elizabeth Merrilees, State University of New York at Geneseo; Laura K. Taylor, Univeristy of North Carolina at Greensboro; Marcie C Goeke-Morey, The Catholic Univ of America; Peter Shirlow, Queen's University Belfast

• Processes that Mediate the Relation between Youths’ Exposure to Violence in the Middle East and their Subsequent Aggression - Presenting Author: Rowell Huesmann, University of Michigan; Eric F Dubow, Bowling Green State Univ; Paul Boxer, Rutgers University; Simha Landau, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Shira Dvir Gvirsman, Netanya Academic College; Khalil Shikaki, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research

• Coping, collective efficacy and mental health outcomes among Sierra Leonean war-affected youth: a social-ecological perspective - Presenting Author: Manasi Sharma, Harvard University; Robert Brennan, Research Associate FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Theresa Betancourt, Harvard University

• Enhancing the academic and psychosocial development of children in conflict-affected countries: Lessons from the DRC - Presenting Author: J. Lawrence Aber, New York University; Catalina E Torrente, Yale University; Jeannie Annan, Director, Research, Evaluation, and Learning The International Rescue Committee; Anjuli Shivshanker, Program Officer, Research Evaluation and Learning The International Rescue Committee; Brian Johnston, Doctoral Student; Leighann Starkey, City University of New York; Edward Seidman, William T. Grant Foundation; Sharon Wolf, University of WI-Madison; Peter Halpin, Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, NYU; Carly Tubbs, New York University