Helping Kids! Antecedents of Peace-building in Divided Societies

• In Event: 3-171 - Group Identity, Group Norms and Children’s Moral Judgments in Diverse Competitive Intergroup Contexts

Integrative Statement

Understanding how and when children develop a sense of group boundaries has implications for conflict and its resolution, particularly in societies that are “differentiated along a single primary categorization, such as ethnicity or religion” (Brewer, 1999, p. 439). Moreover, in societies where the social distinctions may not be highly visible (i.e., race), symbols become particularly important with implications for intergroup prosocial behaviors (Brewer, 1999). However arbitrary, these symbolic “ingroup-outgroup distinctions shape social interactions and opportunities for cooperation, imitation, and interdependence… and can beget further social differentiation” (Brewer, 1999, p. 439). That is, these group dynamics shape altruism and helping behaviors (Brewer, 1999; Greenwald & Pettigrew, 2014; Weisel & Böhm, 2015). Moreover, outgroup prosocial behaviors may be interpreted as an antecedent of peacebuilding in children (O’Driscoll, Taylor, & Dautel, 2017). That is, in conflict settings where zero-sum interactions pervade in social and political life, children choosing to share a discrete set of resources (i.e., stickers) with outgroup members can be understood as a potential step toward improving intergroup relations.

The research was carried out in three post-conflict societies that remain largely divided along ethno-religious lines: Kosovo, Macedonia, and Northern Ireland. All three sites have divided education systems; that is, children are taught separately by ethnic background (NI: Protestant /Catholic; Kosovo: Albanian/Serbian; Macedonia: Macedonian/Albanian). Two primary schools from Macedonia participated; a total of 199 students (107 male, 92 female) ranging in age from 6 to 11 (M = 8.40, SD = 1.41) were evenly split by background (44.2% Macedonian, 55.8% Albanian). Four primary schools from Kosovo participated for a total of 219 children (108 male, 111 female), ranging in age from 6 to 10 (M = 8.07, SD = 1.33) and evenly split by background (54.3% Albanian, 45.7% Serbian). Finally, 11 primary schools from Northern Ireland participated including 299 students (146 male, 153 female), with ages ranging from 5 to 11 (M = 7.62, SD = 1.64; 51.5% Catholic/48.5% Protestant).

In all three settings, with age, children were better able to sort both ingroup and outgroup symbols in the hypothesized directions; in Kosovo and Northern Ireland, they also expressed greater preference for ingroup symbols with age. Moreover, in these two settings, personal preference for ingroup symbols mediated the link between age and prosocial behaviors toward an outgroup member. That is, with age children reported greater preference for ingroup symbols, which in turn was linked with lower giving to the outgroup in Kosovo and Northern Ireland (Figures 1 & 2). This mediation was not significant in Macedonia.

These results found that children develop a sense of conflict-related social categories with age in three divided settings, with implications for intergroup actions. In two settings, preference for ingroup symbols predicted lower outgroup giving, suggesting that “ingroup favoritism, even in the absence of overt antagonism toward outgroups, is not benign” (Brewer, 1999, p. 438). The comparative findings help to tease apart the universality/uniqueness of ethnic identity development related to growing up in a divided society, and its implications for potential antecedents of peacebuilding among children.

Authors

• Laura K Taylor, Queen's University Belfast
  Presenting Author

• Jocelyn B Dautel, Queen's University, Belfast
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ana Tomovska Misoska, University American College Skopje
  Non-Presenting Author

• Edona Maluko Bërdyna, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Non-Presenting Author

• Risa Rylander, Queen's University, Belfast
  Non-Presenting Author