Who Is Building Peace? A Latent Class Analysis of Youth Peacebuilders in a Conflict-Affected Setting

• In Event: Facilitating Positive Intergroup Relations: Research on Children’s and Adolescents’ Out-Group Prosociality

Abstract

Rebuilding society in the wake of conflict often falls on the generation born in peace (Corkalo Biruski & Adjukovic, 2015). Yet, youth contributions to peacebuilding are often overlooked; instead, the media position youth as a threat to peace (McEvoy-Levy, 2006). This paper challenges the narrative that side-lines the constructive contributions of young people in conflict-affected settings. Instead, we identify different kinds of youth peacebuilders. Using a person-centred approach (Lanza & Cooper, 2016), we conduct a latent class analysis on data from 590 adolescents (Mage=16.8, SDage=2.0, years old), evenly split by sex (51% female) and representing both communities, or conflict-related identity groups, in Northern Ireland (38% Catholic, 62% Protestant). Across 10 indicators capturing different types and targets of prosocial action, the best fit to the data was a 4-class model: Peace in Name Only (36%), Peace at Home (33%), Peace Within Community (13%), and Future Peacebuilder (16%). Class membership varied based on youth’s prior exposure to intergroup threat, or sectarian antisocial behaviour (Table 1). Prior exposure was related to a higher probability of being in the Peace at Home or Future Peacebuilder, compared to the Peace in Name Only class (Figure 1). The importance of recognising the different kinds of youth peacebuilders in a conflict-affected society is discussed, along with implications for global policy (Simpson, 2018; UN 2015; 2018; 2020).

Authors

• Laura K. Taylor, University College Dublin (UCD)
  Presenting Author

• Christine Elizabeth Merrilees, State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo)

• Marcie C Goeke-Morey, The Catholic University of America

• Peter Shirlow, University of Liverpool

• E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame