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The persistence of intergroup conflicts around the world creates urgency for research on child development in such settings. Complementing the existing knowledge about internalizing and externalizing developmental outcomes, this article shifts the focus to children's prosocial behaviors, and more specifically, introduces the Developmental Peacebuilding Model (DPM). The DPM makes three main contributions. First, the DPM integrates a developmental intergroup framework and socio-ecological perspective, with a peacebuilding paradigm, to examine the target and type of children's prosocial behavior in settings of intergroup conflict. Second, DPM outlines how children's outgroup prosocial behaviors, which promote constructive change at different levels of the social ecology, can be understood as peacebuilding and fostering social cohesion. Third, the article concludes with the DPM's implications for research and global policy. ; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ; Office of First Minister & Deputy First Minister, Government of Northern Ireland ; Spencer Foundation ; Richard Benjamin Trust and the British Academy (BA)/Leverhulme ; United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Global Impact Acceleration Awards (GIAA) ; Department for the Economy (DFE) GCRF ; British Psychological Society (BPS) Social Psychology Section ; Society for Research on Child Development Small Grant for Early Career Scholars

Civic participation is important for peacebuilding and democratic development; however, the role of mental health has been largely overlooked by policymakers aiming to stimulate engagement in civil society. This study investigated antecedents of civic participation in Colombia, a setting of protracted political conflict, using bootstrapped mediation in path analysis. Past exposure to violence, experience with community antisocial behavior, and perceived social trust were all significantly related to civic participation. In addition, depression mediated the impact of past exposure to political violence and perceived social trust, but not community antisocial behavior, on civic participation. In this context, findings challenged depictions of helpless victims and instead suggested that when facing greater risk (past violence exposure and community antisocial behavior), individuals responded in constructive ways, taking on agency in their communities. Social trust in one's neighbors and community also facilitated deeper engagement in civic life. Relevant to the mediation test, interventions aiming to increase civic participation should take mental health into account. Limitations and possible future research are discussed.

El presente artículo explora por un lado que la violencia política tiene el potencial de amenazar el bienestar de los individuos y romper el tejido social, pero por otro lado, que los individuos y comunidades son resilientes frente a ella. De este modo, planteamos la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿Cómo las experiencias de violencia política afectan a las personas a nivel personal? Específicamente este artículo explorará las relaciones entre la violencia, salud mental, participación ciudadana, y actitudes hacia la justicia transicional y democracia dentro un contexto de conflicto armado prolongado. Una contribución teórica de este proyecto es la integración de dos marcos teóricos de psicología y estudios de paz. En el pilotaje se realizaron 184 encuestas con individuos, los cuales revelan determinados patrones. Por ejemplo, que diferentes tipos de violencia están relacionados con diferentes problemas de salud mental y maneras de enfrentar situaciones difíciles. El artículo también revela que a pesar del apoyo ciudadano hacia la democracia y la justicia transicional, muchos colombianos no están satisfechos con las iniciativas actuales que se adelantan desde el nivel nacional. Los resultados sugieren la necesidad de desarrollar intervenciones de salud mental y construcción de paz que son más sensibles al contexto y menos centralizadas.

The current article investigates how political violence can increase psychological stress and how it can tear down the social structure of a community. At the same time, we examine how individuals and communities are surprisingly resilient to the on-going conflict. This phenomenon leads us to this research question: How does the exposure to political violence affect people at an individual level? More precisely, this article explores what relationship we can find between political violence and individual mental health by examining the participation these individuals have in a community, and also by studying the attitudes or behaviors they had towards transitional justice and democracy, in a setting of a very long term armed conflict. A theoretical contribution of this project is the integration made between theoretical psychological frameworks and studies in favor of peace. Surveys of 184 individuals reveal certain trends, such as the one that shows that different types of violence are associated to different types of mental health and how these people solve problems. In addition, this article shows that despite the wide-spread actions taken to support democracy and transitional justice, in general, many Colombians are not satisfied with the current, national-level initiatives taken by the government. The results suggest that there is a need to work more deeply with people having mental health problems. The intervention that could be made in this aspect will show a decentralized process more sensitive and accurate to the process of peace the government is looking for in the contexts where these people live. ; El presente artículo explora por un lado que la violencia política tiene el potencial de amenazar el bienestar de los individuos y romper el tejido social, pero por otro lado, que los individuos y comunidades son resilientes frente a ella. De este modo, planteamos la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿Cómo las experiencias de violencia política afectan a las personas a nivel personal? Específicamente este artículo explorará las relaciones entre la violencia, salud mental, participación ciudadana, y actitudes hacia la justicia transicional y democracia dentro un contexto de conflicto armado prolongado. Una contribución teórica de este proyecto es la integración de dos marcos teóricos de psicología y estudios de paz. En el pilotaje se realizaron 184 encuestas con individuos, los cuales revelan determinados patrones. Por ejemplo, que diferentes tipos de violencia están relacionados con diferentes problemas de salud mental y maneras de enfrentar situaciones difíciles. El artículo también revela que a pesar del apoyo ciudadano hacia la democracia y la justicia transicional, muchos colombianos no están satisfechos con las iniciativas actuales que se adelantan desde el nivel nacional. Los resultados sugieren la necesidad de desarrollar intervenciones de salud mental y construcción de paz que son más sensibles al contexto y menos centralizadas.

PurposeOver 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can disrupt this pattern over time. Addressing this concern, the developmental peace-building model calls for a dynamic, multi-level and longitudinal approach. Using an innovative statistical approach, this study aims to investigate the associations among four youth peace-building dimensions and quality peace.Design/methodology/approachMulti-level time-series network analysis of a data set containing 193 countries and spanning the years between 2011 and 2020 was performed. This statistical approach allows for complex modelling that can reveal new patterns of how different youth peace-building dimensions (i.e. education, engagement, information, inclusion), identified through rapid evidence assessment, promote quality peace over time. Such a methodology not only assesses between-country differences but also within-country change.FindingsWhile the within-country contemporaneous network shows positive links for education, the temporal network shows significant lagged effects for all four dimensions on quality peace. The between-country network indicates significant direct effects of education and information, on average, and indirect effects of inclusion and engagement, on quality peace.Originality/valueThis approach demonstrates a novel application of multi-level time-series network analysis to explore the dynamic development of quality peace, capturing both stability and change. The analysis illustrates how youth peace-building dimensions impact quality peace in the macro-system globally. This investigation of quality peace thus illustrates that the science of peace does not necessitate violent conflict.

More than 420 million children live amid political conflict. In such settings, understanding the development of prosocial behaviours, specifically directed at outgroups, can provide opportunities for peacebuilding. Informed by research on intergroup competition and structural inequality, we focus on outgroup prosocial behaviour targeting conflict rivals. Already from a young age, children are politically socialised and show intergroup biases that dampen helping behaviours towards conflict rivals, which continue into adulthood. We review factors that shape youth's interpersonal helping and broader forms of prosociality, such as civic engagement, across group lines. We conceptualise outgroup prosocial behaviour along a continuum, ranging from interpersonal acts to broader structural and cultural constructive change. We conclude with directions for future research.

Research on the prevention and intervention against violence in children is urgently needed. In contrast to a narrow approach, typically focused on physical violence against children, the authors offer a novel and urgently needed framework that captures the episodic, structural and cultural nature of both violence and peace. Ranging from intersectional risks to global climate change, we comment on the utility of this approach, as well as possible extensions. We echo the call for recognizing children's agency, shown in our own research on children's peacebuilding in settings of protracted political conflict, and link the points raised to other global policy frameworks, such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth Peace and Security.

This article examines the role of empathy for outgroup helping, collective action and political activism among youth in Northern Ireland, a setting of protracted conflict. Integrating the Empathy-Attitudes-Action model with the Developmental Peacebuilding Model, a two-wave study was conducted to assess youth's behavioural intentions and actual behaviours toward refugees. Across two waves (N = 383, 52% male, 48% female; 14-16 years old), empathy at Time 1 predicted more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities at Time 2, which in turn was positively related to four outcomes aiming to foster prosocial change for refugees: helping behaviour and realistic helping at the interpersonal level, collective action intentions at the structural level, and signing a petition aiming for cultural change. That is, outgroup attitudes mediated the link from empathy to three types of prosocial action toward refugees. The findings suggest that youth not only volunteer to help an individual outgroup member, but also support broader structural and cultural change that will benefit those they may never meet. Implications for recognising and supporting the constructive agency of youth toward disadvantaged groups in conflict settings are discussed.

Over half of refugees are school-aged children. In host communities, children's attitudes and behaviours are important for the integration of refugee children. This study examines the empathy–attitudes–action model in middle childhood (N = 94, 8 to 11 years old). In both the experimental and control conditions, children were introduced to a (fictional) refugee and told that he or she would be moving to their school. The experimental condition also listened to a storybook about the child's refugee experience. Empathy, outgroup attitudes, and prosocial behaviour toward the incoming child, and refugees as a group, were measured. Although mediation was not supported, the storybook condition reported more empathy and helping intentions, and attitudes predicted helping intentions but not giving to refugees. Results highlight how host-society children can welcome refugees.

Focusing on the post-accord generation in Northern Ireland, this study aimed to examine the role of intergroup contact in promoting support for peacebuilding and youth civic engagement. The sample comprised 466 youth (aged 14-15; 51% Catholic, 49% Protestant) who were born after the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and therefore represent a 'post-accord' generation. Recruited through their schools, youth completed scales on intergroup contact (quality and quantity), support for peacebuilding, and civic engagement. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and bootstrapped mediation in MPlus. Results found that support for peacebuilding partially mediated the association between higher quality and higher quantity contact and greater civic engagement (volunteering and political participation). Findings demonstrate that youth who are living with the legacy of protracted intergroup conflict can support peacebuilding and engage in constructive behaviours such as civic engagement. By recognising the peacebuilding potential of youth, especially in a post-accord generation, the findings may inform how to promote youth civic engagement and social reconstruction after conflict.

Focusing on the post-accord generation in Northern Ireland, this study aimed to examine the role of intergroup contact in promoting support for peacebuilding and youth civic engagement. The sample comprised 466 youth (aged 14-15; 51% Catholic, 49% Protestant) who were born after the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and therefore represent a 'post-accord' generation. Recruited through their schools, youth completed scales on intergroup contact (quality and quantity), support for peacebuilding, and civic engagement. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and bootstrapped mediation in MPlus. Results found that support for peacebuilding partially mediated the association between higher quality and higher quantity contact and greater civic engagement (volunteering and political participation). Findings demonstrate that youth who are living with the legacy of protracted intergroup conflict can support peacebuilding and engage in constructive behaviours such as civic engagement. By recognising the peacebuilding potential of youth, especially in a post-accord generation, the findings may inform how to promote youth civic engagement and social reconstruction after conflict. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion