Political violence and child adjustment: longitudinal tests of sectarian antisocial behavior, family conflict, and insecurity as explanatory pathways.
Understanding the impact of political violence on child maladjustment is a matter of international concern. Recent research has advanced a social ecological explanation for relations between political violence and child adjustment. However, conclusions are qualified by the lack of longitudinal tests. Toward examining pathways longitudinally, mothers and their adolescents (M = 12.33, SD = 1.78, at Time 1) from 2-parent families in Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures assessing multiple levels of a social ecological model. Utilizing autoregressive controls, a 3-wave longitudinal model test (T1, n = 299; T2, n = 248; T3, n = 197) supported a specific pathway linking sectarian community violence, family conflict, children's insecurity about family relationships, and adjustment problems.
Department of Psychology, 204 Brownson Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. edward.m.cummings.10@nd.edu
Edward M
EM
Cummings
Christine E
CE
Merrilees
Alice C
AC
Schermerhorn
Marcie C
MC
Goeke-Morey
Peter
P
Shirlow
Ed
E
Cairns
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology; D000850:Anomie; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009660:Northern Ireland; D011057:Politics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*