From Conflict to Peace?:The Rights Abuses of Women and Girls in Northern Ireland

This article is based on primary research conducted by the authors in Northern Ireland in Mourne House women’s unit at Maghaberry Prison in 2004 and in Ash House women’s prison unit in Hydebank Wood Young Offender Centre from 2005-2006. It explores the imprisonment of women in prison in the context of a society slowly and unevenly emerging from violent conflict and against a backdrop of the global rise of women’s imprisonment over the past two decades. The history of the gendered punishment of politically motivated prisoners is explored, followed by discussion of the findings of primary research in Mourne House women’s unit and, following its closure, in Ash House. The conclusion analyses how women’s prison experiences in the North contribute to an understanding of the contested terrain of agency and resistance. Finally, the article explores the potential for, and barriers, to change within women’s imprisonment in Northern Ireland.

Emotional insecurity in the family and community and youth delinquency in Northern Ireland: A person-oriented analysis across five-waves

Background: Over one billion children are exposed worldwide to political violence and armed conflict. Currently, conclusions about bases for adjustment problems are qualified by limited longitudinal research from a process-oriented, social-ecological perspective. In this study, we examined a theoretically-based model for the impact of multiple levels of the social ecology (family, community) on adolescent delinquency. Specifically, this study explored the impact of children’s emotional insecurity about both the family and community on youth delinquency in Northern Ireland. Methods: In the context of a five-wave longitudinal research design, participants included 999 mother-child dyads in Belfast (482 boys, 517 girls), drawn from socially-deprived, ethnically-homogenous areas that had experienced political violence. Youth ranged in age from 10 to 20 and were 12.18 (SD = 1.82) years old on average at Time 1. Findings: The longitudinal analyses were conducted in hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), allowing for the modeling of inter-individual differences in intra-individual change. Intra-individual trajectories of emotional insecurity about the family related to children’s delinquency. Greater insecurity about the community worsened the impact of family conflict on youth’s insecurity about the family, consistent with the notion that youth’s insecurity about the community sensitizes them to exposure to family conflict in the home. Conclusions: The results suggest that ameliorating children’s insecurity about family and community in contexts of political violence is an important goal toward improving adolescents’ well-being, including reduced risk for delinquency.

Effects of peer network interactions on adolescent cannabis use

Purpose
This study capitalises on three waves of longitudinal data from a cohort of 4351 secondary school pupils to examine the effects on individuals’ cannabis use uptake of both peer cannabis use and position within a peer network.

Design/methodology/approach
Both cross-sectional and individual fixed effects models are used to estimate the effect on cannabis use of nominated friends’ cannabis use, of reciprocity and transitivity of nominations across the friendship cluster, and of interactions between these nominated friends. Post hoc analyses parsed the behaviour of reciprocating and non-reciprocating friends.

Findings
Cannabis use varied depending on the stability of friendship network and the degree of reciprocity and interconnectedness within the group. Behavioural influence was strong, but interaction effects were observed between the prevalence of cannabis use among friends, the structure of the friendship group and ego’s proximity to group members. These interactions demonstrate that behavioural influence is more salient in more cohesive groups. When reciprocating and non-reciprocating friends’ mean cannabis use were separated, influence from reciprocating friends was estimated at twice the magnitude of other friends.

Originality/value
While preventing any one individual from using cannabis is likely to have a multiplier effect on classmates, the bonds and interactions between classmates will determine which classmates are affected by this multiplier and the salience of that effect.

Alcohol attention bias in adolescent social drinkers: an eye tracking study

Rationale
Previous research on attention bias in nondependent social drinkers has focused on adult samples with limited focus on the presence of attention bias for alcohol cues in adolescent social drinkers.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to examine the presence of alcohol attention bias in adolescents and the relationship of this cognitive bias to alcohol use and alcohol-related expectancies.
Methods
Attention bias in adolescent social drinkers and abstainers was measured using an eye tracker during exposure to alcohol and neutral cues. Questionnaires measured alcohol use and explicit alcohol expectancies.
Results
Adolescent social drinkers spent significantly more time fixating to alcohol stimuli compared to controls. Total fixation time to alcohol stimuli varied in accordance with level of alcohol consumption and was significantly associated with more positive alcohol expectancies. No evidence for automatic orienting to alcohol stimuli was found in adolescent social drinkers.
Conclusion
Attention bias in adolescent social drinkers appears to be underpinned by controlled attention suggesting that whilst participants in this study displayed alcohol attention bias comparable to that reported in adult studies, the bias has not developed to the point of automaticity. Initial fixations appeared to be driven by alternative attentional processes which are discussed further.

Peer Effects in Adolescent Cannabis Use: It's the Friends, Stupid

This paper examines peer effects in adolescent cannabis use from several different reference groups, exploiting survey data that have many desirable properties and have not previously been used for this purpose. Treating the school grade as the reference group, and using both neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, we find evidence of large, positive, and statistically significant peer effects. Treating nominated friends as the reference group, and using both school fixed effects and IV for identification, we again find evidence of large, positive, and generally statistically significant peer effects. Our preferred IV approach exploits information about friends of friends – ‘friends once removed’, who are not themselves friends – to instrument for friends’ cannabis use. Finally, we examine whether the cannabis use of schoolmates who are not nominated as friends – ‘non-friends’ – influences
own cannabis use. Once again using neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, the evidence suggests zero impact. In our data, schoolmates who are not also friends have no influence on adolescent cannabis use.