Parenting Control in Contexts of Political Violence: Testing Bidirectional Relations Between Violence Exposure and Control in Post-Accord Belfast

Objective. The authors examined bidirectional relations between youth exposure to sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior and mothers' efforts to control youths' exposure to community violence in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Design. Mother-child dyads (N = 773) were interviewed in their homes twice over 2 years regarding youths' exposure to sectarian and nonsectarian community antisocial behavior and mothers' use of control strategies, including behavioral and psychological control. Results. Youths' exposure to nonsectarian antisocial behavior was related to increases in mothers' use of behavioral and psychological control strategies over time, controlling for earlier levels of these constructs. Reflecting bidirectional relations, mothers' behavioral control strategies were associated with youths' reduced exposure to nonsectarian and sectarian antisocial behavior over time, whereas psychological control was not related to reduced exposure. Conclusion. Only nonsectarian community violence was associated longitudinally with mothers' increased use of control strategies, and only behavioral control strategies were effective in reducing youths' exposure to community antisocial behavior, including sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior.

Risk and resilience: The moderating role of social coping for maternal mental health in a setting of political conflict:The moderating role of social coping for maternal mental health in a setting of political conflict

Violence can threaten individual wellbeing and tear at the social fabric of communities. At the same time, suffering can mobilize social coping and mutual support. Thus, the backdrop of political violence increases risk factors and stimulates resilience. The current study examined the moderating role of social coping as reflective of risk and resiliency in Northern Ireland, a setting of protracted conflict. Specifically, structural equation modeling was used to investigate whether social coping protects from or exacerbates the negative impact of sectarian crime and nonsectarian crime on maternal mental health (N?=?631). Nonsectarian crime predicted greater psychological distress for mothers in Belfast. Mixed support was found for the buffering and depletion moderation hypotheses; social coping functioned differently for nonsectarian crime and sectarian crime. Greater social coping buffered mothers' psychological distress from the negative effects of nonsectarian crime, but exacerbated maternal mental health problems when facing sectarian crime. Results suggest that social coping is a complex phenomenon, particularly in settings of protracted political violence. Implications for interventions aimed at alleviating psychological distress by enhancing mothers' social coping in contexts of intergroup conflict are discussed. We would like to thank the many families in Northern Ireland who have participated in the project. We would also like to express our appreciation for the project staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Ulster. A special thanks to Cindy Bergeman and Dan Lapsley for feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript. This research was supported by NICHD grant 046933-05 to the E. Mark Cummings.

Ethno-Religious Segregation in Post-Conflict Belfast

The last 15 years have seen ethno-religious segregation in Belfast stabilize as mixed residential neighbourhoods have expanded on the back of peace and political stability. However, the recession has exposed some of the fragility of these changes and in particular the overreliance on property-led growth and the housing market to achieve lasting forms of desegregation. This paper examines the nature of sociocultural spatial change and in particular how uneven urban restructuring has privileged the south of the city at the expense of the inner east, north and west. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications for housing policy and planning skills both regionally and nationally.

Dead But Delightful:Tourism and Memory in New Orleans Cemeteries

The book chapter examines the history of New Orleans cemeteries and their popular image, especially in regard to the tourism industry.

Prisons Memory Archive

Between 2006 and 2007, the Prisons Memory Archive (PMA) filmed participants, including former prisoners, prison staff, teachers, chaplains, visitors, solicitors and welfare workers back inside the Maze/Long Kesh Prison and Armagh Gaol. They shared the memory of the time spent in these prisons during the period of political violence from 1970 - 2000 in Northern Ireland, commonly known as the Troubles. Underpinning the overall methodology is co-ownership of the material, which gives participants the right to veto as well as to participate in the processes of editing and exhibiting their stories, so prioritising the value of co-authorship of their stories. The PMA adopted life-story interviewing techniques with the empty sites stimulating participants’ memory while they walked and talked their way around the empty sites. A third feature is inclusivity: the archive holds stories from across the full spectrum of the prison experience. A selection of the material, with accompanying context and links is available online www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com

Further Information:

The protocols of inclusivity, co-ownership and life-story telling make this collection significant as an initiative that engages with contemporary problems of how to negotiate narratives about a conflicted past in a society emerging out of violence. Inclusivity means that prison staff, prisoners, governors, chaplains, tutors and visitors have participated, relating their individual and collective experiences, which sit side by side on the PMA website. Co-ownership addresses the issues of ethics and sensitivity, allowing key constituencies to be involved. Life-story telling, based on oral history methodologies allows participants to be the authors of their own stories, crucial when dealing with sensitive issues from a violent past. The website hosts a selection of excerpts, e.g. the Armagh Stories page shows excerpts from 15 participants, while the Maze and Long Kesh Prison page offers interactive access to 24 participants from that prison. Using an interactive documentary structure, the site offers users opportunities to navigate their own way through the material and encourages them to hear and see the ‘other’, central to attempts at encouraging dialogue in a divided society. Further, public discussions have been held after screening of excerpts with community groups in the following locations - Belfast, Newtownabbey, Derry, Armagh, Enniskillen, London, Cork, Maynooth, Clones, and Monaghan. Extracts have been screened at international academic conferences in Valencia, Australia, Tartu, Estonia, Prague, and York. A dataset of the content, with description and links, is available for REF purposes.

Relations Between Political Violence and Child Adjustment: a four-wave test of the role of emotional insecurity about community

This study further explored the impact of sectarian violence and children's emotional insecurity about community on child maladjustment using a 4-wave longitudinal design. The study included 999 mother-child dyads in Belfast, Northern Ireland (482 boys, 517 girls). Across the 4 waves, child mean age was 12.19 (SD = 1.82), 13.24 (SD = 1.83), 13.61 (SD = 1.99), and 14.66 years (SD = 1.96), respectively. Building on previous studies of the role of emotional insecurity in child adjustment, the current study examines within-person change in emotional insecurity using latent growth curve analyses. The results showed that children's trajectories of emotional insecurity about community were related to risk for developing conduct and emotion problems. These findings controlled for earlier adjustment problems, age, and gender, and took into account the time-varying nature of experience with sectarian violence. Discussion considers the implications for children's emotional insecurity about community for relations between political violence and children's adjustment, including the significance of trajectories of emotional insecurity over time.