Resilience and Vulnerability in the Midst of Socio-Political Violence in Northern Ireland: One Family’s Experience of a Paramilitary Style Assault.

This article focuses on the experience of one particular family living amidst the socio-political violence in Northern Ireland to illustrate the impact of a particular traumatic event – a paramilitary assault due to mistaken identity. These attacks are often colloquially referred to as a ‘punishment shootings’ or ‘beatings’. The therapeutic process is described in narrative terms, providing a framework for; understanding the systemic effect on family relationships of the initial problematic ‘storying’ of the event, and the process of ‘re-storying’ a new more coherent narrative that integrates the trauma experience. Thus, temporary family vulnerability becomes transformed into increased family resilience. This process has general applicability in work with traumatized families.

Longitudinal Pathways Between Political Violence and Child Adjustment: The Role of Emotional Security about the Community in Northern Ireland

Links between political violence and children's adjustment problems are well-documented. However, the mechanisms by which political tension and sectarian violence relate to children's well-being and development are little understood. This study longitudinally examined children's emotional security about community violence as a possible regulatory process in relations between community discord and children's adjustment problems. Families were selected from 18 working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Participants (695 mothers and children, M=12.17, SD=1.82) were interviewed in their homes over three consecutive years. Findings supported the notion that politically-motivated community violence has distinctive effects on children's externalizing and internalizing problems through the mechanism of increasing children's emotional insecurity about community. Implications are considered for understanding relations between political violence and child adjustment from a social ecological perspective.

Political Violence and Child Adjustment in Northern Ireland: Testing Pathways in a Social-Ecological Model Including Single- and Two-Parent Families

Moving beyond simply documenting that political violence negatively impacts children, we tested a social ecological hypothesis for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Participants were 700 mother child (M = 12.1 years, SD = 1.8) dyads from 18 working-class, socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including single- and two-parent families. Sectarian community violence was associated with elevated family conflict and children's reduced security about multiple aspects of their social environment (i.e., family, parent child relations, and community), with links to child adjustment problems and reductions in prosocial behavior. By comparison, and consistent with expectations, links with negative family processes, child regulatory problems, and child outcomes were less consistent for nonsectarian community violence. Support was found for a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes among both single- and two-parent families, with evidence that emotional security and adjustment problems were more negatively affected in single-parent families. The implications for understanding social ecologies of political violence and children's functioning are discussed.

Testing a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland

Relations between political violence and child adjustment are matters of international concern. Past research demonstrates the significance of community, family, and child psychological processes in child adjustment, supporting study of interrelations between multiple social ecological factors and child adjustment in contexts of political violence. Testing a social ecological model, 300 mothers and their children (M = 12.28 years, SD = 1.77) from Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures or community discord, family relations, and children's regulatory processes (i.e., emotional security) and outcomes. Historical political violence in neighborhoods based on objective records (i.e., politically motivated deaths) were related to family members' reports of current sectarian antisocial behavior and nonsectarian antisocial behavior. Interparental conflict and parental monitoring and children's emotional security about both the community and family contributed to explanatory pathways for relations between sectarian antisocial behavior in communities and children's adjustment problems. The discussion evaluates support for social ecological models for relations between political violence and child adjustment and its implications for understanding relations in other parts of the world.

Struggles against Injustice:: Contemporary Critical Theory and Political Violence

This article investigates a significant problem in contemporary critical theory, namely its failure to address effectively the possibility that a campaign of political violence may be a legitimate means of fighting grave injustice. Having offered a working definition of ‘political violence’, I argue that critical theory should be focused on experiences of injustice rather than on ideals of justice. I then explore the reasons as to why, save for some intriguing remarks on retrospective legitimation, Jürgen Habermas has not addressed this issue directly. While Axel Honneth's recognition theory may have greater potential here, the absence of explicit consideration of the matter by him leaves considerable work to do. I introduce five questions in the concluding section that provide a starting point in setting out an appropriately stringent, normative test for claims that support violent action against injustice.

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.