Measuring the macrosystem in postaccord Northern Ireland: A social–ecological approach.

Abstract

is a PhD student in developmental psychology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests focus on the impact of political and community violence on youth development through the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Department of Psychology.LAURA K. TAYLOR holds a PhD. She is an assistant professor at the Centre for Identity and Intergroup Relations in the School of Behavioural Sciences at Queen's University Belfast. Her research focuses on risk and resilience processes for youth, families, and communities affected by political conflict. She has previously published with Journal of Peace Research and Political Psychology, among others.ANDREA FUREY received a PhD in social psychology and investigated both social identity and prejudice in Northern Ireland in 2006. She then began a lectureship at the University of Ulster from 2006 until present. Her research focus has primarily been on the conflict and social division in Northern Irish society. Her current focus of research is in exploring identity issues in situations of protracted conflict. She is involved in research looking at identity in different school settings in both Northern Ireland and Macedonia. She is also interested in the identity dynamics inherent in mixed marriages and segregated living, both in Northern Ireland and other societies with a history of conflict. CHRISTINE E. MERRILEES holds a PhD in developmental psychology. She is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at SUNY Geneseo. She is also a former assistant research professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Notre Dame. Her research combines developmental and social psychology, and she uses advanced longitudinal methods to examine identity and family processes for youth living in divided societies.MARCIE C. GOEKE-MOREY holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at The Catholic University of America. Rooted in a developmental psychopathology framework, her research interests focus on family relationships and the processes underlying children's social and emotional development within the context of family, community, and culture. She is particularly interested in the positive aspects of family relationships and the role of religiosity and mindfulness in family and child development.PETER SHIRLOW is the Director and Blair Chair at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies. He was the Deputy Director of the Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Justice until 31 July 2015. He is the Independent Chair of the OFMDFM Employers' Guidance on Recruiting People with Conflict-Related Convictions Working Group and a board member of the mental health charity Threshold. He has published more than 80 pieces of work on these issues and has served/is serving on the editorial boards of Capital and Class, Irish Political Studies and International Planning Studies. In 2011 his coauthored book Abandoning Historical Conflict? won the PSAI Brian Farel...

Youth in Northern Ireland: Linking Violence Exposure, Emotional Insecurity, and the Political Macrosystem

“…The form and content of news, when aggregated over time, can shape and inform individual responses to the conflict. As a result, local news sources can be a useful resource for assessing the overarching political climate surrounding a conflict (Myers & Caniglia, 2004;Townsend et al, 2016). Many studies have used coded news reports to research sociopolitical phenomena (e.g., Barclay & Liu, 2003;Coleman & Wasike, 2004;Heber, 2011;Kim, Kumanyika, Shive, Igweatu, & Kim, 2010;Miller, Peake, & Boulton, 2010;Perkins & Taylor, 1996;Trenz, 2004), but few have tested the psychological impact of these sociopolitical events.…”

“…Accordingly, the research team developed the plan to use newspaper coding as a macrosystem measure. A prior study by Townsend et al (2016) demonstrated that political tension between groups—when measured by coded news reports—provided information about the social ecology that was missed by other measures. The current monograph builds on this methodology to assess how both political tension and ingroup threat in the macrosystem relate with the proximal processes that have already been found to increase adolescents’ emotional insecurity and subsequent adjustment problems.…”

Examining Bidirectional Pathways Between Exposure to Political Violence and Adolescent Adjustment in Northern Ireland

“…As another example, when antisocial behavior precedes exposure to political violence, a key feature could be accounted for by increased involvement in deviant peer associations. As further example, elements of the macro-system (e.g., political discord between Catholics and Protestants) may possibly contribute to both variables (Townsend et al, 2016). Finally, although notions of causal relations between "adolescent adjustment effects" and "sectarian community violence effects" cannot be tested in the current study, the directionality over time can be assessed within the longitudinal design.…”

Trust, forgiveness, and peace: The influence of adolescent social identity in a setting of intergroup conflict

“…For example, social identity may function differently for both Catholics (historic minority) and Protestants (historic majority) in the post-accord era (Merrilees et al, 2011, 2014). Finally, in line with the DPM (Taylor, 2020), the article focuses on broader support for the peace process at the macrosystem level (Townsend et al, 2016).…”