• Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy
  Social Change Lab
  • Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy

Growing up in Divided Societies: Children’s Understanding of Conflict-related Group Symbols

10/12/2018

1 Comment

 
‘Who am I? Who are you?’ Kids’ understanding of social categories has implications for conflict resolution. How and when children recognize names, symbols and social cues influences how they understand and identify with relevant social groups. How they identify with one group also affects their attitudes and behaviours toward ‘others.’ This effect can be even stronger in settings with a long history of conflict.
​
Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Macedonia, for example are rooted in a history of conflict. The two dominant social groups in each setting have remained notably segregated across neighbourhoods and schools. Although the overt conflict has ended, it has left a lasting effect on post-accord generations. Understanding these effects can help research-based reconciliation and peace-building projects. In the long-term, this can build a healthy and cohesive society.

The Helping Kids! project explored how children from five to eleven years old in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Macedonia perceive prevalent social cues – such as names or icons – associated with conflict-related groups. Across all three settings, children readily recognized cues belonging to conflict-related categories. This recognition increased with age. For example, in Northern Ireland, children identified the poppy as belonging to the Protestant/British community, while the shamrock represented the Catholic/Irish community; in Macedonia, children distinguished between celebratory foods as Macedonian or Albanian; and in Kosovo, children recognized various murals and pop artists as either Albanian or Serbian.
The more aware children were of conflict-related group markers, the more they preferred their own groups’ symbols; those who preferring in-group symbols also shared fewer resources (e.g., stickers) with the outgroup. Thus, the way children thought about conflict-related groups had behavioural implications even at early ages. The bright side is that children’s previous experience seems to counteract this pattern. If a child reported more positive experiences with outgroup children, he/she was more likely to share resources with the outgroup.

Previous work in Northern Ireland has identified similar patterns. Children from segregated neighbourhoods in Belfast distributed more resources to ingroup members, especially when they held a strong group identity. Moreover, youth in Belfast who had higher quality and quantity contact with outgroup members had higher peacebuilding attitudes and civic engagement.

From this we know that children know about and have preferences for social cues related to conflict-related groups. This knowledge and preference has influences how resources are shared with others,  an important first step in peacebuilding. Fostering more positive outgroup attitudes and opportunities for outgroup helping may have promising, long-term implications for more constructive intergroup relations.

The Helping Kids! lab is working to apply these findings in other contexts. As such, these findings may have implications for the 350 million children living in conflict-affected areas.

​-  Guest post by Dr. Laura K. Taylor, Dr. Jocelyn Dautel, Risa Rylander MSc, Dr. Ana Tomovska Misoska, and Edona Maloku Berdyna MSc.
 
*This phase of the Helping Kids! project was funded by the School of Psychology Research Incentivisation Scheme (RIS) and the Department for the Economy (DfE) - Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) Award [DFEGCRF17-18/Taylor].
1 Comment
Stephen Dautel
11/12/2018 08:25:33 am

Working at directing the resources in our societies around the world toward building values and relationships will be a benefit to all of us.

Congratulations on your efforts in these projects.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed


    Authors

    All researchers in the Social Change Lab contribute to the "Do Good" blog. Click the author's name at the bottom of any post to learn more about their research or get in touch.

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    Communication
    Community Action
    Discrimination
    Education
    Environment
    Gender
    Helping
    Identities
    Legend
    Norms
    Politics
    Race
    Relationships
    Research
    Romance
    Trajectories Of Radicalisation And De Radicalisation
    Trajectories Of Radicalisation And De-radicalisation

    Archive

    September 2024
    July 2024
    December 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017

Join our mailing list!

Click the button below to join our mailing list:
Mailing list

​Social Change Lab supports crowdfunding of the research and support for the team! To donate to the lab, please click the button below! (Tax deductible receipts are provided via UQ’s secure donation website.)  If you’d like to fund a specific project or student internship, you can also reach out directly!
DONATE HERE

Picture
Follow us on Twitter!

Location

Social Change Lab
School of Psychology
McElwain Building
​The University of Queensland
St Lucia, QLD 4072
Australia
Check out our Privacy Policy
We acknowledge the Jagera people and Turrbal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Meanjin (Brisbane), the lands on which the Social Change Lab is physically located and where we meet, work and live. We celebrate the culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country. We recognise their valuable contributions to Australian and global society.
​Copyright © 2017
  • Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy