Emotional Insecurity about the Community: A Dynamic, Within-Person Mediator of Child Adjustment in Contexts of Political Violence

AbstractOver 1 billion children worldwide are exposed to political violence and armed conflict. The current conclusions are qualified by limited longitudinal research testing sophisticated process-oriented explanatory models for child adjustment outcomes. In this study, consistent with a developmental psychopathology perspective emphasizing the value of process-oriented longitudinal study of child adjustment in developmental and social–ecological contexts, we tested emotional insecurity about the community as a dynamic, within-person mediating process for relations between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. Specifically, this study explored children's emotional insecurity at a person-oriented level of analysis assessed over 5 consecutive years, with child gender examined as a moderator of indirect effects between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. In the context of a five-wave longitudinal research design, participants included 928 mother–child dyads in Belfast (453 boys, 475 girls) drawn from socially deprived, ethnically homogenous areas that had experienced political violence. Youth ranged in age from 10 to 20 years and were 13.24 (SD= 1.83) years old on average at the initial time point. Greater insecurity about the community measured over multiple time points mediated relations between sectarian community violence and youth's total adjustment problems. The pathway from sectarian community violence to emotional insecurity about the community was moderated by child gender, with relations to emotional insecurity about the community stronger for girls than for boys. The results suggest that ameliorating children's insecurity about community in contexts of political violence is an important goal toward improving adolescents' well-being and adjustment. These results are discussed in terms of their translational research implications, consistent with a developmental psychopathology model for the interface between basic and intervention research.</jats:p

Adolescents&apos; Relationship With God and Internalizing Adjustment Over Time: The Moderating Role of Maternal Religious Coping

A growing literature supports the importance of understanding the link between religiosity and youths&apos; adjustment and development, but in the absence of rigorous, longitudinal designs, questions remain about the direction of effect and the role of family factors. This paper investigates the bidirectional association between adolescents&apos; relationship with God and their internalizing adjustment. Results from 2-wave, SEM cross-lag analyses of data from 667 mother/adolescent dyads in Belfast, Northern Ireland (50% male, M age ϭ 15.75 years old) supports a risk model suggesting that greater internalizing problems predict a weaker relationship with God 1 year later. Significant moderation analyses suggest that a stronger relationship with God predicted fewer depression and anxiety symptoms for youth whose mothers used more religious coping

Age as a Dynamic Moderator of Relations between Exposure to Political Conflict and Mental Health in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Identifying how, when, and under what conditions exposure to political conflict is associated with youth mental health problems is critical to developing programming to help youth exposed to various forms of political violence. The current study uses Time Varying Effects Modeling (TVEM) to examine how relations between exposure to ethno-politically motivated antisocial behavior and mental health problems change as a function of age in a sample of youth from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Young people (N = 583, M(age) 16.51 wave 1, 17.23 wave 2) self-reported their exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior, nonsectarian antisocial behavior, and mental health problems as part of a longitudinal study of youth across multiple neighborhoods in Belfast. The results suggest mental health problems and associations with exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior change in nonlinear patterns throughout adolescence, with the strongest links between exposure to political conflict and mental health between ages 16 and 19. Significant relations between nonsectarian antisocial behavior and mental health problems were not indicated for the full sample but the results suggested a relation emerged in later adolescence for Protestant youth, the historical majority group. The value of this exploratory approach to examining relations between key context and psychological variables for youth in contexts of political tension and violence is discussed

Timing is everything: Developmental changes in the associations between intergroup contact and bias

Identifying developmental patterns in intergroup contact and its relation with bias is crucial for improving prevention strategies around intergroup relations. This study applied time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) to examine age-based changes in relations between contact and bias in a divided community that included 667 youth ( M age = 15.74, SD = 1.97) from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a conflict-affected setting. The results suggest no change in the relation between contact frequency and bias; however, the relation between contact quality and bias increases from ages 10–14 and then levels off. Differences between Catholics, the historic minority group, and Protestants, the historic majority group, also emerged. The article concludes with implications for future research and interventions for youth growing up amid conflict. </jats:p

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 interindividual differences in intraindividual change. Intraindividual 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