This article examines age-related changes in the conceptions children and adolescents hold about peace, war, and strategies to attain peace. These were expected to change from concrete, materially related to abstract, norm-related conceptions. The conceptions were assessed by means of a semi-structured questionnaire presented to 101 Dutch children between 8 and 16 years of age and divided into five age groups (mean ages 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 years). Each age group consisted of approximately equal numbers of boys and girls to ascertain any gender differences. Developmental levels for children's understanding of the reciprocal nature of interpersonal relationships (assessed by means of role or perspective-taking tasks) were presumed to relate to their conceptions of peace and strategies to attain peace, in particular. In addition to a development from concrete, materially related conceptions to abstract, norm-related conceptions, the findings suggest a more complex developmental course. While 8 to 12-year-olds used concrete, materially related characteristics for peace, war, and strategies to attain peace, 14 to 16-year-olds mentioned abstract, norm-related characteristics only when strategies to attain peace from an everyday perspective were considered. As noted by Selman, most 12-year-old children understood the mutual or reciprocal nature of interpersonal relationships. The latter understanding was primarily associated with the more abstract, norm-related level of reasoning involving ideas about human attitudes and universal rights.

No abstract

This paper reviews some of the relevant background findings against which the empirical studies reported in this special issue were designed. Particular attention is given to previous findings on the development of children's national knowledge, national attitudes and national identifications. The paper also reviews five existing theories which have been proposed to explain the development of children's intergroup attitudes: cognitive-developmental theory (Aboud, 1988(Aboud, , 2008, social identity development theory (Nesdale, 2004(Nesdale, , 2008, social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978;Tajfel & Turner, 1986), societal-social-cognitive-motivational theory (Barrett, 2007(Barrett, , 2009Barrett & Davis, 2008) and integrative developmental-contextual theory (Bar-Tal & Teichman, 2005;Teichman & Bar-Tal, 2008). The paper concludes by describing the shared methodology which was utilised by all of the following studies that are reported in this special issue. These studies were designed to examine how children's attitudes to other nations develop within a range of different national contexts, some of which have not experienced violent conflict in the recent past (England, The Netherlands) but others of which have recently experienced, or still are experiencing, conflict, violence or warfare (Basque Country, Bosnia, North and South Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Israel).

Within Triandis's (1994) theoretical framework, two studies are reported that deal with the developmental course for subjective perceptions of cultural dimensions in Dutch society (i.e., vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism). While perceptions of society are always subjectively determined, the perceived dimensions that are prevalent in society do not necessarily have to parallel subjective evaluations of the self in terms of the same dimension. In the first study, 245 secondary school pupils and 268 psychology students participated; they were divided into six age groups with mean ages 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 years and above. Outcomes on the Individualism-Collectivism scale (INDCOL;Singelis et al., 1995) demonstrated age-and gender-related changes in perception of society. By calculating the separate dimensions of individualism, collectivism, verticality, and horizontality, a disappearance of collectivism and verticality and an increase in horizontality across age were observed. In the second study, 226 adolescents divided into five age groups participated (mean ages 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 years). They were presented with a generalised and personal version of the INDCOL. Again, age-and gender-related differences were observed. Of interest was the presence of a developmental lag between general and personal perceptions of collectivism, with personal perceptions following general perceptions. The increase in personal adherence to horizontality (i.e., equality among people) across age followed and exceeded the general perceptions of horizontality in society.