Intergroup contact and peacebuilding: Promoting youth civic engagement in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Focusing on the post-accord generation in Northern Ireland, this study aimed to examine the role of intergroup contact in promoting support for peacebuilding and youth civic engagement. The sample comprised 466 youth (aged 14-15; 51% Catholic, 49% Protestant) who were born after the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and therefore represent a 'post-accord' generation. Recruited through their schools, youth completed scales on intergroup contact (quality and quantity), support for peacebuilding, and civic engagement. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and bootstrapped mediation in MPlus. Results found that support for peacebuilding partially mediated the association between higher quality and higher quantity contact and greater civic engagement (volunteering and political participation). Findings demonstrate that youth who are living with the legacy of protracted intergroup conflict can support peacebuilding and engage in constructive behaviours such as civic engagement. By recognising the peacebuilding potential of youth, especially in a post-accord generation, the findings may inform how to promote youth civic engagement and social reconstruction after conflict.Keywords: intergroup contact, youth, peacebuilding, civic engagement, volunteering, political participation, Northern Ireland, post-conflict setting Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2017, Vol. 5(2), 415-434, doi:10.5964/jspp.v5i2.769 Received: 2017-03-03. Accepted: 2017-09-14. Published (VoR): 2017-10-20.Handling Editor: Nurit Shnabel, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel *Corresponding author at: School of Education, University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1JA, UK. E-mail: s.mckeownjones@bristol.ac.uk This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Intergroup conflict has devastating consequences on society; it affects individuals, groups and communities as well as wider social and national structures. Understanding how to support constructive outcomes following conflict is therefore of urgent importance, especially for the next generation. One way to do this is through promoting positive and meaningful interactions between groups (Allport, 1954). Indeed, there is substantive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006) and growing evidence that contact promotes wider outcomes including civic engagement (Bowman, 2011;Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez, 2004). There is little research, however, which has examined the extent to which shared support towards peacebuilding that transcends intergroup boundaries mediates the relationship between contact and civic engagement. jspp.psychopen.eu | 2195-3325 Addressing this gap in the literature, the present study focuses on the extent to which the association between intergroup contact (quality and quantity)...

Empathy to action: Child and adolescent out‐group attitudes and prosocial behaviors in a setting of intergroup conflict

“…For example, concurrent experiences of empathy may be essential for understanding the decision to act prosocially or not across different intergroup settings. In addition, it would be useful to test if the EAA model is effective across other types of prosocial acts, for example civic engagement or peacebuilding (McKeown & Taylor, ; Taylor et al, 2018). This approach may shed additional light on how to improve intergroup relations more broadly for those growing up in divided societies.…”

“…Despite these limitations, the current paper's findings have implications for practitioners operating in Northern Ireland and other post‐accord regions. That is, empathy may promote the antecedents of peacebuilding and contribute to social reconstruction (Halpern & Weinstein, ; McKeown & Taylor, ). Over 20 years have passed since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement; however, the peace process remains brittle, as both groups are reluctant to act to benefit the other.…”

“…Primary schools that took part in the study were separated by religion, with the majority (>70%) of students being either Protestant or Catholic within each school (Northern Ireland Department of Education, ). The sample intentionally included interface schools (i.e., controlled and maintained school side by side, separated by only a “peace wall” or some other physical boundary, see McKeown & Taylor, ). This approach facilitates potential variability in the contact with or awareness about the out‐group.…”

“…Young people, however, also may play an essential role in peacebuilding (McKeown & Taylor, ; Taylor & McKeown, ). Those born after the height of intergroup violence may be more open to dismantling traditional conflict dynamics (Taylor et al, ).…”

Youth Identity, Peace and Conflict: Insights from Conflict and Diverse Settings

“…As youth develop in this context, they are negotiating multiple social identity processes which interact with such risk factors. Yet, we also argue that it is important to recognise the potential links between social identity and the peacebuilding potential of adolescents in Northern Ireland (McEvoy-Levy, 2006;McKeown & Taylor, 2017a;Taylor & McKeown, 2017).…”