Stress, Coping, and Political Violence in Northern Ireland

Cairns, Ed; Wilson, Ronnie

doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-2820-3_30

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Research in the 1980s painted a brighter future for Northern Irish children (McWhirter, 1990). However, as Cairns and Wilson (1993) pointed out, children in the London sample had a much higher level of deprivation than would be the case for Fee's general sample of Belfast children. With regard to psychological adjustment, Fee (1980) found that overall levels of emotional and behavioural adjustment were better than those recorded for inner London, although there was some evidence to suggest an increased incidence of antisocial disturbances in Northern Irish children, and more particularly boys.…”

mentioning

confidence: 84%

Children's experience and adjustment to political conflict in Northern Ireland.

Muldoon¹,

Trew²

2000

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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Despite the prolonged nature of political conflict in Northern Ireland, the extent of children's experience of such violence has rarely been investigated. This study examines school-age (8-11 years) children's (N = 689) self-reported experience of a number of negative life events, including a number of conflict-related events in relation to gender, age, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation. These reports suggest that children's experience of conflict-related events is considerable. One quarter of the sample had witnessed shootings and street riots. Main and interaction effects were observed that related children's reported experiences to gender, religious affiliation, and socioeconomic background. The relationship between exposure to political conflict and children's perceived competence was also examined, while accounting for psychosocial factors that independently affect perceived competence. This analysis suggested that children reporting lower behavioural competence are more likely to report experience of conflict-related events whereas lower global self-worth was related to experience of nonconflict-related negative events. Discussion of these results emphasises the importance of accounting for children's conflict-related experiences within the context of their current psychosocial environment to fully understand the influence of political conflict on child adjustment.

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mentioning

confidence: 84%

Children's experience and adjustment to political conflict in Northern Ireland.

Muldoon¹,

Trew²

2000

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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“…To date, research in Northern Ireland has concentrated on the short-term link between political violence and psychological disorder. This work has suggested that denial ' of the violence and a`distancing ' coping style moderate the psychological in¯uence of the violence in areas aåected by chronically high levels of violence but not where major violent incidents were concerned (see Cairns & Wilson, 1993 for a review). This distinction is at least super®cially similar to Terr's (1991) two classes of trauma, Type I involving single events and Type II involving repeated exposure to more predictable and expected events.…”

Section: Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This distinction is at least super®cially similar to Terr's (1991) two classes of trauma, Type I involving single events and Type II involving repeated exposure to more predictable and expected events. Cairns & Wilson's (1993) conclusions, about the role of denial} distancing, were in¯uenced by the results of an investigation into mental health and coping processes in the town of Enniskillen following the`Remembrance Day ' bombing (Wilson & Cairns, in press). An initial study of survivors of this incident, referred for specialist treatment (Curran, Bell, Murray, Loughrey, Roddy & Rocke, 1990), reported a high level of psychological problems, with over 50 % of those referred developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during the 6-month period following the explosion.…”

Section: Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective memories, political violence and mental health in Northern Ireland

Cairns

Lewis

1999

British J of Psychology

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In 1987 one of the most salient incidents in Northern Ireland, involving mass casualties, occurred when a bomb exploded in a building near the war memorial in the centre of Enniskillen. A total of 63 people were injured and 11 were killed. The main aim of the present study was to investigate how salient this event was in present day Enniskillen and in a neighbouring town, known here as Lowtown, some 8 years after the original incident. The second aim was to examine how memories of that particular bomb are related to current psychological well-being. Based on interviews with a quota sample of 282 people it was found that relatively few people (68) included the Enniskillen bomb when asked to mention two Northern Irish events or changes that had taken place over the past 50 years that 'come to mind as important to you'. The majority of those who did mention the Enniskillen bomb came from Enniskillen and were Protestants. In addition, Protestants who mentioned the bomb and those respondents who lived in Lowtown and mentioned the bomb scored at a significantly higher level on the General Health Questionnaire (indicating poorer mental health).

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“…Levels of mental ill-health are higher than elsewhere in these islands and significantly related to the conflict. Variation in intensity of political violence between different areas of Northern Ireland has been linked to area differences in the level of psychological disorders (Cairns and Wilson, 1993). O'Reilly and Browne ( 2001) found people in poorer households were more likely to suffer significant health stresses and also more likely to have borne the brunt of 'the Troubles'.…”

Section: Poverty and Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Devolution, direct rule and neo-liberal reconstruction in Northern Ireland

Horgan

2006

Critical Social Policy

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Northern Ireland is a deeply unequal society emerging from war. The anticipated 'peace dividend' has not materialized for people living in poverty who were also most affected by the conflict. The devolved administration in Northern Ireland 2000-2 was constrained in its response to social exclusion by Treasury rules. This paper argues that attempts under devolution to develop new public services and more publicly oriented Public-Private Partnerships have been reversed by Direct Rule Ministers.

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Stress, Coping, and Political Violence in Northern Ireland

Cited by 10 publications

References 23 publications

Children's experience and adjustment to political conflict in Northern Ireland.

Children's experience and adjustment to political conflict in Northern Ireland.

Collective memories, political violence and mental health in Northern Ireland

Devolution, direct rule and neo-liberal reconstruction in Northern Ireland

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