Political Conflict and Youth: A Long‐Term View
Title
Political Conflict and Youth: A Long‐Term View
Author
Barber, Brian K.
Research Area
Class, Status and Power
Topic
Violence, Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Abstract
Over the past two decades, the scientific study of youth experience with political conflict has come into its own as a recognized, vibrant field of scholarship. This essay briefly reviews the state of the research. It notes the upsurge in volume and increase in the sophistication of the research, including larger and more representative samples, inclusion of locally defined assessments of youth functioning, and the study of the broader social ecology of youth who experience political conflict. These elements of progress notwithstanding, the research remains overwhelming driven by psychopathology models and has yet to extend either to systematically explore a broader focus on youth social, civic, economic, and political functioning or to seriously consider youth's cognitive and behavioral engagements in political conflict.