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Abstract
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According to the United Nations (2021), [1] over 1 billion children are exposed to violence worldwide each year. However, research on this vital issue, especially in the area of political violence, has typically been limited to documenting the risk that exposure to violence poses for developing adjustment problems. Thus, scientific understanding is underdeveloped, and approaches to intervention have limited scientific foundations [2]. A developmental psychopathology perspective provides a basis for more rigorously identifying the processes that underlie risk for adjustment problems and pathways that may lead to resilience, as well as well-developed avenues for translating research findings into more efficacious approaches to intervention. Accordingly, this Special Section includes innovative research that advances tests of process-oriented explanatory models, including longitudinal tests, as well as new directions for developing more efficacious interventions based on the translational intervention model espoused by the developmental psychopathology perspective.
The impact of violent ethnopolitical conflict on the well-being of youth has become an international concern. An increasing number of researchers and policymakers have turned their attention to youth affected by violent conflicts [3]. This Special Section focuses on youth because they are an understudied and vitally important population in numerous contexts affected by political violence and armed conflict. The study of youth exposed to political violence and armed conflict is pertinent to the promotion of healthy, adaptive development of youth and long-term positive outcomes for communities at large, including the prevention of reemerging violent conflict over time [4].
The substantial risks and challenges violent contexts pose to youth development are well-established, including studies that have documented the risk for negative outcomes related to exposure to political violence, including externalizing problems (such as aggression), internalizing disorders (such as depression), and posttraumatic stress symptoms [2]. However, individual outcomes in these contexts vary widely. For example, some youth exhibit resilience in the face of threats and challenges related to living in contexts of political violence and armed conflict [3,5]. Given the wide range of documented outcomes, further investigation is needed concerning the processes and factors accounting for the differential relations between political violence and youth development, including identifying the risk factors that relate to maladjustment or protective factors that foster positive outcomes [6].
In recent years, excellent reviews have been devoted to this topic [7,8,9]. This Special Section aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation by presenting research concerned with multiple outcomes and processes and multiple research designs, including new intervention approaches and trials and longitudinal research. The developmental psychopathology perspective provides a basis for researchers to uncover the processes underlying adaptive development as well as the development of psychopathology, as well as approaches to more effective prevention and intervention. This Special Section presents new research that advances the study of political violence, including the related issue of migration and child adjustment, both from the perspective of process-oriented empirical research and research that translates relevant theory and findings of research into approaches to prevention/intervention.
Language: en |