Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Strength of children’s European identity: findings from majority and minority groups in four conflict-affected sites
    The European Union (EU) aims to promote peace. This research investigates the saliency of a European identity for children from majority and minority groups in four conflict-affected societies in Europe (Croatia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland (NI), and Republic of North Macedonia (RNM)). These sites represent a range of relations with the EU (e.g., leaving the EU, an EU member, wanting to join the EU). Participants included 442 children aged 7 to 11 years, evenly split by gender and group status (Croatia n = 90; Kosovo n = 107; NI n = 60; RNM n = 185). After a draw-and-tell task to prime European identity (vs. ingroup or control condition), we measured children’s identification with Europe, outgroup attitudes and prosociality. Although the European identity prime was not effective, children’s strength of European identity varied by site and group status and related to more positive attitudes and prosociality towards the conflict-rival outgroup. Implications for the future of the European project are discussed.
    Scopus© Citations 3  31
  • Publication
    Predictors of outgroup empathy among majority and minority children in a conflict-affected society
    We examined the predictors of outgroup empathy in children growing up in a city devastated during the fall of the Former Yugoslavia. Children (N=155; 76 male, 79 female) from both majority (64.5% Croatian) and minority (35.5% Serbian) ethnic groups, ranging from 6 to 11 years old (M=8.77, SD=1.15) participated. A multiple-group path analysis in Mplus found that age, general empathy, quality contact and perceived intergroup conflict related to higher outgroup empathy. There were no significant links from gender, quantity contact or outgroup friends to outgroup empathy. The findings were consistent across majority and minority ethnic groups. Implications are discussed.
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