Children of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland: Perspectives and Intervention

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Abstract
The chronology of investigations focusing on the effects of "the Troubles" on the children of Northern Ireland is presented. Studies by Belfast psychiatrists, visitors from the United States, and Scottish and English psychologists dominated the first decade of the 25-year-old conflict and were marked by a distinctly pessimistic appraisal of the impact of the troubled situation on the children. Developmental psychologists from within Northern Ireland have been very active studying the children of their own country for the second decade of the crisis. The view from the "inside" is more complicated and, in some ways, more optimistic than the view from the "outside". In addition, results are reported from preliminary investigations involving children participating in a widely practised intervention scheme developed to ameliorate the detrimental effects of the troubled situation. The intervention programme may foster improvement in an individual child's self-perception but not necessarily in that child's perception of other and multiple stressors interact to determine the influence of such intervention schemes.

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