Developmental Peacebuilding Model: Integrating Psychology and Peace Science

Over 60% of armed conflicts reoccur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can disrupt this pattern. Complementing existing knowledge about the negative impact of political violence on child development, this talk shifts the focus to children’s prosocial behaviors, and more specifically, the Developmental Peacebuilding Model (DPM; Taylor, 2020). The DPM makes two main contributions. First, the DPM integrates a developmental intergroup framework and socio-ecological perspective, with a peacebuilding paradigm, to examine the target and type of children’s prosocial behavior in settings of intergroup conflict. Second, DPM outlines how children’s outgroup prosocial behaviors, which promote constructive change at different levels of the social ecology, can be understood as peacebuilding and fostering social cohesion. Flipping the existing paradigm, this line of research does not ask how to protect 1.8 billion children in conflict-affected countries. Instead, it shows how youth – one-third of the world’s population – can build peace.

Laura K. Taylor (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at University College Dublin and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Queen's University in Belfast. Laura's research investigates the impact of political violence on children, families and communities, with a focus on resilience processes. Laura studies factors that can fuel of constrain cycles of violence, specifically examining how youth can build peace. Laura has published in journals such as Journal of Peace Research, Child Development, and Behavioral Research Methods.