A Global Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale

Laura Taylor; Vivan  Liu; Bethany Corbett; Juliana  Valentina Duarte Valderrama; Léïla Eisner; Jeanine Grütter; Erin Halperin; Tabea Hässler; Claudia Pineda-Marin; Ilana Ushomirsky

doi:10.1038/s44271-025-00340-4

A Global Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale

Laura Taylor
, Vivan Liu
, Bethany Corbett
, Juliana Valentina Duarte Valderrama
, Léïla Eisner
, Jeanine Grütter
, Erin Halperin
, Tabea Hässler
, Claudia Pineda-Marin
, Ilana Ushomirsky

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Youth are often framed as victims or perpetrators of conflict. Yet, they also can disrupt conflict cycles as peacebuilders. Motivated by SDG 16 and UN Security Council Resolutions 2250, 2419, and 2535 — recognising and facilitating youth participation in fostering peace and social inclusion — we developed and validated a global Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale (YPBS), a novel measure of different types of peacebuilding across levels of the social ecology (i.e., microsystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem). We used a sequential mixed-methods, cross-cultural design with adolescents (ages 14-17) and young adults (ages 18-26) across two studies (Study 1: Focus groups, N = 199, Northern Ireland n = 78, Colombia n = 60, Israel n = 41, Switzerland n = 20; Study 2: Survey, N = 2,771, Northern Ireland n = 514, Colombia n = 806, Israel n = 833, Switzerland n = 618) across four diverse cases to explore youth's contributions along the peace continuum from active conflict to stable democracy. The YPBS provided an empirical test of the Developmental Peacebuilding Model and can be used by policymakers and researchers to support youth-driven quality peace.

Original language	English
Article number	26
Pages (from-to)	1-14
Number of pages	14
Journal	Communications Psychology
Volume	4
Issue number	1
Early online date	7 Feb 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00340-4
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 9 Feb 2026

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Qualitative data for Study 1 are not available due to sensitivity of the data. The data files for 649 Study 2 are available at this link: https://osf.io/5bn49/

Funding

The research conducted in this publication was funded by the Research Ireland under grant number IRCLA/2022/3482.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Human behaviour
Politics

Access to Document

10.1038/s44271-025-00340-4

s44271-025-00340-4Final published version, 2.01 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Youth are often framed as victims or perpetrators of conflict. Yet, they also can disrupt conflict cycles as peacebuilders. Motivated by SDG 16 and UN Security Council Resolutions 2250, 2419, and 2535 — recognising and facilitating youth participation in fostering peace and social inclusion — we developed and validated a global Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale (YPBS), a novel measure of different types of peacebuilding across levels of the social ecology (i.e., microsystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem). We used a sequential mixed-methods, cross-cultural design with adolescents (ages 14-17) and young adults (ages 18-26) across two studies (Study 1: Focus groups, N = 199, Northern Ireland n = 78, Colombia n = 60, Israel n = 41, Switzerland n = 20; Study 2: Survey, N = 2,771, Northern Ireland n = 514, Colombia n = 806, Israel n = 833, Switzerland n = 618) across four diverse cases to explore youth's contributions along the peace continuum from active conflict to stable democracy. The YPBS provided an empirical test of the Developmental Peacebuilding Model and can be used by policymakers and researchers to support youth-driven quality peace.",

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AU - Halperin, Erin

AU - Hässler, Tabea

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A Global Youth Peacebuilding Beliefs Scale

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this