Measuring the macrosystem in post-accord Northern Ireland: A social-ecological approach

TY - JOUR

T1 - Measuring the macrosystem in post-accord Northern Ireland: A social-ecological approach

AU - Townsend, Dana

AU - Taylor, Laura

AU - Furey, Andrea

AU - Merrilees, Christine

AU - Goeke-Morey, Marcie

AU - Shirlow, Pete

AU - Cummings, Mark

N1 - Reference text: References ARK. (2014). Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, 2006-2013. ARK. Retrieved on 20 July, 2015 from www.ark.ac.uk/nilt Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513–531. Cicchetti, D. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6(4), 284-290. Cummings, E. M., Merrilees, C. E., Taylor, L. K., Shirlow, P., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cairns, E. (2013). Longitudinal relations between sectarian and nonsectarian community violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland. Developmental Psychopathology, 25, 615-627. Gibney, M., Cornett, L., Wood, R., & Haschke, P. (2014). Political Terror Scale 1976-2012. Retrieved April 19, 2014 from http://www.politicalterrorscale.org Hallgren, K. A. (2012). Computing inter-rater reliability for observational data: An overview and tutorial. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 8(1), 23-34. NISRA, Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Information Service. (2011). NINIS data catalogue. Retrieved on April 27, 2014 from http://www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk/mapxtreme/DataCatalogue.asp?button=Crime Öberg, M. & Sollenberg, M. (2011). Gathering conflict information using news resources. In K. Höglund & M. Öberg (Eds.), Understanding peace research: Methods and challenges (pp. 47-73). London: Routledge. Schulz, M. S., & Waldinger, R. J. (2005). The value of pooling “naïve” expertise. American Psychologist, 60(6), 656-662. Shirlow, P., Taylor, L. K., Merrilees, C. E., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, E. M. (2013). Sectarian hate crime: Record or perception? Space & Polity, 17(2), 237-252.

PY - 2016/8/29

Y1 - 2016/8/29

N2 - The macrosystem refers to the overarching patterns that influence behavior at each level of the social ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 1977), making it a necessary component for assessing human development in contexts of political violence. This article proposes a method for systematically measuring the macrosystem in Northern Ireland that allows for a subnational analysis, multiple time units, and indicators of both low-level violence and positive relations. Articles were randomly chosen for each weekday in 2006-2011 from two prominent Northern Irish newspapers and coded according to their reflection of positive relations and political tensions between Catholics and Protestants. The newspaper data were then compared to existing macro-level measurements in Northern Ireland. We found that the newspaper data provided a more nuanced understanding of fluctuations in intergroup relations than the corresponding measures. This has practical implications for peacebuilding and advances our methods for assessing the impact of macro-level processes on individual development.

AB - The macrosystem refers to the overarching patterns that influence behavior at each level of the social ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 1977), making it a necessary component for assessing human development in contexts of political violence. This article proposes a method for systematically measuring the macrosystem in Northern Ireland that allows for a subnational analysis, multiple time units, and indicators of both low-level violence and positive relations. Articles were randomly chosen for each weekday in 2006-2011 from two prominent Northern Irish newspapers and coded according to their reflection of positive relations and political tensions between Catholics and Protestants. The newspaper data were then compared to existing macro-level measurements in Northern Ireland. We found that the newspaper data provided a more nuanced understanding of fluctuations in intergroup relations than the corresponding measures. This has practical implications for peacebuilding and advances our methods for assessing the impact of macro-level processes on individual development.

KW - social ecology

KW - macrosystem

KW - newspaper data

KW - Northern Ireland

KW - intergroup conflict

U2 - 10.1037/pac0000185

DO - 10.1037/pac0000185

M3 - Article

VL - n/a

JO - Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

T2 - Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

JF - Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

SN - 1078-1919

ER -