PREFERENCE FOR GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AS A MEASURE OF ETHNIC NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHILDREN IN NORTHERN-IRELAND

Two groups of children in Northern Ireland, aged 11-12 years (n = 398) and 14-15 years (n = 315), were asked to rank order four areas-Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, England/Wales (as one area) and Scotland - in terms of their residential preference. When the subjects were divided into those who had attended Catholic and Protestant primary schools, it was found that the Protestant children showed a marked preference for Northern Ireland, followed by England/Wales and Scotland, with the least preferred area being the Republic of Ireland. The Catholics, on the other hand, displayed a marked preference for the Republic of Ireland, closely followed by Northern Ireland, but placed England/Wales and Scotland last. This study with young people thus replicated the findings of past studies with adult samples, where Protestants identified themselves in the sequence Ulster-British-Irish, contrasting with Catholics who favoured the sequence Irish-Ulster-British, and suggests a method that may be used to measure identity preference in children.