ISRA Statement on the War in Ukraine and Current Political Violence around the Globe
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We are heartbroken to see the devastation in Ukraine over the past few weeks, which according to Statistica, has already led to hundreds of civilian deaths and thousands of non-fatal injuries; in addition, millions of Ukrainians have already been displaced. The International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) condemns Russia for invading Ukraine and calls for an immediate ceasefire. At the same time, we also condemn the perpetration of political violence in other regions that have had devastating impacts on civilian populations around the globe. Indeed, the World Population Review lists 21 countries in which there are current civil wars and terrorist insurgencies.
As a scientific community studying aggression and violence, we know of the negative short- and long-term psychological and behavioral effects of political violence— political violence has contagious detrimental effects across all levels of society. It negatively impacts children, their families, and their communities.
Research in many regions of the world (e.g., Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ireland) has shown that political violence exposure is particularly cruel to youth, especially in terms of the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms and aggressive and violent behavior over the life course (1-9). In addition, there is extensive research on increased rates of psychological and behavioral problems among returning soldiers, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and aggressive and violent behavior (10).
Exposure to political violence often increases family-level indicators of violence, including domestic violence, parent-to-child aggression, and sibling-to-sibling aggression (11-14). Dubow et al. (15) found that among a sample of Israeli and Palestinian families, exposure to political violence made parents vulnerable to depression and marital aggression, which are risk factors for harsh physical parenting, and harsh physical parenting also leads to increases in child aggression.
At the community-level, war impacts indicators of violence, including subsequent increases in a country’s homicide rates and robberies post-war (16-18). According to Landau and Pfeffermann (18), “Violence resulting from conflicts with out-groups (enemies) is generalized also toward in-group members in society. In other words, there is a gradual, consistent, and continuous process of erosion of basic social norms regarding violence in society” (p. 500). Other researchers have investigated psychological processes that account for how war violence affects violence at the individual level: by shaping social-cognitive processes (e.g., beliefs supporting justification of violence); by impacting core concerns including protection, safety, and security; and of course, resulting in negative stereotypes and elevated feelings of hostility toward members of the out-group (3, 19-24).
Given the established negative outcomes of war, we know that the current political violence around the globe will have similar devastating psychological and behavioral effects on children, families, and communities. We therefore join the chorus of people and professional organizations around the world condemning Russia for this invasion and calling for peaceful solutions to end this war now. We also condemn the perpetration of political violence in other regions of the world that continue to have devastating impacts on civilian populations.
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(2) Betancourt, T.S., Borisova, I.I., Williams, T.P., Brennan, R.T., Whitfield, T.H., De La Soudiere, M., Williamson, J., & Gilman, S.E. (2010). Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers: A follow-up study of psychosocial adjustment and community reintegration. Child Development, 81, 1077–1095.
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(14) Landau, S.F. (2003). Societal costs of political violence. Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, 10, 28-35. (Special issue on “Violence and its Alternatives”)
(15) Dubow, E.F., Goodman, L.C., Boxer, P., Niwa, E.Y., Huesmann, L.R., Landau, S., Dvir Gvirsman, S., Shikaki, K., & Smith, C. (2021). Effects of political violence exposure on the family and parenting environment: The Case of Palestinians and Israelis. In M. Haj-Yahia, C. Hamilton and C. Greenbaum (Eds.), Handbook of Political Violence and Children: Psychological Effects, Intervention and Prevention Policy (pp. 161-188). Oxford University Press.
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(17) Archer, D., & Gartner, R. (1984). Violence and crime in cross-national perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press.
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(21) Cummings, E.M., Merrilees, C.E., Schermerhorn, A.C., Goecke-Morey, M.C., Shirlow, P., & Cairns, E. (2011). Longitudinal pathways between political violence and child adjustment: The role of emotional security about the community in Northern Ireland. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 213-224.
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