Youths Making Sense of Political Conflict: Considering Protective and Maladaptive Possibilities

摘要

It is widely recognized that adolescence is a time of unique adaptability as well as vulnerability. Indeed, the teenage years are often considered to be a distinct developmental period precisely because youths are in the midst of an unfinished process of constructing a sense of themselves in the world. This is equally the case for adolescents whose worlds have been turned upside down, as in the context of war. Nevertheless, research on youths exposed to political violence has rarely focused on the developmental implications of the interplay between adolescents' capacities for adaptation and their unique vulnerabilities. As such, there is an urgent need to gain a more comprehensive understanding of adolescent development in relation to their experiences of political conflict, and in a way that recognizes the wide-ranging and far-reaching consequences of these events.