A new study in the European Journal of Social Psychology explores how the competitive victimhood perceptions of parents — beliefs that their group has suffered more than others — impact their children’s willingness to engage with kids from rival groups. The findings provide new insights into the challenges of overcoming historical grievances and the role of intergenerational transmission of biases in sustaining conflict.
Even decades after the cessation of active conflict, societies often remain divided, with historical grievances deeply embedded in the collective memory of communities. These grievances can perpetuate a cycle of mistrust and hostility, potentially leading to the resurgence of conflict.
Recognizing this ongoing issue, the researchers aimed to explore the influence of parental competitive victimhood — the perception among parents that their own group has suffered more than others during past conflicts — on their children’s attitudes towards members of other groups. This concept is particularly significant because such perceptions can lead to entrenched intergroup biases and limit the opportunities for reconciliation and peacebuilding.
The study specifically sought to assess whether and how these parental beliefs impact children’s willingness to engage in intergroup contact, such as participating in shared educational programs with children from rival groups.
“Conflicts last long after peace agreements. We wanted to understand how parents, who experienced the height of violence, influenced their children, born after the war. This approach can help break cycles of violence. We then focus on how children can help to build peace, even in small ways,” said study author Laura K. Taylor, an associate professor at University College Dublin and member of the Helping Kids! Lab.
The researchers focused on the tensions between Macedonians and Albanians in the Republic of North Macedonia, and the tensions between Croats and Serbs in Croatia. Both contexts represent distinct yet illustrative examples of how deeply entrenched ethnic conflicts can persist long after the cessation of active violence.
In the Republic of North Macedonia, the tensions between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians are deeply rooted in a complex history of political, cultural, and linguistic divisions. These tensions escalated into armed conflict in 2001. The conflict between Croats and Serbs has its roots in the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia during the early 1990s. The war, which was marked by ethnic cleansing and severe human rights violations, left a legacy of bitterness and resentment.
The study involved 223 family dyads, which included one parent and one child aged between 7 and 11 years. This sample was divided between two settings: 82 dyads from Croatia and 141 from the Republic of North Macedonia. Within each setting, the sample was stratified to include families from both the majority and minority ethnic groups (Croats and Serbs in Croatia; Macedonians and Albanians in North Macedonia).
Importantly, all the children in the study were born following the official end of the violence and the signing of peace agreements.
Parents were assessed on their perceptions of victimhood using a specially designed measure that captures competitive victimhood. This involved asking parents to rate on a sliding scale from 0 to 100 how victimized they felt their ethnic group was compared to their rival ethnic group. A competitive victimhood score was then calculated by subtracting the perceived victimization of the outgroup from that of the ingroup, with higher scores indicating a stronger perception of relative ingroup victimization.
The children’s willingness to engage in intergroup contact was measured through their reported intentions to participate in a joint educational program with children from the rival ethnic group. The program was described in terms relevant to each site, such as joint extracurricular activities in Croatia and interethnic integration activities in North Macedonia. Children indicated how many sessions (out of ten) they would be willing to attend, providing a direct measure of their openness to intergroup contact.
The researchers found that increased levels of perceived victimhood among parents were associated with decreased willingness among minority group children to engage in contact with children from the rival group. However, this relationship was not observed among children from majority groups, where parental competitive victimhood did not significantly impact their contact intentions.
“Overall, children from the minority ethnic group (e.g. Serbian in Croatia, Albanian in Macedonia) were less likely to sign up for an inter-ethnic interaction if their parents had a stronger sense of group victimhood; in other words, if parents in the minority group said their own ethnic group suffered more during the war, their children were less interested in contact with the former ‘enemy’ ethnic group,” Taylor told PsyPost.
Despite these challenges, the study also suggests a potential for positive change. The fact that not all children responded to parental competitive victimhood in the same way opens the door for interventions that can help break the cycle of transmitted grievances.
“Children can build peace, even in small ways,” Taylor said. “A history of violence does not lock society to repeat the past. In Croatia and Macedonia, children from different ethnic groups are often educated in separate classrooms and separate schools. Despite this division, they are willing to interact with other children from the ‘enemy’ or conflict rival group. This can be true, even if parents of those children believe their ethnic group suffered more in the recent conflict or war.”
“Histories of conflict are complex,” Taylor added. “But, they are not insurmountable. The Helping Kids! Lab wants to understand how children can promote peace in conflict settings and around the world. We study how kids are already doing this, and make recommendations for how to foster youth peacebuilding. Each conflict is unique. But, learning and adapting what we know from one conflict can help us think about how to help children build peace in other settings.”
The study, “The shadow of war: Parental competitive victimhood and children’s contact intentions in two post-accord societies,” was authored by Dearbháile Counihan, Bethany Corbett, Jasmina Tomašić Humer, Ana Tomovska Misoska, Jocelyn B. Dautel, and Laura K. Taylor.