National identity and in-group/out-group attitudes in children: The role of sociohistorical settings. An introduction to the special issue Louis Oppenheimer 1 and Martyn Barrett 2 1 Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2 Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK In this short introduction, the background, rationale, and hypotheses are presented for the studies that are reported in the special issue, as well as the order in which the studies are presented. Keywords: National identity; In-group/out-group attitudes; Sociohistorical settings. The purpose of this special issue is to report on the findings of a series of studies that examined national identity and in-group/out-group attitudes in 7- and 11-year-old children from countries that have not experienced violence or war in the recent past (England and The Netherlands) and countries that have recently been or still are subject to armed conflict or intergroup violence (Bosnia, northern and southern Cyprus, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country and Israel). In total, 12 national groups participated in these studies involving Bosnian and Serbian children (Bosnia), Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot children (Cyprus), Catholic and Protestant children (Northern Ireland), Basque and Spanish children (the Basque Country), Jewish and Arab children (Israel), and Dutch and English children (The Netherlands and England). The guiding hypothesis for these studies proposed that children’s national identifications: (a) are related to the everyday patterns of discourse and Correspondence should be addressed to Louis Oppenheimer, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam. The Netherlands. E-mail: l.j.t.oppenheimer@uva.nl EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2011, 8 (1), 1–4 Ó 2011 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business http://www.psypress.com/edp DOI: 10.1080/17405629.2010.533948 Downloaded By: [Barrett, Martyn D] At: 15:15 25 January 2011