person. indiuid. 01% Vol. 15, No. 4, PP. 471-473, 1993 0191-8869193 $6.00 + 0.00 Printed in Great Britain pergamon Press Ltd Political violence, coping, and depressive symptomatology in Northern Irish children STEPHENJOSEPH, ED CAIRNS and PADDY MCCOLLAM Department zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA of Psychology, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 ISA, Northern Ireland (Received 27 October 1992) Summary-The present study compared 57 primary seven children (11 year olds) who live in an area of high political violence to 63 comparable children from an area of low political violence on the Birleson depression questionnaire. No significant difference was, however, obtained between the two schools. As with previous work, the present study is not able to provide evidence that children are affected by the political violence in Northern Ireland. In addition, we report preliminary data on the role of denial and support. INTRODUCTION A recent review of the literature on mental health in Northern Ireland concluded that there was little evidence that Northern Irish children are affected by the political violence (Cairns & Wilson, 1989a). Most of the studies reviewed by Cairns and Wilson either looked at psychiatric referral rates over a period of years and whether there was an association with the amount of political violence over this time; or were community surveys which identified an incidence of disturbance and compared this to normative data. For example, McCauley and Troy (1983) documented the psychiatric referral rates of children in Belfast during the years 1968 (which was before the outbreak of current political violence), 1972, 1976 and 1980. The most violent of these years was 1972, and although it was expected that this would be the year with the highest referral rate, it was found to be almost half that of the other years. In addition, a community survey conducted by Fee (1980) asked teachers of Belfast 11 year olds to complete the Rutter Teacher Questionnaire. The survey was conducted in 1975 and involved approx. 5000 children. Using the cut off point suggested by Rutter and his colleagues to indicate psychological disturbance, Fee found the incidence of disturbed behaviour to he around 15%. This was lower than the incidence of 19% reported by Rutter and his colleagues in a similar survey of children living in inner London, but higher than the incidence of 11% reported for children living on the Isle of Wight. Although Fee concluded that the incidence of disturbed behaviour in Belfast in 1975 was no higher than might have been expected in a similar urban area, the latter comparison might have been more appropriate. Fee might then have concluded that there was evidence of an increased rate of disturbance. However, finding appropriate control groups is a major methodological problem, and it is for this reason that researchers have been cautious in their interpretation of the available data. Nevertheless, the question of the extent to which the violence is linked to psychological disorder remains an interesting one which continues to be debated (Wilson & Cairns, 1992). For example, it could be argued that psychological effects are a function of the intensity of exposure to a traumatic event. The political violence is not evenly spread throughout Northern Ireland, and it might be that children growing up in areas where violence is relatively common are considerably more affected than those growing up in areas where there are very few violent incidents. The present study compares a group of children from a high violence area with comparable children from a low violence area. Cairns and Wilson (1989a) also suggest several other possible explanations for the finding that people in Northern lreland do not manifest high levels of disturbance. In particular, coping strategies involving denial and seeking social support have received attention, although this has been with adults rather than children (Cairns & Wilson, 1989b). Cairns and Wilson suggest that people in Northern Ireland use coping strategies that involve the denial of the reality of the political violence. This idea is in accord with Folkman and Lazarus (1988) who also suggest that such coping strategies may be particularly adaptive in situations where nothing can be done. There is also increasing evidence for the role of social support in children’s well being (Cauce, Reid, Landesman & Gonzales, 1990). We were interested, therefore, in investigating whether there was a relationship between denial and symptoms and between support and symptoms. It was predicted that both the use of denial and support would be associated with lower depressive symptomatology. METHOD Subjects Fifty seven children (28 girls and 29 boys) from a school in a high violence area and 63 children (34 girls and 29 boys) from a school in a low violence area took part in the study. These were all the primary seven children (11 year olds) at these two schools. Procedure Just before Christmas 1991, a bomb exploded outside a police station in a high violence town west of Belfast. The blast from this completely destroyed a nearby Catholic primary school. The children were on holiday at the time and so none were injured. It took the next 2 months to rebuild a replacement school of mobile classrooms on a nearby site. This incident received considerable local news coverage. Following discussion with the headmaster at this school, it was agreed that a small research project could be carried out with the older children. It was also agreed that this would not involve asking the children about this particular incident or the political violence in general. 471