Search

Whether post-conflict reconciliation programmes are able to change hostile behaviours is not known. This study sought to assess the influence of reconciliation programmes on the reconciliation attitudes of war-affected adolescents in two communities in Northern Uganda. Four hundred and forty five adolescents within two communities, one with and the other without interventions were assessed for exposure to war-related and daily stressors and place of residence using hierarchical regression analysis to predict reconciliation attitudes. Adolescents in the non-intervention community recorded more positive and also more negative reconciliation attitudes; exposure to daily and war-related stressors was more positively associated with increasing reconciliation attitudes among adolescents in the non-intervention than those in the intervention community. Overall the programmes recorded limited impact on reconciliation attitudes, perhaps due to the pervasive adverse social situation of the people. Conclusion: there is a need for multi-pronged, collaborative programme efforts targeting holistic recovery programmes with focus on changing negative reconciliation attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LeBel and Paunonen (2011) highlight that despite their importance and popularity in both theoretical and applied research, many implicit measures continue to be plagued by a persistent and troublesome issue - low reliability. In their paper, they offer a conceptual analysis of the relationship between reliability, power and replicability, and then provide a series of recommendations for researchers interested in using implicit measures in an experimental setting. At the core of their account is the idea that reliability can be equated with statistical power, such that "lower levels of reliability are associated with decreasing probabilities of detecting a statistically significant effect, given one exists in the population" (p.573). They also take the additional step of equating reliability and replicability. In our commentary, we draw attention to the fact that there is no direct, fixed or one-to-one relation between reliability and power or replicability. In our commentary, we draw attention to the fact that there is no direct, fixed or one-to-one relation between reliability and power or replicability. More specifically, we argue that when adopting an experimental (rather than a correlational) approach, researchers strive to minimize inter-individual variation, which has a direct impact on sample based reliability estimates. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the LeBel and Paunonen's recommendations and refine them where appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the potential contribution of informal community initiatives and formal interventions in support of former child soldiers' resilience in the wake of armed conflict. Using a cross-sectional survey design, a stratified random sample of 330 formerly recruited and 677 nonrecruited young people was consulted about their perspective on desirable support for former child soldiers provided by close support figures, communities, humanitarian organizations, and governments. Data analysis occurred by conducting qualitative thematic analysis and statistical chi-square analysis to explore clusters, similarities, and variations in reported support across the different "agents," hereby comparing the perspectives of formerly recruited and non-recruited participants. The results indicated that formerly recruited and non-recruited participants had comparable perspectives that call for the contribution of various informal and formal support systems to former child soldiers' human capacities and the communal sociocultural fabric of war-affected societies. This highlights the importance of community-based, collective, and comprehensive support of formerly recruited young people and their surroundings in the aftermath of armed conflict.