From Deseret News archives:

Wars affect child's moral center, U. study says

Published: Monday, July 21, 2008 12:10 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
If a new survey is any indication, kids who grow up in war zones lose track of their moral center and start to believe that stealing from or hurting others is OK if done in revenge.

Psychology researchers at the University of Utah report in a new study published in the journal Child Development have found that not only is revenge a kind of ticket to carry out acts of violence, kids in war zones almost always expect anyone to behave violently in daily life.

The findings, based on interviews with 96 Colombian children, are strong indicators that war will ultimately encourage kids to steal when they feel physically threatened, and they will view acts of violence as an option under any circumstance — threatening or not.

Most troubling about the study results, said co-author Cecilia Wainryb, a U. professor of psychology, is an abiding sense of distrust of others among children who live in war-torn areas.

The normal moral growth process seems to give in to a sense that violence and stealing that normally would not be an option becomes a alternative, especially the older the children are.

Story continues below
The research doesn't address the range of violence that being around childhood violence might induce. Ongoing childhood association and distrust in the homeland of Sulejman Talovic have been implicated in his shooting spree at Trolley Square on Feb. 12, 2007, that left six dead, including Talovic. As a little boy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Talovic hid in fear from the Serb military forces who were slaughtering Muslim men and boys as war and genocide ravaged his country.

Talovic's neighbors here acknowledged that the war in Bosnia likely left its mark on the boy. During the war, the family lived for five years as refugees in Bosnia and spent almost a year in the mountains hiding from the Serb military forces, neighbors said.

Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1.8 million others lost their homes in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Children in about 50 countries worldwide are growing up in the midst of armed conflict. In Colombia, where almost 2 million children have been forcibly displaced from their homes over the past 15 years, the researchers sought to determine how living amid violence, lawlessness and deprivation affects the way children think about right and wrong.

"Overall, these findings unveil a reservoir of moral knowledge among war-affected children," Wainryb said. "Even the impoverished environments of war and displacement present youths with opportunities for reflecting on the intrinsic features of actions that harm others."

Recent comments

. from my experience I imagine that a person child or adult in...

Jim | July 22, 2008 at 1:38 p.m.

... and let me add any child growing up in a family who are members...

Anonymous | July 21, 2008 at 11:34 p.m.

The same holds for gang violence in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New...

Agki | July 21, 2008 at 3:53 a.m.

previousnext

Latest comments

He hadn't done anything yet to get the thing. In time perhaps. Makes the...

I was upset by the treatment of him throughout his life. Being passed off...

Winners never quit and quitters never win. Never mind. This doesn't apply if...

Santa clout? There's an app for that

I think that the so-called "Scrooge" (yeah, that's how its spelled) on this...

It is funny how republicans are drooling over Palin and act like she is their...

Susan, and family.. my heart goes out to your family, and all of us who are...

Miguel the Mormon will be missed

You must have missed the part where he went back voluntarily.

This is a good thing. The courts won't grant an expungement for serious...

I-15 expansion in Utah County

Keep in mind that Utah has two seasons - Winter and Construction. And the...

Good thing they don't check warm springs too often...or any of the other...

Advertisements