Political violence and psychological well-being: the role of social identity

A signifcant body of research points to the central role of identity in creating and maintaining confict. However, less research has focused on the protective role of social identity in such situations. Using a survey sample of 3,000 participants, 2,000 of whom were resident in a confict-affected region (Northern Ireland) and 1,000 in a region more distally affected (the Border counties of the Republic of Ireland) the potential moderating and mediating impact of national identifcation on the relationship between direct and indirect experience of political violence and psychological well-being is examined. Findings indicate that national identifcation mediates the impact of direct political violence on well-being in Northern Ireland. This relationship is strongest where preferred nationality is relevant to the social division underlying the confict. Those more distally affected, resident in the Republicof Ireland, did not evidence this pattern of relationships. Discussion of results focuses on the potential positive and negative implications of these findings for personal and societal well-being, respectively.