Children and Peace

Nikola Balvin, PsyD, is a peace psychologist who works in international development. She has held several research and evaluation roles with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) since 2010. Currently she is the Research & Evaluation Specialist at the UNICEF Country Office in India, where she manages a large portfolio of studies spanning a range of sectors/disciplines. Prior to joining the India office, she was the Knowledge Management Specialist at UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti from 2013-2018, ad prior to that she worked as a Research Officer on UNICEF’s flagship publication 'The State of the World's Children' at the New York headquarters. Before joining UNICEF, Nikola held a number of research positions in peace and conflict centres in Australia, including the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (ACPACS) at the University of Queensland and the International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne. In 2011, she edited – with Di Bretherton – her first volume in the Peace psychology Series, titled ‘Peace Psychology in Australia’.Daniel J. Christie is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Ohio State University. His scholarship and activism focuses on peace psychology with emphasis on initiatives and social movements that create a more just and humane world.  He is the Editor and founder of the Peace Psychology Book Series and Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.

• Foreword.- Introduction.- Part I Addressing the Well-Being of Refugee and Migrant Children.- 1. A Multi-Method Assessment of Risk and Protective Factors in Family Violence: Comparing Italian and migrant families.- 2. Engaging Men to Support the Resilience of Syrian Refugee Children & Youth in Lebanon.- 3. Promoting civic engagement and social inclusion interventions for minors involved with crimes.- 4. Indirect Contact Interventions to Promote Peace in Multicultural Societies.- 5. Promoting prosocial behaviour toward refugees: Exploring the empathy-attitude-action model in middle childhood.- 6. Civic Participation and Other Interventions that Promote Children’s Tolerance of Migrants.- 7. Does Participating in Volunteer Organizations Promote Migrant Integration? A Study with Young First and Second Generation Immigrants.- 8. About power and empowerment for intergroup harmony.- Part II Children Growing Up in Violent Geopolitical Contexts.- 9. Beyond Risk Factors: Structural Drivers of Violence Affecting Children.- 10. Growing up in violent contexts: Differential effects of community, family and school violence on child adjustment.- 11. When do Intergenerational Narratives of Ingroup Responsibility for Past Violence Result in Peace and Violence?.- 12. Youth identity, peace and conflict: Insights from conflict and diverse settings.- 13. Children’s Conceptualizations of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Peacebuilding in the Context of Armed Conflict.- Part III Promoting Peace and Well-Being in Children.- 14. Learning for Peace: Lessons Learned from  UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy in Conflict-Affected Contexts Programme.- 15. Educating towards a culture of peace through an innovative teaching method and experiences between secondary school and university.- 16. The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Promoting a Positive Representation of Diversity in Children.- 17. Political Orientation and Engagement from Adolescence to Adulthood: Evidence of (Dis)Continuity from a Three-Decade Longitudinal Study in the German Peace Movement.- 18. Enabling Full Participation: A Community-Led Approach to Child Protection.- 19. From research to action and the spaces in-between: experiences from peacebuilding programs for young people in Cambodia and Uganda.- 20. Working for the Well-Being of Children: The Value and Efficacy of Adopting a Cooperative, Inter-Agency Approach.- Part IV Children and Survival of the Species.- 21. Climate change and children: An issue of intergenerational justice.- Conclusion.