engleski

Youth, social support and personality in the context of war

War events have impact on children's social and psychological development. Their influence on children's cognitive, emotional and social well-being in war situation are often negative. The aim of the study was to examine the relation between the war experiences, three kind of perceived available social support (instrumental support ; support to self-esteem ; belonging and accepting) and extraversion for boys and girls in early adolescence. The sample consisted of 652 children, both boys (N=333) and girls (N=319), with ages ranged from 12 to 15 years (median=13 years and 8 months) Besides residents (N=331), the sample included displaced children (N=321), from the same classroom as residents, from occupied parts of Croatia at the time of investigation (spring 1995). They were displaced for approximately 3.5 years. The following instruments were used to assess the variables: Questionnaire on Children's Stressful and Traumatic War Experiences (RSTI) (Barath et al. 1993 in Vizek-Vidović et al., 1994), Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-Junior) (Eysenck et al. 1994) and Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) (Cohen et al., 1983.) adapted and revised (Brajša-Žganec, 1997). The results suggested that boys with many war experiences have less total perceived available social support, and less instrumental social support while girls perceived more social support on all level of war experiences. Adolescents with more and less war experiences do not differ in the extraversion score. This study of impact of war from youth indicates that social support in the children are related to a long term effects of war, particularity for boys.

war experiences; social support; early adolescence; personality

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