Citation

Mercer GW, Bunting B, Snook S. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 1980; 10(3): 272-282.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1559-1816.1980.tb00709.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Northern Ireland university students' contact with the Northern Ireland civil disturbances was examined with regard to five dimensions: Friends' Contact; Bomb Contact; Confrontation or Riot Contact; Harassment; and Property Damage. Confrontation and Bomb contact dimensions were further investigated in terms of their personality, social attitude, and alcohol use correlates. Since analyses of variance did not differentiate Protestants and Roman Catholics in terms of intelligence, socioeconomic status, age, location of residence (rural-urban), or religious homogeneity of peer group with regard to these two contact dimensions, these two groups were combined in stepwise discriminant analyses. The discriminant analyses suggested that, for both genders, contact with the "troubles" may be conceptualized in terms of a positive feedback loop involving social dissatisfaction and helplessness combining with previous contacts to produce future contacts. Further, having been in a bombing appeared to subdue males, but to produce pro-social aggression in females. The sample consisted of 65 males and 133 females.