Youths’ peacebuilding potential: intergroup contact and civic participation amongst a post-accord generation in Northern Ireland

Are youths who are affected by conflict troublemakers or peacemakers? Although much of the research on this question has focused on the former, it is possible that conflict-affected youth could be encouraged to adopt peaceful values and constructively engage in society. In this research, we aimed to: (1) develop a way to measure peacebuilding values; and (2) understand how those peacebuilding values may facilitate civic participation. We focused our research on young people born after the 1998 peace accord in Belfast, Northern Ireland.