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How War Changes Children's Ideas About Right and Wrong

For many of the world's children, youth is not merely a time of carefree play. The United Nations estimates that children in as many as 50 countries around the world are currently affected by war. Having witnessed a world without rules, their feelings about right and wrong are forever altered by the environment in which they grow up.

To find out how these children are altered by war University of Utah psychologists Robert Posada and Cecilia Wainryb interviewed 96 children and adolescents from Usme, a violence-ridden slum of Bogota containing a large population of people displaced by Colombia's civil war. Many of the youth had been displaced in the slum for a year or less and many had lost their parents.

During the 45-minute interviews, Posada asked the youth questions about whether certain cases of physical violence and stealing would be acceptable in various contexts including revenge and trying to survive. The participants also took a Spanish version of the Exposure to Violence (ETV) interview.

Almost half of the children reported having seen a dead body, while about one-third said they had seen someone shot or shot at. Surprisingly, the children shared a strong prohibition against stealing and hurting others, agreeing that doing so was wrong even if it would help them survive, if everybody was doing it or if it was not against the law. In fact, 96 percent of adolescents and 75 percent of children felt that nations should make laws against stealing and harming others.

However, the children's judgments deviated when these actions took place in a context of revenge. Most youth said it would be okay to hurt someone or steal in the name of vengeance. They were especially likely to take this stance if they were adolescents. Furthermore, they expected that other people would act violently if first wronged.

These results suggest the children are not simply desensitized to wrong. Rather, they have a strong sense of morality, as illustrated by their convictions about stealing or hurting others in the non-revenge condition. However, having been frequent witnesses to violence, the children's feelings about right and wrong are also informed by a practical, empathetic knowledge about how people may react in unjust conditions based on their own experiences.

FULL TEXT: Moral Development in a Violent Society: Colombian Children's Judgments in the Context of Survival and Revenge (PDF)