Intergroup conflict runs in the family: Parental social attitudes and political ideology predict the ethos of conflict in their offspring

Abstract

Ethos of Conflict (EOC) represents a set of societal beliefs regarding violent intergroup conflict. One of the important topic in intergroup conflict research is the political socialization of beliefs regarding conflict – the intergenerational transmission of the conflict-related beliefs from parents to children. However, the empirical data on this process is still very scarce. This is why the main goal of the present research was to examine the associations between EOC beliefs between the parents and their offspring; furthermore, we analyzed which of the parental social attitudes and political ideology beliefs predict EOS in their offspring. The research participants were family members of Serbian nationality (Ntotal=253; 102 families). We examined EOC in the context of the conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. The data revealed high correlation in EOC between parents and their children. Furthermore, parental traditional religiousness, materialistic ethnocentrism, high conservative, and low liberal political ideology predicted EOC in the offspring. The research findings showed that parental attitudes can indeed be a major source of EOC in their children. Results specified that religious, self-oriented and conservative parents have higher EOC themselves and tend to share beliefs about the conflict with their children to a higher extent. The results have a conceptual and practical implication for building reconciliation and peace

Keywords

• ethos of conflict
• family
• attitudes
• political ideology
• political socialization