Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This paper explores the utility of strengthening psychosocial resilience in post-conflict peacebuilding and argues that psychosocial health is a core to human security and a foundational element for effective conflict transformation. The paper presents findings from a trauma-informed community peacebuilding program in post-conflict Liberia that confirm that strengthening the psychosocial resilience of individuals and their communities promotes common understanding and peaceful conflict resolution. Participants report greater emotional control and awareness of their surroundings, increased interest in working with others and practicing nonviolent conflict resolution techniques. The research presents empirical evidence to suggest that building and reinforcing psychosocial skills offers a robust, locally led and effective way to strengthen local conflict resolution and peacebuilding capacity, especially in highly traumatized conflict societies.

Keywords

conflict management conflict transformation prolonged social trauma psychosocial resilience sustainable development human security peacebuilding reconciliation Liberia hope for a better future

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aichholzer

Lechner

C. M.

(2021). Refining the Short Social Dominance Orientation Scale (SSDO): A validation in seven European countries. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(2), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6919

Ali

Khan

Meo

M. S.

(2022). Trust in post-conflict life: Evidence from a conflict zone in Pakistan. Public Affairs, 22, e2403. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2403

Austin

(1999). Zen and the brain: Toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness. MIT Press.

Bosworth

, & Espelage, D. (2005). Self-efficacy–Teen Conflict Survey. In L. Dahlberg, S. B. Toal, M. H. Swahn, & C. B. Behrens (Eds.), Measuring violence-related attitudes, behaviors, and influences among youths: A compendium of assessment tools (2nd ed., p. 140). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Carter Center . (n.d.). Development of mental health services in Liberia. https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/factsheets/mental-health-liberia-facts.pdf

Dahlberg

Toal

Swahn

Behrens

(2005). Measuring violence-related attitudes, behaviors, and influences among youths: A compendium of assessment tools (2nd ed.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/13367/

Danieli

Norris

F. H.

Lindert

Paisner

Engdahl

Richter

(2015). The Danieli inventory of multigenerational legacies of trauma, Part I: Survivors’ posttrauma adaptational styles in their children's eyes. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 68, 167–175. ISSN 0022-3956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.06.011

Dunmore

(2013, November 25). Liberian president says youth unemployment a threat to peace. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/liberia-sirleaf/liberian-president-says-youth-unemployment-a-threat-to-peace-idUSL5N0JA43B20131125

Farrelly-Rosch

Bendall

MacDonald

Mamsa

Langley

Scanlan

(2018). Trauma and mental health in young people. Orygen, Revolution in Mind. https://www.orygen.org.au/Training/Resources/Trauma/Mythbusters/Trauma-mh-yp

10.

Flanagan

Travers

Vallières

Hansen

Halpin

Sheaf

Rottmann

Thit Johnsen

(2020). Crossing borders: a systematic review identifying potential mechanisms of intergenerational trauma transmission in asylum-seeking and refugee families. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1790283

11.

Franke

(2002). The Emperor needs new clothes: Securitizing threats in the 21st century. Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, 9(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.46743/1082-7307/2002.1024

12.

Franke

Elliott

(2021). Optimism and social resilience: Social isolation, meaninglessness, trust, and empathy in times of COVID-19. Societies, 11(2), 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11020035

13.

Galea

Rockers

P. C.

Saydee

Macauley

Varpilah

S. T.

Kruk

M. E.

(2010). Persistent psychopathology in the wake of civil war: Long-term posttraumatic stress disorder in Nimba County, Liberia. American Journal of Public Health, 100(9), 1745–1751. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2009.179697

14.

Galtung

(1971). A structural theory of imperialism. Journal of Peace Research, 13(2), 81–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/002234337100800201

15.

Gorbunova

Klymchuk

(2020). The psychological consequences of the Holodomor in Ukraine. East/West: Journal of Ukranian Studies, 7(2), 33–68. https://doi.org/10.21226/ewjus609

16.

Gregory

Embrey

D. G.

(2009). Companion recovery model to reduce the effects of profound catastrophic trauma for former child soldiers in Ganta, Liberia. Traumatology, 15(1), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765608326178

17.

Harvey

(1996). An ecological view of psychological trauma and trauma recovery. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(L), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.2490090103

18.

Ingabire

M. C.

Caparos

Rutembesa

Habimana

Ndushabandi

Blanchette

(2022). Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its association with attitudes toward reconciliation. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 15(Suppl 2), S393–S400. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001416

19.

Koehler

(2020). Violent extremism, mental health and substance abuse among adolescents: Towards a trauma psychological perspective on violent radicalization and deradicalization. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 31(3), 455–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2020.1758752

20.

Koss

M. P.

Harvey

M. R.

(1991). The rape victim: Clinical and community interventions. Sage.

21.

Luthar

Cicchetti

Becker

(2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164

22.

Marchi

Alkema

Xia

Thio

Chen

Schalkwijk

Galeazzi

Ferrari

Pingani

Kweon

Evans-Lacko

David Hill

Boks

(2024). Investigating the impact of poverty on mental illness in the UK Biobank using Mendelian randomization. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(9), 1771–1783. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01919-3

23.

Morton

Cogan

Kolacz

Calderwood

Nikolic

Bacon

Pathe

Williams

Porges

S. W.

(2024). A new measure of feeling safe: Developing psychometric properties of the Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS). Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 16(4), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001313

24.

Nollekaemper

Hoffmann

(2012). Responsibility to protect : From principle to practice. Pallas Publications. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=6da7fef5-33a4-3b9a-944f-6a840df4bef9

25.

Ogata

Sen

(2003). Human security Now: Commission on human security, Final report. Commission on Human Security. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/503749?ln=en

26.

Paris

(2001). Human security: Paradigm shift or hot air? International Security, 26(2), 87–102. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3092123. https://doi.org/10.1162/016228801753191141

27.

Pereira

R. C.

Abreu

P. H.

Rodrigues

P. P.

Figueiredo

M. A.

(2024). Imputation of data missing not at random: Artificial generation and benchmark analysis. Expert Systems with Applications, 249(B), 123654. ISSN 0957-4174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2024.123654

28.

Poletti

Preti

Raballo

(2022). From economic crisis and climate change through COVID-19 pandemic to Ukraine war: A cumulative hit-wave on adolescent future thinking and mental well-being. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 32(9), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-01984-x

29.

Pratto

Çidam

Stewart

A. L.

Zeineddine

F. B.

Aranda

Aiello

Chryssochoou

Cichocka

Cohrs

J. C.

Durrheim

Eicher

Foels

Górska

Lee

I-C.

Licata

Liu

J. H.

Meyer

Morselli

, … Henkel

K. E.

(2013). Social dominance in context and in individuals: Contextual moderation of robust effects of social dominance orientation in 15 languages and 20 countries. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(5), 587–599. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612473663

30.

Pratto

Sidanius

Stallworth

L. M.

Malle

B. F.

(1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 741–763. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.741

31.

Prust

M. L.

Curry

Callands

T. A.

Drakes

McLean

Harris

Hansen

N. B.

(2018). Risk factors for and consequences of substance use in post-conflict Liberia: A qualitative study. Community Mental Health Journal, 54(4), 438–449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-017-0154-3

32.

Røren

Jessen

Divon

S. A.

Moss

S. M.

(2019). Intercultural attention in trauma treatment: Western trauma treatment negotiated and modified in Sudan. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 70, 67–77. ISSN 0147-1767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2019.03.002

33.

Samara

Hammuda

Vostanis

El-Khodary

Al-Dewik

(2020). Children’s prolonged exposure to the toxic stress of war trauma in the Middle East. BMJ, 371, m3155. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3155

34.

Sidanius

Pratto

(1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. Cambridge University Press.

35.

Silove

Mohsin

Tay

A. K.

Steel

Tam

Savio

Da Costa

Z. M.

Rees

(2017). Six-year longitudinal study of pathways leading to explosive anger involving the traumas of recurrent conflict and the cumulative sense of injustice in Timor-Leste. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 52(10), 1281–1294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1428-3

36.

Smith

B. W.

Dalen

Wiggins

Tooley

Christopher

Bernard

(2008). The brief resilience scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(3), 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705500802222972

37.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) . (1994). Human Development Report 1994: New Dimension of Human Security. https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-1994

38.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) . (2022). New threats to human security in the anthropocene: Demanding greater solidarity. United Nations Development Programme. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://hs.hdr.undp.org/pdf/srhs2022.pdf

39.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) . (1991). The protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care. (Resolution 46/119). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/135851?ln=en&v=pdf

40.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID). (2019). Liberia: Youth situational analysis .

41.

van der Kolk

B. A.

(1987). The psychological consequences of overwhelming life experiences. In van der Kolk

B. A.

(Ed.), Psychological Trauma (pp. 1–30). American Psychiatric Press.

42.

van der Kolk

B. A.

(2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

43.

Votruba

Thornicroft

(2016). Sustainable development goals and mental health: Learnings from the contribution of the FundaMentalSDG global initiative. Global Mental Health (Camb), 9(3), e26. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2016.20

44.

Warnecke

Franke

(2010). Sustainable conflict transformation: An analytical model for assessing the contribution of development activities to peacebuilding. International Journal for Peace Studies, 15(1), 71–93.

45.

Wolterstorff

Franke

(2023). The safety spiral: Building peace skills after prolonged social trauma. Peace Research, 55(2), 90–116. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718069-bja10034

46.

Wong

P. H.

(2022). Moral injury in former child soldiers in Liberia. Journal of Childhood and Adolescent Trauma, 15(3), 847–856. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00414-5

47.

World Bank . (2013). Understanding youth violence: Cases from Liberia and Sierra Leone. Retrieved July 30, 2025, from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/199821468151145997/pdf/864300WP0P1259260Box385179B000OUO0900ACS.pdf

Psychosocial Resilience and Human Security: Addressing Prolonged Social Trauma in Post-Conflict Liberia

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References