The role of retributive justice and the use of international criminal tribunals in post‐conflict reconciliation

Four experiments examined people's responses to intergroup violence either committed or suffered by their own group. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Serbs who strongly glorified Serbia were more supportive of future violence against, and less willing to reconcile with, Bosniaks after reading about Serbian victimization by Bosniaks rather than Serbian transgressions against Bosniaks. Replicating these effects with Americans in the context of American–Iranian tensions, Experiment 2 further showed that demands for retributive justice explained why high glorifiers showed asymmetrical reactions to ingroup victimization vs. perpetration. Again in the Serb and the American context, respectively, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that post‐conflict international criminal tribunals can help satisfy victim group members' desire for retributive justice, and thereby reduce their support for future violence and increase their willingness to reconcile with the perpetrator group. The role of retributive justice and the use of international criminal justice in intergroup conflict (reduction) are discussed.     

Swedish norms for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for children 3–5 years rated by parents and preschool teachers

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widespread tool for assessing behavior problems in children and adolescents. Despite being investigated thoroughly concerning both validity and reliability, peer reviewed studies that provide norms, especially for preschool children, are lacking. This paper provides Swedish norms using data from a large community sample of children aged 3–5, based on mothers’, fathers’, and preschool teacher’s ratings. Preschool teachers’ ratings were generally lower than parents’ ratings, which contradicts some previous studies. Differences between girls and boys were found, suggesting that boys display higher levels of behavior problems. Lower parental education and country of origin outside of Sweden were also associated with more difficulties. Cut-offs are presented for each age group, gender and rater category. Population-specific norms and percentile cut-offs provided in this study facilitate identifying children in need of interventions in paediatric care and enable cross-country comparisons of children’s mental health problems.     

Parenting Scale: Which Version Should We Use?

Factor analytic studies of one of the widely used measurements of parental discipline, the Parenting Scale (PS), have yielded ambiguous results. The purpose of this study was to compare various forms of the PS in terms of factor structure and other psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 617 mothers and 430 fathers of 2 to 5-year-olds. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that shorter structural models provided a better fit compared to the original model; however, none led to an optimal fit. Other psychometric properties such as internal consistency, test-retest reliability, concurrent and predictive validity were slightly higher for the original Laxness and Overreactivity subscales. The findings from this study and previous studies suggest that the inter-item relationship in the scale might be too sensitive to sample characteristics, implying that factor analysis might not be the best way to measure the scale’s validity. Nevertheless, other psychometric properties support the use of the Parenting Scale in the assessment of dysfunctional parenting practices. We recommend using the original Laxness and Overreactivity subscales rather than the later models, especially for research purposes.