Abstract
M.A.
All transitional stages have their moments of crises, but there is no stage so complicated and
confusing as the adolescence. Not surprisingly, many researchers refer to this stage as a period of
storm and stress.
Many studies conducted on young people and violence have concentrated on their psychological,
emotional, and physical development. Hence, the psychosocial development did not receive much
attention from the psychological fraternity. Therefore, the aim of this study is three fold: (1) to
investigate how political violence affects the psychosocial development of adolescents.(2) to
investigate how political violence affects their outlook on life, and (3) how do they view the youth=s
role in political struggle.
The qualitative research method was used in this study. The process of inquiry involves interviews.
Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 research participants. The process of
analysis involved thematic content analysis.
Generally, the results of the study indicate that exposure to political violence has negative effects on
the psychosocial development of the adolescents. Many of them experience psychosocial problems in
some areas of their development, while very few show signs of psychosocial resilience in other areas
and function well despite exposure to political adversity.
In conclusion, these adolescents are neither shattered by exposure to political violence to be
considered Apsychosocially dysfunctional@, nor they are resilient enough to be considered
Auntouched@ by these experiences. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that the effects of
political violence are relative rather than absolute and are bound to change with circumstances.