PARENTS’ ATTITUDES AND

THEIR DEFINITIONS OF WAR AND PEACE

Larissa V. FriasJudith A. Myers-Walls

Child Development and Family StudiesPurdue University

ABSTRACT

This study focused on the attitudes and conceptualizations of 140 parents about war and peace. Four cohorts of parents from the US and South Korea completed the Hawk/Dove attitude scale on war and peace and a questionnaire regarding how they would define the topics to their children. The parents were grouped as High-peace, Medium-peace, and Low-peace based on their attitude scores. High-peace parents described peace as involving positive actions to other people to attain it and also used current social relationships to define peace. Low-peace parents related peace to positive values and positive characteristics of people and situations. The definition of war as a strategy is different across the groups of parents. Low-peace group described war as an alternative for resolving differences while High-peace parents said that war is a result when communication is not used.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

a) What are the parents’ attitudes regarding the topics of peace and war?

b) What meanings do parents ascribe to peace and war?

c) How do parents’ attitudes regarding peace and war relate to the meanings parents ascribe to these topics and how they describe these concepts to their children?

PARTICIPANTS

140 parents of 3- to 15-year-old children from South Korea and the US 1991 (US parents) 1999-2000 (US parents) 2002 (US parents) 2003 (South Korean parents)

Married: 79.9%

Year of data collection

Mothers

(n)

Fathers

(n)

Mean age

SD1991 24 10 36.85

4.150

1999-2000 15 9 39.67

8.170

2001 12 9 38.81

7.405

2003 52 8 36.42

3.933

Total 103 36 37.40

5.526

PARTICIPANTS

Educational background of participants (N=139)

0.715.8

18

33.1

31.7

some high school

completed high school

some college

college degree

Post-baccalaureatedegree

PROCEDURES The Parents, Children, War, Peace, and Terrorism

Questionnaire was used Hawk/Dove Attitude Scale

Likert format (SA, A, U, D, and SD) Originally had 13 items with four factors after Factor

Analysis was conducted (Frias, Myers-Walls, and Khosravi, 2004)

Factor 1: War is not a good solution to international problems Factor 2: War and taking lives are not justified Factor 3: A nuclear war will not happen in their or their child’s

lifetime Factor 4: Disagreement on U.S. military action against

terrorism South Korean parents completed only Factors 1, 2,

and 3 items

Hawk/Dove Attitude Scale (7 items)

SA A U D SDSometimes war is the best solution to international problems.R

SA A U D SDAll wars are evil.SA A U D SDSometimes killing is justified. R

SA A U D SDThe lives of all persons are equally valuable.

SA A U D SDThere is nothing an individual can do to stop a large-scale war. R

SA A U D SDThe best way to avoid war is through military strength and mutual deterrence. R

SA A U D SDThe best way to avoid war is through disarmament and negotiation.

R -- Reversed scores

(Cronbach’s alpha is 0.754)

Procedures (continued)

Parents responded to two questions:

a) If that child came to you tonight and asked, “What is peace?” what would you say?

b) If that child came to you tonight and asked, “What is war?” what would you say?

DATA ANALYSES

Hawk/Dove Scale attitude data Total attitude score was computed by summing across the

7 items from factors 1 & 2 of the Hawk/Dove scale (the 2 items from factor 3 were highly correlated with Factors 1 & 2, while Factor 4 items were not included in the Korean sample)

Parents’ attitude scale scores were grouped High-peace (upper third), Medium-peace (middle third), and Low-peace (lower third) based on the distribution of their scores

Qualitative data reduction Identification of common themes and overarching

categories on the parents’ responses Examination of the relationship between the parents’

attitudes and their ascribed definitions of war and peace

RESULTS

Attitude scale data Higher scores meant agreement with the

“dove” end rather than the “hawk” end of the statements.

In general, the scores for all the 7 items were characterized by a leaning towards peaceful attitudes, or the “dove” end of the scale.

Mean total score = 23.13 ; SD = 5.841 Mean item rating score = 3.304 ; SD = .834

Means and standard deviation of the 3 groups of parents based on their attitude scores

Mean NStd.

Deviation Minimum Maximum

LOW 16.48 42 4.192 7 21

MEDIUM 23.52 44 1.151 22 25

HIGH 28.96 45 2.449 26 35

Total 23.13 131 5.841 7 35

Comparison of mean attitude scores of the High-peace, Medium-peace, and Low-peace groups of parents

Overall ANOVA

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 3393.429 2 1696.715 208.553 .000*

Within Groups 1041.365 128 8.136

Total 4434.794 130

Comparisons of mean attitude scores by group

Mean Difference Std. Error Sig.

LOW MEDIUM -7.047(*) .615 .000*

LOW HIGH -12.479(*) .612 .000*

MEDIUM LOW 7.047(*) .615 .000*

MEDIUM HIGH -5.433(*) .605 .000*

HIGH LOW 12.479(*) .612 .000*

HIGH MEDIUM 5.433(*) .605 .000*

* The difference is significant at the .05 level.

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

Low-peace attitude parents

Getting along with others

“Peace is a way to get along and able to talk to

each other in a calm manner.”

Positive description of people and way of living

“Peace is when people of the earth are healthy.

We all have enough to take care of our own

basic needs. We can live together in joy and

thanksgiving.”

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

No war or fighting“Peace means there is no war between countries.”“Peace is when there is nobody fighting about

anythinganywhere in the whole world.”

Related to positive values“Peace is when people share what they have witheach other and respect one another’s views. Peaceneeds people to help each other when someoneneeds help. Peace allows people to be happy andthen culture, like art and theater and writing, grows.”

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

Medium-peace attitude parents

Attaining peace involves working out differences

“I’d say peace is when people work hard to solve

problems, work hard to understand each other,

and to respect each other. When they have a

conflict, they use words NOT weapons.”

“When people can work out their differences with

respect and not fight.”

Getting along with others with no fighting

“Countries getting along together. Possibly,

disagreeing over things, but not fighting over

them.”

“No violence or killing, people getting along.”

Absence of war or fighting

“Peace is absence of physical conflict. In the

ideal, it is achieved by love, understanding,

compassion, respect.”

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

High-peace attitude parents

Getting along by doing positive things for others“Peace is people getting along with each othercaring for each other, feeling calm and confidentwithin yourself and groups of people solvingconflicts and problems in creative ways alsobeing in harmony with the earth.”“Peace is people getting along together andhelping each other.”

Absence of war or fighting“The absence of war, a calmness people livingwithout arguments and or fighting.”

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

Defining peace using social relationships as a context

“Living and relating without intentionally hurting

one another. At his age, we talk more about

peace between family, friends, and neighbors.

The bigger sense of peace is pretty abstract for

him.”

“Eating dinner with our whole family together like

we do now, talking to one another, going to

kindergarten, and living in a very comfortable

place where we can do what we want.”

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

Low-peace attitude parents

Can be a solution to disagreements or conflicts between people or countries

“Using violence, including military intervention, to solvea disagreement between countries.”“Violent fighting between countries when they can’tagree on issues. Killing and destruction sometimes isnecessary through to protect our country and ourfreedom.”“A conflict between two sides who disagree onsomething so much they feel they must protect theirbeliefs and people by fighting.”

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

Involves fighting, killing, or hurting others with use of weapons

“People have an argument and they fight with guns. Lots and lots of people fight. Many are hurt and killed. Even people who are not fighting get hurt and killed.”“Continuous fighting each other with airplanes, machines, chemicals, etc, killing each other until one side gives up.” “Just like children who argue because they have different opinions, different countries fight too which we call wars. When war happens, people kill each other with guns, break down buildings, there’s no food… it’s a scary thing. That’s why soldiers are protecting our country to prevent wars from happening.”

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

Medium-peace attitude parents

Fighting another person or country to gain something

“Just like when children fight over which toy they want,

other countries fight as well with big guns and bombs.”

“It’s when countries fight with each other, just like

people do. There are times when countries fight

because they dislike each other but for the most part,

they do to better their country and benefit from it. Long

time ago, countries used to go to war to make their

lands bigger by taking away another country’s land.”

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

A way to resolve differences

“When countries fight because of conflicting

opinions.”

“I would say that war is a fight fought by countries

with different views on things such as culture,

politics, religion, and human rights. I would

explain that war generally is brought on by a

country’s leaders, but is fought mostly by the

people like you and me.”

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

High-peace attitude parents

Failure to resolve differences by using strategies like communication and negotiation

“War is between governments. It is a result of lack of communication. War kills people. Governments usually survive.”“When grown-ups choose not to talk to each other to solve problems, but rather to fight until they are ready to talk.”“War is groups of people who choose to use fighting with their strength to try and solve their differences instead of using their words.”

DEFINITIONS OF WAR

Involves opposing countries

“War is when two countries try to settle an argument

between them by fighting each other.”

“War is when two countries get into a big fight. It is a

very bad thing. Lots of people can get hurt or killed.”

Results to loss of lives and killing

“People fighting with one another and dying as a

result.”

CONCLUSIONS Parents’ attitudes generally leaned towards peace and non-

violence. In general, the parents defined peace as a positive way of

getting along with one another and absence of war. They defined war as fighting another group of people and usually results to loss of lives.

Low-peace attitude parents described peace as related to positive values, characteristics of living and people, and absence of war or fighting. The high-attitude peace parents described peace in relation to relationships like families and friends. They also stated that in order to attain it, people should work and act positively towards other people.

The Low-peace parents defined war as an alternative for resolving differences while the High-peace group stated that war can happen when communication and negotiation fails to resolve conflicts and disagreements.

IMPLICATIONS

In doing research on parents and their conceptualizations about peace and war, one needs to understand their attitudes and the context surrounding the participants.

War and peace may be viewed differently by different people, thus it is imperative to consider the multi-dimensional nature of these concepts.

For practitioners who work with families, there should be an awareness of the attitudes and ideas of parents towards peace and war and how these influence the definitions that they may communicate to their children.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Incorporate the cohort factor in the analysis of the qualitative responses of the parents to study the influence of context and surrounding events in their conceptualizations of war and peace

Further analyses of the relationship between parent and child data including child’s reactions and child characteristics (e.g. gender, age)

Further study of the relationship between quantitative and qualitative parent data

More diverse sample of parents should be included in future research