Programs intended to curb violent behavior in adolescence are generally associated with urban poverty, exclusion and gangs.

But violence can have other origins and drivers; in the relatively prosperous Basque Country of northern Spain, for example, murderous political unrest has been the defining feature of the social background for generations. The terrorist group, ETA – Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Country and Freedom) – has fought against Spanish governments, fascist or democratic, for half a century. 

Many of the terrorists are young men and women who have been drawn into violence in their adolescence. During the last few, relatively peaceful years, the Basque government has begun to experiment with programs that might prevent young people getting involved in politically motivated bloodshed.

Maite Garaigordobil, Professor of Psychology at the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian, has been assessing the impact of an education program called A Society that Builds Peace. 

Designed by the Basque Government's Education Department and Human Rights Section, the approach owes much to the principles of Positive Youth Development a US model which focuses on promoting trust, positive emotions, empathy and a strong sense of social connection. Its leading advocate is the developmental psychologist Richard Lerner,

In the Basque variation, weekly 90 minute classes delivered over a three month period tackle background issues and encourage students to consider testimony from victims of violence on both sides of the Basque conflict.

Some 285 15- and 16-year-olds took part in the experiment and were randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions.

The results are encouraging. By the end of the program, participating students thought differently from their peers in the control group, and had a different perspective on the context of potential involvement in violence.

Maite Garaigordobil’s particular interest is in gender difference in relation to violent behavior. In a recent paper in the Journal of Adolescent Health she refers to the long literature charting the variation in the social and emotional development of adolescents across many cultures. 

She found nothing exceptional in the Basque Country’s experience, although the Positive Youth Development Program appeared to be equally effective with young men and young women in the participating schools.

The bigger challenge will be sustaining the intervention across all schools over many years. There are 400,000 children in the Basque Country. It only takes a handful of new recruits a year to maintain the terrorist taint. So a key question for evaluators will be whether the program is capable of identifying and transforming the few “needles” of violence in the haystack of peaceable students.

See: Garaigordobil M, Maganto C, Pérez J I and Sansinenea E, “Gender differences in socio-emotional factors during adolescence and effects of a violence prevention program,” Journal of Adolescent Health, 44, pp 468-477, 2009

For newspaper coverage of the story in San Sebastian, see: El testimonio de las víctimas será obligatorio en los colegios vascos

• See also Michael Little’s blog Two societies building peace