A Child-Resilience Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism

The current discourse on violent extremism focuses largely on young adults, thereby overlooking key drivers, influences, and causal pathways that are specific to children. These include children’s biological tendency towards risk-taking and heightened vulnerability to polarized message content. It is also clear that when children become associated with violent extremist groups, this can reflect an age-specific psychological response to their surroundings or circumstances.