Psychological Mechanisms of Political Violence Participation Among Youth in the South East Zone of Nigeria: A Multi-Level Theory Development Study

Youth participation in political violence in South East Nigeria, including involvement with separatist movements and associated armed activities, represents a complex psychological phenomenon shaped by individual, social, and structural factors that existing radicalisation models, developed primarily in Western and Middle Eastern contexts, inadequately explain. This study develops an original multi-level psychological theory of political violence participation among youth in the South East zone through a sequential multi-method investigation. Phase 1 conducts systematic documentary analysis of publicly available accounts by conflict participants and civil society reports on South East security dynamics from 2017 to 2023. Phase 2 applies 50 in-depth qualitative interviews with de-radicalised youth, community leaders, and security analysts, analysed through Constructivist Grounded Theory. Phase 3 tests the emergent theory with a questionnaire survey of 400 at-risk youth, validating proposed mechanisms using structural equation modelling in AMOS. Phase 4 conducts 15 qualitative retrospective case studies. Available political psychology literature from South East Nigeria identifies identity grievance, economic marginalisation, social network mobilisation, and dehumanisation of perceived oppressors as the key radicalisation mechanisms. Wiktorowicz's Radicalisation Process Model, the Three-N Model of Radicalisation by Kruglanski, and Identity Fusion Theory provide the theoretical reference. The original contribution is a Contextualised South East Nigerian Political Violence Participation Model derived from empirical community data, not Western theory extrapolation. Keywords: political violence, radicalisation, South East Nigeria, youth, multi-level theory.