Growing Up in Guerrilla Camp: The long-Term Impact of Being a Child Soldier in El Salvador's Civil War

Developmental challenges faced by children growing up in situations of chronic danger linked to community violence and communal conflict are reviewed. The concept of post-traumatic stress disorder is expanded to include situations of chronic and on-going traumatic stress associated with dangerous environments--war zones and inner city neighborhoods plagued by violence and crime. Of particular importance is the impact of chronic stress and danger on the child's world view, the child's social map, and the child's moral development. On the basis of field work in 5 war zones, the article points to the importance of adult-led "processing" of the young child's experience to his or her psychological coping and moral development. Some of the contradictions operating in such environments are explored--for example, that "fanatical" ideology may provide short-term support for adults and children but also may serve to prolong communal conflict, impede the necessary processing of experience, and increase vulnerability in the long run. Show more

To assess the amount of stress exposure and reactions among children following a war situation, two comparative groups of non-displaced (N = 64) and displaced children (N = 70) from Croatia were administered a modified version of the War Trauma Questionnaire as well as the Impact of Event Scale (IES). The results showed that a majority of the children had been exposed to armed combat, with displaced children significantly more exposed to destruction of home and school as well as to acts of violence, and loss of family members, than the non-displaced children. Regarding the IES scores, displaced children had significantly higher scores for the total score and for the intrusion and avoidance subscales. For girls the total score and intrusion score were significantly higher than for boys. Different exposure factors were significantly related to the IES scores, especially for the intrusion subscale of the IES. Show more

A sample of 152 women living in Beirut, Lebanon was studied to determine the relationship between life experiences, mothers' depression, and children's health and behavior. Measures of the perceived negative impact of both war and nonwar related events, measures of available social support, sociodemographic variables, coping or response strategies and displacement were used to predict mothers' depressive symptomatology and their children's health. The level of perceived negative impact of war-related events was found to be strongly associated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology among mothers. More surprising was the relative importance of experiences unrelated to the war in predicting higher levels of depressive symptoms. Among the most noteworthy of the findings was the association between the use of an emotional response style and the measure of psychological dysfunction. Finally, the level of a mother's depressive symptomatology was found to be the best predictor of her child's reported morbidity, with higher levels of symptoms associated with higher levels of morbidity. Show more