Rehabilitation
One of the more recent studies...
By the University Medical Center Hamburg is documented in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, and took place in October of 2010. The study, titled; Multiple Trauma and Mental Health in Former Ugandan Child Soldiers, admits that “child soldiers are one of the most complex traumatized populations of children and adolescents” This is no doubt due to large range of trauma inflicted on these children; ranging from “beatings, torture, witness of killings, the act of killing, and sexual abuse” (Hubertus 573).
The Hamburg study examined the effects of war and domestic violence on the mental health of child soldiers in a, “sample consisting of 330 former Ugandan child soldiers in 2006 (age: 11-17 years, [with 49% being] female)”. Participants were recruited from Laroo Boarding Primary School for War Affected Children in Gulu Town. Since most child soldiers were deprived of any education, “The foremost aim of the school is to ready children for the curriculum of the public school system”. This study is important because,” it was the only school of its kind in the entire country [thus], admission priority was given to extremely war-affected children”. It was the purpose of this study to gauge their levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder.
So, “all children had experienced at least one war-related event and 78% were additionally exposed to at least one incident of domestic violence”. According to the study 33% of the children exhibited signs of PTSD and 36% were effected by major depressive disorder. “Behavioral and emotional problems above [the] clinical cutoff were measured in 61%. [And] no gender differences were found regarding mental health outcomes”. Once the data from the questionnaire was analyzed it was found that, 290 (87.9%) children witnessed killing and 171 (52.6%) admitted to killing someone. Alarming still, was the finding that suicidal ideations during the past month were reported by 99 (30%) of the children (Hubertus 577-578).
Even though aggression scores were low on average, it is noteworthy that aggression and other mental health problems were significantly related. Recent studies also indicate that former child soldiers with more posttraumatic symptoms are less open to reconciliation, having higher feelings of revenge, and favor violent forms of behavior to resolve conflicts (Bayer et al.) This study by Hubertus and many others is just the tip of an iceberg. As these children are all too quickly becoming adults, the window to study war’s effect on them is critical. Also it’s imperative that clinical interventions are needed to prevent these children from engaging in aggressive and violent behavior. Interventions are necessary in order to brake a potential cycle of violence.
