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Compared to children in Nepal wHO were not forced into military
service, former child soldiers were more likely to present severe
mental health problems such as symptoms of posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and depression. These findings are reported in the
August 13 issue of JAMA.
As children continue to be ill-used by armed groups all over the
world, special mental wellness interventions for child soldiers are ever so
more necessary. There is, however, a paucity of research that
is consecrate to perusal the mental health of child soldiers in armed
conflicts. For several reasons, civilian children are more accessible
than child soldiers.
Researcher Brandon A. Kohrt (Emory University, Atlanta) and colleagues
set extinct to determine the mental health effects of both child soldiers
and children who were never strained into military service. The sample
consisted of 141 former baby soldiers and 141 never-conscripted
children in Nepal between March and April 2007. The children were
matched on historic period, sex, education Department, and ethnicity, and all participants
experient at least 1 type of trauma. The quondam child soldiers were
'tween 5 and 16 years old at time of conscription, and the modal age
of study participants was about 15.75 years old at the time of the
study.
Kohrt and colleagues set up that 75 of the child soldiers (52.3%) met
the symptom cutoff score for depression, 65 (46.1%) met the score for
anxiety, 78 (55.3%) met the criteria for PTSD, 55 (39%) met
the criteria for general psychological difficulties, and 88 (62.4%)
were functionally impaired. Statistically adjusting for traumatic
exposures and other possibly contradictory variables held that beingness a
child soldier was significantly associated with depression and PTSD
among girls (2.4 and 6.8 times higher odds, respectively) and PTSD
among boys (3.8 times higher betting odds). However, in that location was no statistical
connexion between beingness a baby soldier and general psychological
difficulties, anxiousness, or use impairment.
The authors note that, "The difference in mental health outcomes
between child soldiers and never-conscripted children can be explained
in part by greater exposure to traumatic events among child soldiers,
especially for general psychological difficulties and function
impairment."
"The study has several clinical and programmatic implications. First,
the greater burden of mental health problems among former child
soldiers supports the motive for focused programming, which should
include, but non consist entirely of, interventions to concentrate depression
symptoms and the psychological sequelae of psychic trauma, especially bombings
and torturing, as advantageously as incorporate belongingness and income
generation. Second, girl soldiers crataegus laevigata require focused attention,
perchance for factors not addressed in this study, such as problems of
sexual violence and reintegration difficulties. Third, the variation in
type and severity of mental health problems highlights the importance
of showing, including topically developed measures of function
impairment, as a base for intercession," suggest the researchers.
They reason: "Without screening there is a risk of infection of pathologizing
child soldiers as a group quite than providing support to those
individuals most impaired. Finally, the presence of mental health
problems among never-conscripted children illustrates the need for
comprehensive postconflict community-based psychosocial care non
restricted exclusively to child soldiers."
The Comparison of Mental Health Between Former Child Soldiers
and Children Never Conscripted by Armed Groups in Nepal
Brandon A. Kohrt, MA; Mark J. D. Jordans, MA; Wietse A. Tol,
MA; Rebecca A. Speckman, BA; Sujen M. Maharjan, BA; Carol M. Worthman,
PhD; Ivan H. Komproe, PhD
JAMA(2008).
300[6]: pp. 691-702.
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Written by: Peter M Crosta
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