Psychological Effects Of Child Soldiers Essay

Armed conflict affects millions of children every year. Of these children, the most affected are child soldiers. Forced to take on the jobs that expose them to hardship, these children must loot, fight and spy in order to live. (Posttraumatic Resilience1103). Exposed to countless trauma, these children must live through hardships at the hands of their abductors (1096). To escape such atrocities, they must risk their own lives in hopes of finding a better alternative which most often does not exist. Moreover, children find themselves privy to multiple abductions throughout their childhood. Used as cheap labor, youth who find themselves exposed to everyday trauma are at a greater risk of developing mental disorders. This risk only increases with …show more content…
A child’s need for psychological support does not end when they leave these rebel groups (cite). However, psychology allows for a greater understanding of the repercussions being a child soldier has on a child's development. This discipline helps understand what mental factors are affected and if these children can be reintegrated into society. Most importantly, it allows for a better understanding of whether child soldiers should be held responsible for their actions by measuring its psychological effects. In addition, a focus on the youth affected by the Ugandan civil war allows for the incorporation of modern psychological techniques. These techniques would include the measure of the psychopathological effects of being a child soldier on the …show more content…
These predicting factors allow for a better understanding of how being a child soldier is affected in more specific detail. The risk factors of post traumatic resilience were higher age, strong guilt, revenge motivation, domestic and community violence. While these factors pose the greatest risk they are also the result of conflict. This means that the conflict will inadvertently lead to unavoidable risk factors. In contrast, the protective factors were found to be SES and perceived spiritual support (1106). While spiritual support almost doubled the odds of resilience, the chance of experiencing risk factors far exceeds the likelihood of having the protective factors. The result of these risk factors leaders to lower post traumatic resilience and a higher likelihood of PTSD, depression, emotional and behavioural issues (1107). These factors help better understand how to better the resilience of child soldier since only 27.6 % possessed post-traumatic resilience. The mental effect on the children led to 36.4% having major depression and 61% having emotional and behavioural