Abstract
Media campaigns and advocacy platforms have frequently perpetuated images of formerly recruited children as “a lost generation”—a cadre of young people who have committed unspeakable atrocities during war and who are beyond rehabilitation. One NGO declared recently that “failure to act will create a ticking time bomb of angry, alienated and traumatized youth whose only skills they have to rely on are those they learned at war” (Child Soldiers, 2008). In many conflict and post-conflict settings, this emphasis on the trauma of formerly recruited children has dominated response efforts. Many responders have perceived these children as suffering a form of pathology that needs to be addressed through a medical model via treatments such as counseling.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We use this term to refer to the full range of children covered by the Paris Principles (http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/parisprinciples.html), which use the slightly cumbersome phrase “children associated with armed forces or armed groups.” It is used for convenience and is not intended to overshadow the enormous cultural variation in regard to how childhood is defined in different contexts, the roles children play during their time with armed forces and groups, or the multitude of ways in which children are “recruited” into warring factions.
References
Ajdukovic, M., & Ajdukovic, D. (1998). Impact of displacement on the psychological well being of refugee children. International Review of Psychiatry, 10, 186–195.
Annan, J., Blattman, C., & Horton, R. (2006). The state of youth and youth protection in northern Uganda: Findings from the Survey for War Affected Youth. Kampala: UNICEF.
Boothby, N., Crawford, J., & Halperin, J. (2006). Mozambican child soldier life outcome study: Lessons learned on rehabilitation and reintegration efforts. Global Public Health, 1(1), 87–107.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cairns, E., & Dawes, A. (1996). Children: Ethnic and political violence—A commentary. Child Development, 67(1), 129–139.
Child Soldiers. (2008). A ticking timebomb. Available at: http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/353396 http://www.planusa.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/353396
CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). (2005). Support to former child soldiers: Programming and proposal evaluation guide. Quebec: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Dawes, A., & Donald, D. (2000). Improving children’s chances. In D. Donald, A. Dawes, & J. Louw (Eds.), Addressing childhood adversity (pp. 1–25). Cape Town: David Philip.
Eisenbruch, M. (1991). From post-traumatic stress disorder to cultural bereavement. Social Science and Medicine, 33(6), 673–680.
Elder, G. (1998). The Life course as development theory. Child Development, 69(1), 1–12.
Garbarino, J., & Kostelny, K. (1996). The effects of political violence on Palestinian children’s behavioural problems: A risk accumulation model. Child Development, 67(1), 33–45.
Gielen, U., Fish, J., & Draguns, J. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of culture, therapy, and healing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Green, B. (1994). Psychosocial research in traumatic stress: An update. Journal of traumatic stress, 7(3), 341–362.
Honwana, A. (1997). Healing for peace: Traditional healers and post-war reconstruction in Southern Mozambique. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 3(3), 293–305.
Honwana, A. (1998a). Sealing the past, facing the future: Trauma healing in rural Mozambique (Vol. 3). London: Conciliation Resources, Accord.
Honwana, A. (1998b). Okusiakala O’Ndalu Yokalye: Let us light a new fire. Luanda: Christian Children’s Fund.
Human Rights Watch. (1994). Easy prey: Child soldiers in Liberia. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Project.
Husain, S. A., Jyotsna, N., Holcomb, W., Reid, J. C., Vargas, V., & Nair, S. N. (1998). Stress reactions of children and adolescents in war and siege conditions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1718–1719.
Inter-Agency Standing Committee. (2007). IASC guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings. Geneva: IASC.
International Labor Organization (ILO). (2008). Improving skills and productivity of disadvantaged youth. Employment working paper no. 7. Geneva: ILO.
Kostelny, K. (2004). What about the girls? Cornell International Law Journal, 37(3), 505–512.
Kreisberg, L. (2004). Comparing reconciliation actions within and between countries. In B.-S.-T. Yakov (Ed.), From conflict resolution to reconciliation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lederach, J. (1997). Building peace. Washington, DC: U. S. Institute of Peace.
Lee, J., & Sue, S. (2001). Clinical psychology and culture. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The handbook of culture & psychology (pp. 287–305). New York: Oxford University Press.
Masten, A. S., Best, K. M., & Garmezy, N. (1990). Resilience and development: Contributions from the study of children who overcome adversity. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 425–444.
McCallin, M. (1999). The refugee experience: Psychosocial training module. Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre.
McKay, S., & Mazurana, D. (2004). Where are the girls? Girls in fighting forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Mozambique: Their lives during and after war. Montreal: International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
McKay, S., Veale, A., Worthen, M., & Wessells, M. (2010). Community-based reintegration of war-affected young mothers: Participatory action research (PAR) in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and northern Uganda. Available at: http://PARgirlmothers.org
Mollica, R. F., Mclnnes, K., Poole, C., & Tor, S. (1998). Dose—Effect relationships of trauma to symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder among Cambodian survivors of mass violence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173, 482–488.
Murphy, M., Stark, L., Wessells, M., Boothby, N., & Ager, A. (2011). Fortifying barriers: Sexual violence as an obstacle to girls’ school participation in northern Uganda. In Julia Paulson (Ed.), Conflict, education and peacebuilding: Oxford studies in comparative education. Oxfordshire: Symposium Books.
Norris, K., Stevens, S., Pfefferbaum, B., Wyche, K., & Pfefferbaum, R. (2008). Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41, 127–150.
Peters, K., & Richards, P. (1998). Why we fight: Voices of youth combatants in Sierra Leone. Africa, 68(2), 183–210.
Rouhana, N. (2000). Interactive conflict resolution: Issues in theory, methodology, and evaluation. In P. Stern & D. Druckman (Eds.), International conflict resolution after the Cold War (pp. 294–337). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Save the Children UK. (2004). Crossing borders: The Demobilization and Reintegration of Rwandan Boys and Girls Associated with Armed Groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unpublished.
Sommers, M. (2003). Education in emergencies. Washington, DC: Creative Associates International.
Stark, L. (2006). Cleansing the wounds of war: An examination of traditional healing, psychosocial health and reintegration in Sierra Leone. Intervention: International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counseling in Areas of Armed Conflict, 4(3), 206–218.
Stark, L., Boothby, N., & Ager, A. (2009). Children and fighting forces: Ten years on from Cape Town Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies Policy and Management, 33(4), 522–547.
Swartz, L. (1998). Culture and mental health. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Tomaševski, K. (2001). Education: From lottery back to rights. International Children’s Rights Monitor., 14(3), 14–17.
UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). (2003). Technical notes: Special considerations for programming in unstable situations. New York, NY: UNICEF Programme Division. Unicef. (2007). Independent Final Evaluation of the Demobilization of Child Soldiers and Socioeconomic Reintegration of War-Affected Young People in Afghanistan (D&R) Project. Unicef: New York. Available at: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/projects/asia/Afghanistan_ChildSoldiers_feval.pdf
Van de Put, W., & Eisenbruch, M. (2004). Internally displaced Cambodians: Healing trauma in communities. In L. Rasco & K. Miller (Eds.), The mental health of refugees: Ecological approaches to healing and adaptation. Routledge.
Verhey, B. (2001). Child soldiers: Preventing, demobilizing and reintegrating. Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 23. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Verhey, B. (2004). Reaching the Girls: Study on Girls Associated with Armed Forces and Groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Save the Children and the NGO Group: CARE, IFESH and IRC. Available at: http://www.crin.org/bcn/details.asp
Wessells, M. (2006a). Child soldiers: From violence to protection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wessells, M. (2006b). A living wage: The importance of livelihood in reintegrating former child soldiers. In N. Boothby, A. Strang, & M. Wessells (Eds.), A world turned upside down: Social ecologies of children and war. Connecticut: Kumarian Press.
Wessells, M., & Jonah, D. (2005). Reintegration of former youth soldiers in Sierra Leone: Challenges of reconciliation and post-accord peacebuilding. In S. McEvoy-Levy (Ed.), Youth and post-accord peacebuilding. South Bend, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Williamson, J., & Carter, L. (2005). Children’s reintegration in Liberia. Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Williamson, J., & Cripe, L. (2002). Assessment of DCOF supported child demobilization and reintegration activities in Sierra Leone. Washington, DC: USAID.
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. (2005). Learning in a war zone: Education in northern Uganda. New York: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stark, L., Wessells, M. (2013). The Fallacy of the Ticking Time Bomb: Resilience of Children Formerly Recruited into Armed Forces and Groups. In: Fernando, C., Ferrari, M. (eds) Handbook of Resilience in Children of War. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6375-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6375-7_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6374-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6375-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)