PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AND SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF CHILDREN ASSOCIATED WITH ARMED FORCES AND ARMED GROUPS: THE STATE OF THE FIELD AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
A REPORT PREPARED FOR PSYCHOLOGY BEYOND BORDERS
The Research Program on Children and Global Adversity (RPCGA) was launched in 2007 and is based at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. The RPCGA is devoted to applied research on the implementation of services and protections for children and families affected by armed conflict and those affected by HIV/AIDS. The goals of the RPCGA are to advance an evidence base regarding strategies and methods for closing the global implementation gap in child health and increasing protections and effective services for children in adversity.
This report reviews the current state of the field on the psychosocial adjustment, mental health and wellbeing of former child soldiers. In the first part of the report we review what is currently known about the effects of children’s participation in armed forces on their psychological, economic and social wellbeing. In the second part of the report we discuss two main paradigms that dominate the field of service delivery for war-affected youth: the psychosocial approach and the clinical/psychiatric approach. We provide a brief review of a handful of available evaluations on the efficacy of mental health interventions for war-affected youth, which have implications for former child soldiers. We conclude with a series of recommendations on what future research and policy is needed to improve services for former child soldiers within a framework of holistic, integrated care for all war-affected children and families.