Department of Orthopedagogics, Ghent University, Belgium.
Child Abuse Negl. 2011 Jul;35(7):551-62. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.03.011. Epub 2011 Aug 9.
Child soldiering can be considered as one of the worst practices of institutionalized child abuse. However, little is known about the scope and nature of this abuse and the consequent experiences of children enrolled in an armed faction. This research aims at enriching the knowledge on the experiences of child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda.
The databases of 4 former Interim Care Centres for returned child soldiers in northern Uganda, comprising socio-demographic information of 8,790 returnees, and additional data from the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre on war-related experiences of 1,995 former child soldiers, are analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of covariance and regression analysis.
During on average 1.5 years in captivity, nearly all participants had various war-related experiences, whereby 88% witnessed and 76% forcibly participated in atrocities. Variations in exposure to warfare appear to be mainly associated with age of abduction, duration of captivity, location of captivity, being military trained, and being a rebel's wife.
These findings testify to the vastness of abuse lived through by the child soldiers in this study. They fulfilled a multifaceted position in the LRA, which delivers a range of potential direct and indirect consequences. The variables decisive in differential experiences unveil trends in the strategic abduction by the LRA and in differential exposure to warfare among child soldiers.
The variation in exposure to warfare urges for an individualized approach and monitoring of returning child soldiers. In order to address the potential indirect impact of child soldiering, support also needs to be oriented towards the child's network, based on a socio-ecological approach.
童兵可以被视为制度化虐待儿童的最恶劣行为之一。然而，对于这种虐待的范围和性质，以及加入武装派别的儿童所经历的后果，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在增进人们对乌干达北部上帝抵抗军（LRA）中儿童兵经历的了解。
利用乌干达北部 4 个前临时照料中心的数据库，对 8790 名返回儿童兵的社会人口学信息进行分析，并利用拉切莱康复中心的额外数据对 1995 名前儿童兵的战争经历进行分析，采用描述性统计、协方差分析和回归分析。
在平均 1.5 年的囚禁期间，几乎所有参与者都经历了各种与战争有关的经历，其中 88%目睹了暴行，76%被迫参与了暴行。暴露于战争的差异似乎主要与绑架年龄、囚禁时间、囚禁地点、军事训练和成为叛乱分子的妻子有关。
这些发现证明了本研究中儿童兵所经历的虐待的广泛性。他们在上帝抵抗军中扮演着多方面的角色，这带来了一系列潜在的直接和间接后果。决定不同经历的变量揭示了上帝抵抗军有策略地绑架儿童兵和儿童兵之间不同程度地暴露于战争的趋势。
战争经历的差异要求对回归的儿童兵采取个性化的方法和监测。为了解决童兵的潜在间接影响，还需要根据社会生态学方法，以儿童的社会网络为基础，提供支持。
