Department of Orthopedagogics, Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
J Adolesc Health. 2013 Jun;52(6):757-64. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.11.014. Epub 2013 Feb 8.
Warfare takes a profound toll of all layers of society, creating multiple and multilevel challenges that impinge on the psychosocial well-being of affected individuals. This study aims to assess the scope and salience of challenges confronting former child soldiers and at identifying additional challenges they face compared to non-recruited young people in war-affected northern Uganda.
The study was carried out with a stratified random sample of northern Ugandan adolescents (n = 1,008), of whom a third had formerly been recruited (n = 330). The mixed-method comparison design consisted of a constrained free listing task to determine the challenges; a free sorting task to categorize them into clusters; and statistical analysis of their prevalence among formerly recruited youth and of how they compare with those of nonrecruited youth.
Altogether, 237 challenges were identified and clustered into 15 categories, showing that formerly recruited participants mainly identified "emotional" and "training and skills"-related challenges. Compared with nonrecruited counterparts, they reported significantly more "emotional" and fewer "social and relational" challenges, with the exception of stigmatization. Overall, there was similarity between the challenges reported by both groups.
The challenges confronting formerly recruited youths reach well beyond the effects of direct war exposure and emerge mainly from multiple influence spheres surrounding them. These challenges are largely shared in common with nonrecruited youths. This multidimensional and collective character of challenges calls for comprehensive psychosocial interventions through which healing the psychological wounds of war is complemented by mending the war-affected surroundings at all levels and in all life areas.
战争对社会各阶层都造成了深远的影响，带来了多层次的挑战，影响了受影响个体的社会心理福祉。本研究旨在评估前儿童兵所面临的挑战的范围和重要性，并确定与受战争影响的乌干达北部的未被招募的年轻人相比，他们所面临的其他挑战。
本研究采用分层随机抽样方法对乌干达北部青少年（n=1008）进行了研究，其中三分之一曾被招募（n=330）。混合方法比较设计包括受限自由列举任务以确定挑战；自由分类任务将其分类为集群；以及对以前招募的青年和未招募的青年中这些挑战的普遍性进行统计分析，并分析它们之间的差异。
总共确定了 237 个挑战，并将其聚类为 15 个类别，表明以前被招募的参与者主要识别出“情感”和“培训和技能”相关的挑战。与未被招募的同龄人相比，他们报告了更多的“情感”挑战和更少的“社会和关系”挑战，但除了污名化。总体而言，两组报告的挑战有相似之处。
以前被招募的青年所面临的挑战远远超出了直接战争暴露的影响，主要来自围绕他们的多个影响领域。这些挑战在很大程度上与未被招募的年轻人共同存在。这些挑战的多维和集体性质需要全面的社会心理干预，通过这种干预，战争造成的心理创伤得到治愈，同时修复各级和所有生活领域中受战争影响的环境。
