Reflections on a Quarter-life Crisis

Finding the Lost Generation: Child Soldiers

Child soldiering can dramatically affect the psychological developmental of a child. The traumas of war, the separation from family, and the dangers of life in the military are common concerns of those studying the psychological wellness of child soldiers before, during, and after life in the military. While Western psychology may not fully capture psychological gains and conditions that evolve from child soldiering, it is important to understand all the research to establish policies and programs that benefit the rights of individuals whether children or adults.

While the physical and psychological safety comes to the forefront of most Westerners' minds when the topic of child soldiering comes up, the impacts of war on child go far beyond depression and PTSD. War affects the way a child grows up and the way he/she perceives the world. Reintegration for a former child soldier can be just as difficult as their war experiences because it involves a conscious alteration in the way one thinks. Although supportive families and communities seem to be the best vehicle for positive reintegration into civilian life, many returning soldiers suffer ostracism and stigmatization.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Life as a Child Soldier
The cognitive map of a child soldier can be vastly different from that of a civilian child. It is common, and almost necessary, for the military to become a kind of family for a child soldier who has been ostracized or abducted from his/her community. The following excerpt, written by a child soldier of Sudan, demonstrates this idea:
I knew more than ever now that the SPLA would one day save me. Babba had sent me away, Nyagai, my my brothers, and my sisters must have forgotten me, but the SPLA were still looking after me and would one day win back my country (Jal, 2009).
The military tends to treat their child soldier differently from their adult soldiers in that they "mold" the children into perfect soldiers. On this idea, the military could be viewed as ‘raising' their soldiers. For example, trainers will expose child soldiers to violence to harden them for battle and will impress their own values upon the children. This phenomenon is often compared to Stockholm's Syndrome in which abductees show signs of loyalty and trust towards their kidnappers.

Hostile Intent Bias

As expected, children who have participated in war activities are overall more aggressive than children who do not participate in such activities. Some children, however, are more at risk for attaining these temperaments; if a child had a hostile intent bias before entering the military, it is likely that the reinforcement that these assumptions are true can lead to extremely aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is more likely to develop in children who perceive their environment as dangerous and other people as malevolent and this is particularly true for children in war times. These same soldiers also use narrowed or distorted interpretations of their experiences. Because a child soldier does not have an enriched environment during childhood, they are less likely to observe and apply the right scripts in problem solving techniques outside of violence. For these reasons, much rehabilitation is centered on altering the way a child perceives the world and teaching problem-solving strategies in civilian life. While this is the most effective strategy in rehabilitation that affects all aspects of civilian life, it is also the hardest to accomplish.

RATIONALE FOR RESEARCH
While a number of factors exist that affect a former child soldier's ability to reintegrate into a civilian community, better outcomes have been correlated with the age of return of the child. Many theories exist to explain this correlation but two prominent, well-known theories are that a younger child is more resilient than an older child or a younger child is better accepted into a community after having served. In order to test a society's willingness to help a younger child over and older child, this study was created.
In addition to measuring the effect of age on reintegration, demonstration of aggressive tendencies was also included as a factor; many refugee agencies exclude child soldiers from eligibility for refugee protection on the basis that they pose a risk to their community so this factor was included to test its effects on willingness to help.
It is important to note the main limitation to this study: here we are measuring the willingness of acceptance of a mainly Western sample which is less ecologically valid for the purposes of actual reintegration.
It is also important to understand that most of the 'positive' and ‘negative' outcomes that we rate are established by our culture, not the culture in which the child lives. It is common to have a knee-jerk reaction to the 'atrocities' of child soldiering but only by understanding and respecting another culture can we ensure a better quality of life for all parties involved. For example, we may think that mistrusting all the people around you is detrimental to your health but many cultures believe that it simply a pragmatic e view on life. Although we do impose Western psychological concepts such as depression and trauma, these ideals can be fragmentary when applied to a different culture. Our idea of reintegration can be vastly different than that of another culture. It is important to approach these psychological analyses in the context of widely varying cultures each with their own values, customs, and attitudes.

SAMPLE & DATA COLLECTION
The study conducted was in the form of four general vignettes of child soldiers: Story A, B, C, and D. Each story took on four forms in which the character was: 1. older and aggressive, 2. younger and aggressive, 3. older and non-aggressive, 4. younger and non-aggressive. From these 16 stories, 4 material sets were formed. Each material set had one story from categories A-D and 1-4.

The four material sets were as follows:
W   X    Y    Z
A1 A2 A3 A4
B2 B3  B4  B1
C3 C4  C1  C2
D4 D1  D2 D3

Each vignette was taken from War Child (Emmanuel, 2009) and altered slightly to fit the specifications of its category. Some aggressive words were changed to ones with non-aggressive connotations and, of course, the name and age of the child in each vignette was changed. The four excerpts were similar in that they all indicated that the child had been in the militant group for 2 years, none discussed the actual violence done by the child, and all expressed some of the child's feelings and thoughts on the topic. Each story had to be different, however, so that the participants could not detect the experimental factors.
The "older" category consisted of boys 13-15 years old at the time of the interview while the 'younger' category consisted of boys 8-10 years old at the time of the interview. Each vignette indicated that the boy had been involved in the military for two years by the time of the interview.
Please refer to the actual vignettes and material sets presented later.
The vignettes were distributed through an internet network database. Subjects were randomly assigned to read either W, X, Y, or Z material sets. The subjects were instructed to take on the position of a representative of their country and rank the priority of each child soldier for refugee protection.
The total number of surveys completed were N = 124, with n = 31 for each material set.

RESULTS
According the results of this vignette survey research on child soldier reintegration and priority to help a child soldier, participants prioritized children who were younger and non-aggressive as having the highest priority for refugee protection compared to any of the other groups. On average, these children were rated as having a priority of 3.4 on a scale of 4. Older and non-aggressive children, on average, scored the lease priority, 2.9, but not much less than younger aggressive children, and older non-aggressive children who scored around 3.0.
After conducting a factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that both age group and temperament affect the priority scores and that the two factors interacted with one another.

DISCUSSION
After the survey was conducted, some participants volunteered their thoughts on the choices they had to make. Most agreed that trying to prioritize the children seemed nearly impossible. This concept, however, brings up a notable weakness in the research. There is often a great divide in what ‘should' be done and what is actually done as well as striking differences in the way a participant would react in the actual situation described in the vignette. Furthermore, the idea that people cannot be prioritized and that everyone is born equal is a fundamental western belief that is not held by the whole world and is definitely note implemented in actions by all, thus making the research less ecologically valid.
As expected, the participants' rationale behind their choices tended to cluster around 3 main points:
1. Younger children are more resilient than older ones and so are more likely to be able to reintegrate
2. Aggressive children would pose a safety risk to the community
3. Aggressive children may be "too far gone" to be reintegrated back into civilian life.

REHABILITATION AND REINTIEGRATION INTO SOCIETY
Upon returning to civilian society, a former child soldier has many tough adjustments in habits and views on the world. In fact, many youth report that the return to their village was as stressful as their experiences in the military had been. It has been determined that most returning child soldiers suffer from PTSD, depression, and/or anxiety. While these psychological issues are of concern to western psychologists, most returning soldiers report their most pressing concerns as an inability to earn money, fear of rejection, stigmatization, being unsuitable for marriage, and more.
It is also notable that some soldiers rate their experiences positively in that it helped build their chracer, increase their resilience, open the door of opportunity, provide leadership experience, as well as commitment to a meaningful cause (Brett & Specht, 2004).

CONCLUSION
While the physical and psychological safety comes to the forefront of most Westerners' minds when the topic of child soldiering comes up, the impacts of war on child go far beyond depression and PTSD. War affects the way a child grows up and the way he/she perceives the world. Reintegration for a former child soldier can be just as difficult as their war experiences because it involves a conscious alteration in the way one thinks. Although supportive families and communities seem to be the best vehicle for positive reintegration into civilian life, many returning soldiers suffer ostracism and stigmatization.
Current policies regarding child soldiers are inconsistent with many psychological findings. The convention on the Rights of the Child established that person under the age of 18 may participate in war activities. Children who enter the military on their own accord because they belief in its efforts, however, tend to have positive psychological outcomes. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees currently exclude culpable child soldiers for refugee protection on the basis of safety for others. This policy, however, deters child from leaving the military because it supports stigma and ostracism while denying any form of help for reintegration into the community.

REFERENCES
Barber, B. (2009). Adolescents and War. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brett, R., Specht, I. (2004). Younger Soldiers: Why they chose to fight. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Erikson, E. E. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Jal, E. (2009). War Child. New York: St. Martin's Press.