Former Child Soldiers' Problems and Needs

Congolese Experiences

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4662913
AutoresSteinar Johannessen (Oslo University Hospital, Søndre Nordstrand Clinic, Oslo, Norway), Helge Holgersen (University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway)
Año2014
Volumen24
Número1
Páginas55-66
Fecha de publicación2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732313513655
PMID24259534
OpenAlexW2163024166
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas31

With this article, we explore how staff working at transit centers and vocational training centers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced the problems and needs of former child soldiers. We argued that the staff's experience of the children's daily lives and their understanding of the sociocultural context of the conflict make their perspective a valuable source of information when trying to understand the phenomenon of child soldiering. Additionally, we reasoned that how the staff frame these children's problems influences how they attempt to aid the children. We conducted 11 semistructured interviews and analyzed these using a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach. We clustered our findings around six themes: unfavorable contextual factors, acting as if still in the army, addiction, symptoms of psychopathology, social rejection, and reintegration needs. The overarching message we observed was that the informants experienced that former child soldiers require help to be transformed into civilians who participate proactively in their society

Developmental psychology · Child Abuse and Trauma · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology