Past horrors, present struggles: The role of stigma in the association between war experiences and psychosocial adjustment among former child soldiers in Sierra Leone
Past horrors, present struggles: The role of stigma in the association between war experiences and psychosocial adjustment among former child soldiers in Sierra Leone
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DOI：
10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.038
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发表时间：
2010-01-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Ellis, B. Heidi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Betancourt, Theresa S.;Agnew-Blais, Jessica;Ellis, B. Heidi
返回社区后，以前与武装部队和武装团体有联系的儿童（通常被称为儿童兵）往往面临严重的社区耻辱。许多关于儿童兵重返社会和康复的研究都集中在过去与战争有关的暴力和心理健康结果的暴露上，但还没有实证工作审查冲突后耻辱在形成长期心理社会调整方面的作用。本文使用了两波数据，来自对塞拉利昂男女前儿童兵的第一次前瞻性研究。我们研究了污名（表现在歧视以及较低水平的社区和家庭接受）在战争相关的经验和心理社会调整（抑郁，焦虑，敌意和适应行为）之间的关系的作用。前儿童兵的战后经历各不相同，这些差异深刻地影响了他们随着时间的推移而进行的心理社会调整。与社会压力理论相一致，我们观察到，冲突后的因素，如耻辱可以发挥重要作用，在塑造前儿童兵的心理社会调整。我们发现，歧视与家庭和社区的接受程度呈负相关。此外，更高水平的家庭接受度与减少敌意有关，而社区接受度的改善与适应态度和行为有关。我们发现，冲突后的歧视经历在很大程度上解释了过去参与伤害/杀害他人与随后敌意增加之间的关系。耻辱感同样也调节了强奸幸存者和抑郁症之间的关系。然而，幸存的强奸继续表现出独立的影响，增加焦虑，敌意和适应/亲社会行为后，调整其他变量。这些调查结果表明，这些青年的心理社会调整和重返社区的复杂性，并有一些方案和政策的影响。(C)2009爱思唯尔有限公司保留所有权利。
Upon returning to their communities, children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups-commonly referred to as child soldiers-often confront significant community stigma. Much research on the reintegration and rehabilitation of child soldiers has focused on exposure to past war-related violence and mental health outcomes, yet no empirical work has yet examined the role that post-conflict stigma plays in shaping long-term psychosocial adjustment. Two waves of data are used in this paper from the first prospective study of male and female former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. We examined the role of stigma (manifest in discrimination as well as lower levels of community and family acceptance) in the relationship between war-related experiences and psychosocial adjustment (depression, anxiety, hostility and adaptive behaviors). Former child soldiers differ from one another with regard to their post-war experiences, and these differences profoundly shape their psychosocial adjustment over time. Consistent with social stress theory, we observed that post-conflict factors such as stigma can play an important role in shaping psychosocial adjustment in former child soldiers. We found that discrimination was inversely associated with family and community acceptance. Additionally, higher levels of family acceptance were associated with decreased hostility, while improvements in community acceptance were associated with adaptive attitudes and behaviors. We found that post-conflict experiences of discrimination largely explained the relationship between past involvement in wounding/killing others and subsequent increases in hostility. Stigma similarly mediated the relationship between surviving rape and depression. However, Surviving rape continued to demonstrate independent effects on increases in anxiety, hostility and adaptive/prosocial behaviors after adjusting for other variables. These findings point to the complexity of psychosocial adjustment and community reintegration in these youth and have a number of programmatic and policy implications. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.