KEY LEARNING POINTS
These are covered under each sub-section, as follows:
4.1 Experiences of Violence and Fear
4.2 Separation from Parents or Other Careers
4.3 Exploitation and Abuse
4.4 Children’s Involvement in Fighting
Forces
INTRODUCTION
This topic is designed to provide a basis of knowledge which links directly with other ARC Resource Packs - notably Separated Children, Working with Children, Exploitation and Abuse and Child Soldiers. Facilitators are referred to these for further information on each of these subjects, and in particular on some of the key issues involved in programmed.
Throughout this Topic, it is important to remember that child-rearing practices vary a great deal between different cultures. Much of the research on threats to child development - separation and loss for example - have taken place in western societies and hence cannot simply be transferred to other cultural settings. Therefore there is no substitute for examining, within any particular context, how children have reacted to the situation facing them: this requires a child-centered situation analysis which directly accesses the views, wishes and feelings of the people involved - the children, their careers, community leaders, teachers etc. Facilitators are referred to the ARC Resource Pack on Situation Analysis – especially Topic 3 – for further information and ideas on this.
4.1 EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE AND FEAR
Key Learning Points
• Traumatic events such as violence, sudden flight, loss and intense fear are likely to have immediate, and maybe long-term, effects on children and adolescents.
• The nature of their reactions will depend on many different factors, including age, individual characteristics and temperament, and the quality of care and support they receive from their family and other significant people in their social environment.
Children living in areas affected by armed conflict risk experiencing a number of threats to their development and well-being. These typically involve intense fear, witnessing and perhaps experiencing brutal violence at close quarters, witnessing the destruction of property (possibly including their own homes) and the necessity of fleeing in panic. Children living in a situation of more prolonged conflict may have to face the constant anxiety of fighting or bombing intruding into their lives, coping with the presence of land-mines or unexploded ordnance. Many of these experiences can have both immediate and longer-term effects on children’s development and well-being.
The immediate effects of such events on children depend particularly on:
•
the
meaning of the event for the child (and his/her family) and, most importantly,
whether the event caused the loss of one or both of his/her parents or careers;
•
the
stage of development of the individual child;
•
the
personal characteristics of the child;
•
the
presence or absence of supportive adults, particularly their familiar careers;
• whether the child was personally involved either as a victim or perpetrator.
Longer-term developmental effects may depend on factors such as:
• the extent to which those in the child’s
immediate environment react to the changed behavior, appearance or social
status in the child;
• the degree to which highly significant losses
can be replaced - such as parents
or other important careers;
• the degree to which further traumatic
experiences can be avoided;
• the extent and quality of assistance
which the child and family receive;
• the extent to which the events have changed the child’s “life-plan” (i.e. his or her anticipated life course covering such things as where he or she lives, type of life style, expectations for the future - for example, institutionalization following the loss of parents or careers).
Pregnant and lactating mothers may be
particularly at risk from violence and the
deprivations of war. Premature delivery, still-births, loss of breast-milk are all possible consequences.
Young children who have had frightening and confusing experiences may regress - i.e. lose (usually temporarily) developmental gains such as speech or control of bladder and bowel. Disturbances in sleep and eating habits are also common. These kinds of reactions may be compounded in situations where the parents or other careers become depressed or anxious and may have less energy for and interest in the child. Where traumatic experiences are compounded by the loss of parents or other careers, or separation from them, reactions and distress may be greatly magnified (see section on Separation below). The apparent loss of capacity to play is sometimes observed, or children become preoccupied with themes of violence, death etc. in their play and drawing.
The developmental effects of violence and other frightening events on older children usually have to do with their capacity to form relationships, and to learn.
The capacity and will to form
relationships can be disturbed by experiences which
destroy trust and which create fear and suspicion in others. This is especially significant where children lose people close to them, whether through death or separation. Children can become depressed and hence unable to mobilize interest in learning. Children who become withdrawn can easily be overlooked in the classroom, especially if there are many children. Others may retain their will to learn but be troubled by flashbacks - sudden intrusive images of the traumatic experience which can disturb concentration and motivation.
Other symptoms include an
increase in aggression and the various physiological
complaints such as headaches, loss of
appetite and energy, mood changes and
other signs of anxiety. Older children may
also display a sense of guilt that they
have survived when others have not.
During the adolescent period, exposure to violent and frightening experiences can have a particularly pronounced effect. Their capacity for learning and for forming relationships can be disturbed, and in some cases, faced perhaps with the loss of educational opportunities and a disturbed developmental life-course, many adolescents may come to sense a lack of meaning in life and future perspectives. Young people of this age can experience many of the symptoms which may affect younger children: extreme fear and anxiety may cause a delay in the onset of puberty. Criminal activity with peers, drug and substance abuse and other forms of anti-social behavior may represent a form of meaning as well as an outlet for deep frustration. The vulnerability of adolescents to voluntary recruitment into armed forces reflects the severe impact of traumatic events at this crucial stage of development.
Facilitators are referred to the ARC Resource Pack Working with Children for further ideas and training materials on issues related to children who have been psychologically affected by their experiences.
4.2 SEPARATION FROM PARENTS OR OTHER CARERS
Key Learning Points
• Separation from, or loss of, parents or other familiar careers, may have both short-term and long-term effects on children of all ages.
•
The effects of separation will be different according
to the age of the child, his or her level of intellectual development,
maturity, gender and the nature and duration of the separation.
• Some significant cultural differences can be observed.
• A child’s limited sense of time may limit his or her understanding of the likely duration of the separation.
•
Separation is likely to be associated with other
threats to child development, including loss of home and familiar surroundings
and the experience of violent or frightening events.
Attachment to care-givers is one of the most fundamental building blocks of child development, as this bond is critical to the child’s immediate welfare. Most of the research into the effects of separation have been undertaken in western societies where there has been a strong emphasis on attachment to a single care-taker, usually the child’s mother. In many other cultures, young children have, and are attached to multiple care-takers - mothers, grand-parents, older siblings etc.
Experiences of separation and loss will have differing impact depending on the child’s age, level of intellectual development, emotional maturity, gender and the nature and duration of the separation. It will also vary between cultures. In general, however, it seems that infants are likely to react to separation with evident anxiety. For infants under the age of about 4 - 6 months, separation is not normally associated with distress, provided their needs for warmth, food, comfort and stimulation are met. The reason for this is that up to this age, the infant has not yet learned to recognize the individual career and that attachment bonds have not yet been formed. Research evidence from the West suggests that the period from birth to 2 or 3 years is particularly important for the formation of bonds and the development of attachment behaviour. Separation during this period has the greatest distress reaction, especially between about 6 and eighteen months of age. If separation is prolonged, it is not unusual for children to regress (i.e. revert to behaviour typical of younger children): for example, the child may become more demanding and want to be fed, or refuse food altogether, may be more fearful at night, speak less clearly by reverting to “baby talk”, become more fearful of strangers, and perhaps relinquish the achievement of bladder and bowel control.
The notion of attachment is not limited to the phase of early childhood. School-aged children will also react to loss and separation through other behaviour, including denial, depression, increased aggression, sleep disturbance and physical symptoms such as headache, stomach-ache and shortness of breath. While adolescents may have learned conventions about the control of grief, and have acquired cognitive capacities to understand more about what is happening to them, they continue to benefit from the structure of family life. The opportunity for adolescents to receive support and guidance from adult mentors and role models allows for significant developmental gain, as the attitudes, beliefs and values they adopt during the adolescent period may become lifelong. There is some evidence that separation during adolescence has a more profound long-term effect than separation experienced by younger children. One of the reasons for this may be that separation can disrupt the young person’s sense of self and his/her emerging sense of identity.
Research in western societies has suggested that separations can have long-term effects on children. However, it seems most likely that the majority of long-term effects are not a product of separation, but of the lack of adequate substitute care that follows on from separation. It seems clear that separated children cope best when they are cared for by caring adults (or sometimes older siblings) who provide an appropriate level of affection, care and stimulation. Good quality of care is rarely available in an institutional setting. Wherever possible, children (especially those of pre-school age) should be provided with care within a family setting. Where children have experienced multiple careers (i.e. where caring tasks are shared, for example between the child’s mother, older siblings, grandparents etc.), the distress will probably be minimized if they are able to maintain contact with at least one of their previous care-takers. For this reason it is especially important that brothers and sisters should be kept together whenever possible. In cultures in which siblings have an important role, care within a supported child-headed family may be preferable to separation from siblings resulting in care by strangers. In the context of separation and the provision of substitute care, another important feature of child development concerns the child’s sense of time. Young children have yet to acquire the capacity to appreciate time as measured by the clock or calendar. The baby will not seek an object that has been taken from sight: it has simply gone! The infant cannot use thinking to hold on to the image of the departed parent, while children aged around 4 - 6 years of age are more likely to grasp time as related to events such as “meal-time”, “bed-time” etc. Similarly, children under the age of around 5 may have difficulty in understanding the concept of death and may not realize that a deceased parent is not going to return.
Reassurances that a separated child may be able to return to her parents within a few days/weeks/months may have little meaning and will provide little comfort. When policy-makers and practitioners use terms such as “interim care” or “short-term placement”, these may have little meaning to children themselves. Again, however, it should be remembered that there may be significant differences between cultures.
It needs to be borne in mind that separation does not occur in isolation from other events. A child who is separated in war or flight, for example, will have to cope not only with separation (which may be permanent) but also with the possibly violent circumstances in which the separation occurred, and the loss not just of his or her attachment figure(s) but the loss of the family home and familiar surroundings. By contrast, the child who has been abandoned may have to cope not just with separation but with the knowledge of being unwanted or rejected, and possibly with being neglected or abused during the months leading up to abandonment: younger children may invent explanations of the circumstances of their abandonment, such as their own worthlessness. Separation is usually associated with other kinds of loss - of the family home, other familiar people, possessions and familiar circumstances. Separated children usually benefit from as much continuity with the past as possible: remaining together with siblings, maintaining one or two possessions and so on can be extremely important to the child.
More information and training materials on
the issue of separation are to be found
in the Resource Pack Separated
Children.
4.3 EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE
Key Learning Points
•
Children and adolescents in situations of conflict and
forced migration are at greatly increased risk of various forms of abuse and
exploitation.
•
Exploitation and abuse can take many different forms,
and any particular instance needs to be understood within its particular social
and cultural context.
• The impact of exploitation or abuse can be profound, and will vary according to the particular circumstances: it is important to understand both the objective nature of the experiences and the meaning, and subjective evaluation by the individual child.
•
Abuse or exploitation within the family can have
particularly profound consequences for the child’s development.
There is now a great deal of evidence that children with a background in conflict or displacement are at greatly increased risk of various forms of abuse and exploitation. It is also clear that the presence of one risk factors may make children more vulnerable to other risks, hence an accumulation of risks can occur: for example, the separated child may be at enhanced risk of abuse and exploitation, while a child facing abuse within the family may be at enhanced risk of recruitment into fighting forces.
The terms “exploitation” and “abuse” cannot be used in an absolute or universal sense: rather behaviour towards a child which might be deemed to be abusive or exploitative needs to be seen against cultural norms and standards. This issue is dealt with in the ARC Resource Pack Abuse and Exploitation, Topic 1.
In the area of child labour, for example, it is important not to impose a western concept of childhood (which largely excludes paid work) and not to make the blanket assumption that all forms of child work are exploitative or damaging to children’s development. On the other hand, some of the most damaging aspects of work can be psychological in nature and relatively invisible to the outside observer. Included within the definition of exploitative child labour is work that interferes with the child's ability to access education whether because of the hours or any other reason.
Children may be more susceptible to some
types of work hazards than are adults because they are in the process of growth
and have particular developmental needs: carrying excessively heavy loads can
have a serious and permanent effect on the child’s growth. On the other hand,
research has demonstrated that working children can have an extraordinary
ability to weigh the complex costs and benefits of work. In determining whether
work is harmful, two sets of criteria may be used. First, the objective
conditions of their work: this may include such criteria as:
•
the
nature of children’s work activities;
•
the
nature of the work environment;
•
the
presence of specific hazards (physical and psychological);
• the nature of the employment relationship.
Second, the subjective value given to the work by the children themselves. For example, where children perceive that the benefits (e.g. pride in contributing to the family economy, satisfaction and learning derived from the work) largely outweigh the costs (e.g. working long hours), it seems that this may partly shield children from the worst effects of work. Again it is important to avoid assumptions about the impact of work on children: for example, it is often assumed that children should not be working because they should be in school. However, it is clear that many working children can only attend school if they earn enough to pay their own school fees and expenses. It is important that a thorough situation analysis is undertaken, which includes a careful attempt to elicit the views of the children themselves.
Gender issues may also be significant: in
some cultures, girls tend to carry an excessive burden of unpaid domestic work,
sometimes in addition to paid work outside of the family. Frequently this is a
factor in school enrolment figures which
show a bias in favour of boys. All of these issues are elaborated in the Resource Pack on Abuse and Exploitation, Topic 3.
The sexual abuse and exploitation of children will frequently have severe and far-reaching effects, depending on the age, gender and temperament of the child, the nature and duration of the experience, the identity of the abuser and the quality of support received, especially from the child’s family. Although the majority of sexually abused and exploited children will be girls, it is important to remember that boys can also be involved, and that there may be even greater underreporting of abuse against them than is the case with girls.
The impact of sexual exploitation can be
experienced on various levels, including:
• physical consequences - including genital injury, STDs and the contraction of HIV/AIDS, and unwanted pregnancy;
• emotional consequences can include the trauma of violent exploitation which can have similar effects to those of other traumatic experiences (see previous discussion);
•
in
some societies, a sense of shame at having been violated, and especially if pregnancy
results, can have severe consequences for the child;
• social consequences can include ostracism by the family or community - especially if the child is disbelieved or blamed for what has happened. In some cultures, sexual exploitation will have a negative effect on the child’s chances of marrying;
•
secondary
trauma can result if the incident is handled insensitively - e.g. aggressive
interviewing of the child, insensitive medical examination etc.
All of these can have both immediate and long-term impacts on children’s development.
Abuse within the family (whether physical,
sexual, emotional abuse or neglect) can have particularly serious consequences
for the child’s development. It will be important to consider not just the
immediate physical and emotional impact of the abuse on the child: abuse within
the family constitutes a gross breach of trust in the adults who are charged
with the responsibility for caring for and protecting the child. Because of the
child’s age and developmental stage, he or she may be powerless to resist or
protect him/herself from abusive behaviour. Evidence suggests that abuse is
likely to continue until its causes have been identified and removed, or unless
the risk of further abuse is minimized by the separation of the abuser from the
subject of the abuse; but removal of the child can sometimes place other
children in the family at increased risk.
Research in western societies suggests that it is not uncommon for abused children to grow into abusing adults. For example, sexually abused boys are prone to become sexual abusers of other children, while emotionally neglected children may grow up without the personal knowledge of the importance of love and affection, which may have a negative effect on their own parenting skills later in life.
All of these issues are elaborated in the
ARC Resource Pack on Exploitation and
Abuse.
4.4 CHILDREN’S INVOLVEMENT IN FIGHTING FORCES
Key Learning Points
• Children associated with fighting forces are likely to have lived in a rigid hierarchical structure and may have acquired a distorted morality based on power, fear and brutality.
• Involvement in violence and brutality and possibly in involuntary and inappropriate sexual activity may have a severe impact on age appropriate and culturally acceptable behaviour.
• Demobilisation may raise significant issues in terms of identity and self esteem and the sense of purpose in life.
• Not all of the child’s experiences with fighting forces will necessarily have been negative: it is important to acknowledge any positive elements and to consider the child’s loss of them in any rehabilitative programme.
There is a growing awareness not only of the particular needs of child soldiers, but of those of other children who are involved in fighting forces - children abducted or otherwise forcibly recruited not just as fighters but for use as “human shields”, porters and camp assistants, or for sexual purposes.
One of the most challenging effects on children of such experiences is that they have spent a significant part of their childhood in a strictly hierarchical structure and have experienced a socialization process which serves the purposes of a military command. Clearly such experiences may make it difficult for children, upon release, to adjust and to re-learn new codes of behaviour and how to develop relationships not based on power and fear.
Children who have participated in violence and killing have probably been given messages about what such actions mean from the vantage point of armed forces: again, this may mean that children have to re-learn moral behaviour and acquire the ability to make moral judgements appropriate to civilian life. Some children do realize the terrible nature of their previous actions and hence may suffer greatly because of that realization and the guilt and shame associated with it.
Girls who have been on active duty may
find particular difficulty in adjusting to expected ways of how girls should
behave in their society, and this may affect marriage prospects as well as
adjustment to the role of wife and mother. Girls are particularly at risk of
rape and prolonged sexual abuse, and this may affect the normal development of
age-appropriate and culturally acceptable behaviour: in turn this can pose a
challenge for successful social integration.
Some children - especially those who have had positions of responsibility in the fighting forces - may have particular difficulty in adjusting themselves to civilian life where their status is no longer recognized. Even young children may have taken on “adult” roles, responsibilities and authority: this may make it extremely difficult to return to the expectations associated with childhood - e.g. conforming to the norms and rules of school, or to the discipline and expectations of the family and community.
An essential aspect of rehabilitation is finding ways of promoting children’s self-esteem and a sense of hope and confidence in the future: this may be particularly difficult for children who have been recruited, partly as a reflection of their own perceptions of the lack of opportunities available within their own community. Experience suggests that once these children reintegrate back into more normal life in the community, many struggle with poor self-esteem and a confused sense of who they are, and need long-term support from their families and communities. It is not surprising that many remain vulnerable to re-recruitment.
One aspect of life within fighting forces that is not always well recognized is that children may well have had some positive experiences, intermingled with many negative and brutalizing ones. For example, they may have been part of a highly supportive group-living situation, they may have had a strong sense of purpose, perhaps with in ideology which, though possibly imposed through an indoctrination process, may have given a sense of meaning to their actions. They may also have had strong personal relationships with their commanders despite the potential for an exploitative and brutal aspect of this relationship. These more positive sides of their experience cannot always be readily replaced, but unless children do have opportunities for good adult and peer-group relationships, a sense of purpose and self-esteem, they are likely to experience great difficulties in returning to more normal civilian life in the community.
The implications of these impacts on child development are explored in more detail in the ARC Resource Pack on Child Soldiers.