Children and War Trauma

Abstract

Children worldwide have recently been exposed, more than ever, to the escalating brutality of war, political violence, ethnic strife, and large-scale terrorism. Unlike conventional past wars, recent incidents have directly targeted civilian adults and children for destruction, and families have been uprooted to become refugees. The aim of this chapter is to provide an understanding of war trauma and its impact on children, with a focus on comprehensive large-scale intervention to meet the needs of children in war-affected zones. The proposed intervention is ecologically informed, multisystemic, culture-sensitive, and multimodal, following the generic approach and the unifying continuity principle. The generic intervention approach accentuates children's empowerment, resiliency, strengths, growth, and positive outlook while coping with war-related adversities. This approach underscores the role of schools as a community focal point for intervention efforts, the role that teachers (and other educators) can play as “clinical mediators,” and the recommended change in mental health professionals' roles within large-scale intervention. Examples of generic interventions and case materials are interwoven throughout the chapter to illustrate points raised in the literature. In addition, war-related individual and small-group indicated therapeutic interventions with children affected by war are discussed. Keywords: Children; coping; intervention; post-traumatic stress disorders; prevention; trauma; war