PTSD and Collective Identity in Former Ugandan Child Soldiers

Worldwide hundred thousands of children and adolescents are recruited and misused as fighters. However, only little research exists that has investigated psychological well-being and trauma-related symptomatology of this particular population. This study aimed to explore this issue in the war-torn North of Uganda – an area that is characterized by almost 20 years of civil war and brutal child abduction for military and sexual purposes led by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA). This work further represents a pilot study for a subsequent therapy study with former Ugandan child soldiers. The team consisted of members of the NGO vivo international (www.vivo.org) and the University of Konstanz, Department of Clinical Psychology, off-site Psychotrauma Researchand Outpatient Clinic for Refugees and the Outpatient Clinic for Victims of Torture and War of the University of Zurich. It was possible to examine 61 former child soldiers in and around Gulu town. The sample comprises two subsamples: 40 of the children and adolescents had just escaped from abduction or had just been freed and were living in the reception centre of the local organization GUSCO (Gulu Support the Children Organization), which is responsible for reintegration of former Ugandan child soldiers. Another 21 children and adolescents, who could be interviewed, had already left GUSCO and had gone back to their communities. With the help of GUSCO social workers it was possible to visit them there. All participants could be interviewed by experts regarding potentially traumatic experiences (as victims and as perpetrators), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), comorbid disorders (depression and suicidality) and aggressive behaviours. Furthermore, a new questionnaire has been developed in order to assess possible collective identification of the formerly abducted children and adolescents with the LRA’s ideology. Relationships between strength of identification, psychological outcomes (PTSD, depression, suicidality) and aggression level have been analysed. The received knowledge will be passed back to local organizations and social workers in order to teach them about possible psychological problems of former child soldiers and to support their important work (in terms of helping the helpers). However, this work not only follows psychological research interests, it also documents the enormous violations of human and child rights in Northern Uganda. The first section (or introduction) of this work describes the situation of child soldiers and aspects of child recruitment followed by a brief history of the civil war of Northern Uganda. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was expected to be one of the main psychological problems associated with abduction and child soldiering. Accordingly, PTSD phenomenology