Although former child soldiers face considerable challenges after their return from the warring faction to the war-affected society, the presence of resources enables many to maintain well-being in the wake of child soldiering. Academic research has recently engaged with identifying these salient resources, but has left the question why they are helpful to former child soldiers largely unaddressed.
This study therefore focuses on the meaning underlying certain phenomena that causes them to become resources. Semistructured in-depth interviews and a free-listing task on resources were conducted with 48 northern Ugandan former child soldiers. The phenomenological hermeneutical method is applied to analyze their lived experiences and the meaning they assign to resources.
Four essential themes emerge from this study, representing the fourfold meaning of resources for former child soldiers in helping them (a) to break with their former existence as child soldiers, (b) to be able to overcome the challenges in their current life, (c) to belong to others and the environment to which they have returned, and (d) to become the person they aspire to be.
Considering these research themes in the context of former child soldiers’ return process, parallels with theories on transition are recognized and further explored so as to contextualize this emerging meaning. As such, this research delivers empirical evidence illustrating how resources help to pilot former child soldiers through transition in the wake of child soldiering.
AllwoodM.Bell-DolanD.HusainS. A. (2002). Children’s trauma and adjustment reactions to violent and nonviolent war experiences. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 450-457.
2.
AnnanJ.BrierM.AryemoF. (2009). From “Rebel” to “Returnee”: Daily life and reintegration for young soldiers in northern Uganda. Journal of Adolescent Research, 24, 639-667.
3.
ArzyS.Adi-JaphaE.BlankeO. (2009). The mental time line: An analogue of the mental number line in the mapping of life events. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 781-785.
4.
AssinkM.SchrootsJ. J. (2010). The dynamics of autobiographical memory using the Lim/Lifeline Interview Method. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Hogrefe Publishing.
5.
BaltesP. B. (1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of development theory. American Psychologist, 52, 366-380.
6.
BeckerG. (1999). Disrupted lives: How people create meaning in a chaotic world. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
7.
BetancourtT. S.BorisovaI. I.WilliamsT. P.BrennanR. T.WhitfieldT. H.de la SoudiereM.GilmanS.E. (2010). Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers: A follow-up study of psychosocial adjustment and community reintegration. Child Development, 81, 1077-1095.
8.
BetancourtT. S.KhanK. T. (2008). The mental health of children affected by armed conflict: Protective processes and pathways to resilience. International Review of Psychiatry, 20, 317-328.
9.
BlattmanC.AnnanJ. (2008). Child combatants in northern Uganda: Reintegration myths and realities. In MuggahR. (Ed.), Security and post-conflict reconstruction: Dealing with fighters in the aftermath of war (pp. 103-126). New York, NY: Routledge.
10.
BonannoG. A. (2004). Loss, trauma and human resilience. Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?American Psychologist, 59, 20-28.
11.
BoothbyN. (2008). Political violence and development: an ecologic approach to children in war zones. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 17, 497-514.
12.
BoothbyN.CrawfordJ.HalperinJ. (2006). Mozambican child soldier life outcome study: lessons learned on rehabilitation and reintegration efforts. Global Public Health, 1(1), 87-107.
13.
BronfenbrennerU. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
CamfieldL.CrivelloG.WoodheadM. (2009). Wellbeing research in developing countries: Reviewing the role of qualitative methods. Social Indicators Research, 90, 5-31.
15.
CamfieldL.McGregorJ. A. (2005). Resilience and wellbeing in developing countries. In UngarM. (Ed.), Handbook for working with children and youth: pathways to resilience across cultures and contexts (pp. 189-210). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
16.
CaseyE. S. (1996). How to get from space to place in a fairly short stretch of time. Phenomenological prolegomena. In FeldS.BassoK. H. (Eds.), Senses of place (pp. 13-52). Santa Fe, NM: School of American Press.
17.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (2008). Child soldiers. Global report 2008. London, UK: Author.
18.
CorbinJ. N. (2008). Returning home: Resettlement of formerly abducted children in Northern Uganda. Disasters, 32, 316-335.
19.
CortesL.BuchananM. J. (2007). The experience of Colombian child soldiers from a resilience perspective. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 29, 43-55.
20.
De BoeckF.HonwanaA. (2005). Introduction: Children and youth in Africa. Agency, identity and place. In De BoeckF.HonwanaA. (Eds.), Makers and breakers: Children and youth in postcolonial Africa (pp. 1-19). Oxford, UK: James Curry.
21.
De VosG. (1975). Ethnic pluralism: Conflict and accommodation. In De VosG.Romanucci-RossL. (Eds.), Ethnic Identity: Cultural continuities and change (pp. 5-41). Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
22.
DonmoyerR. (2001). Paradigm talk reconsidered. In RichardsonV. (Ed.), Handbook of research in teaching (pp. 174-197). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
23.
EliadeM. (1958). Rites and symbols of initiation: The mysteries of birth and rebirth. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
24.
FreilerC. (2000). Social inclusion as a focus of well being for children and families. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Laidlaw Foundation.
25.
GadamerH. (1975). Hermeneutics and social science. Cultural Hermeneutics, 2, 307-316.
26.
GeertzC. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York, NY: Basic Books.
27.
GeurtsK. L. (2002). Culture and the senses: Bodily ways of knowing in an African community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
28.
GrimesR. L. (2002). Deeply into the bone: Re-inventing rites of passage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
29.
HeideggerM. (1962). Being and time. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
30.
HobfollS. E. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307-324.
31.
HollowayI. (2005). Qualitative writing. In HollowayI. (Ed.), Qualitative research in health care (pp. 270-284). Berkshire, UK: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill.
32.
HonwanaA. (2006). Child soldiers in Africa. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
33.
JaregE. (2005). Crossing bridges and negotiating rivers: rehabilitation and reintegration of children associated with armed forces. London, UK: Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
34.
JonesL. (2002). Adolescent understandings of political violence and psychological well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 1351-1371.
35.
KaplanH. B. (2005). Understanding the concept of resilience. In GoldsteinS.BrooksR. B. (Eds.), Handbook of resilience in children (pp. 39-47). New York, NY: Springer.
36.
KlasenF.OettingenG.DanielsJ.PostM.HoyerC.AdamA. (2010). Post-traumatic resilience in former Ugandan child soldiers. Child Development, 81, 1096-1113.
37.
KostelnyK. (2006). A culture-based, integrative approach. Helping war-affected children. In BoothbyN.StrangA.WessellsM. (Eds.), A world turned upside down. Social ecological approaches to children in war zones (pp. 19-38). Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
38.
LayneC. M.WarrenJ. S.WatsonP. J.ShalevA. Y. (2007). Risk, vulnerabilities, resistance and resilience: Towards integrated conceptualization of posttraumatic adaptation. In FriedmanM. J.KeaneT. M.WatsonP. A. (Eds.), Handbook of PTSD, science and practice (pp. 497-520). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
39.
LincolnY. S.GubaE. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
40.
LindsethA.NorbergA. (2004). A phenomenological hermeneutical method for researching lived experience. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 18, 145-153.
41.
LoreyM. (2001). Child soldiers. Care and protection of children in emergencies—A field guide. London, UK: Save the Children Federation.
42.
LutharS. S. (2006). Resilience in development: A synthesis of research across five decades. In CicchettiD.CohenD. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Risk, disorder, and adaptation (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 739-785). New York, NY: Wiley.
43.
MarecekJ. (2003). Dancing through minefields: Toward a qualitative stance in psychology. In CamicP. M.RhodesJ. E.YardleyL. (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology. Expanding perspectives in methodology and design (pp. 49-69). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
44.
MastenA. S.ObradovićJ. (2008). Disaster preparation and recovery: Lessons from research on resilience in human development. Ecology and Society, 13(1), 9-24.
45.
O’ReillyD. (2005). Social inclusion: A philosophical anthropology. Politics, 25(2), 80-88.
46.
Pat-HorenczykR.RabinowitzR. G.RiceA.Tucker-LevinA. (2009). The search for risk and protective factors in childhood PTSD. In BromD.Pat-HorenczykR.FordJ. D. (Eds.), Treating traumatized children. Risk, resilience and recovery (pp. 51-71). New York, NY: Routledge.
47.
PiagetJ. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures. Oxford, UK: Viking.
48.
RicoeurP. (1976). Interpretation theory: discourse and the surplus of meaning. Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press.
49.
RutterM. (2006). Implications of resilience concepts for scientific understanding. Annals New York Academy of Science, 1094, 1-12.
50.
RyanR. M. (1995). Psychological needs and the facilitation of integrative processes. Journal of Personality, 63, 398-427.
51.
SheplerS. (2005). The rites of the child: global discourses of youth and reintegrating child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Journal of Human Rights, 4, 197-211.
52.
StilesW. B. (1993). Quality control in qualitative research. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 593-618.
53.
TolW. A.JordansM. D.ReisR.de JongJ. (2009). Ecological resilience. Working with child-related psychosocial resources in war-affected communities. In BromD.Pat-HorenczykR.FordJ. D.Treating traumatized children. Risk, resilience and recovery (pp. 164-182). New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
54.
TrickettE. J. (1995). The community context of disaster and traumatic stress: An ecological perspective from community psychology. In HobfollS. E.De VriesM. W. (Eds.), Extreme stress and communities: Impact and intervention (pp. 11-25). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
55.
TurnerV. (1967). The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndemby Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
van GennepA. (1960). The rites of passage. London, UK: Routlegde & Kegan Paul.
58.
Van ManenM. (1990). Researching lived experience. Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
59.
Van WolputteS. (2004). Hang on to your self: Of bodies, embodiment and selves. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 251-269.
60.
VealeA.StavrouA. (2007). Former Lord’s Resistance Army child soldier abductees: Explorations of identity in reintegration and reconciliation. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 13, 237-292.
61.
VindevogelS.CoppensK.DerluynI.De SchryverM.LootsG.BroekaertE. (2011). Forced conscription of children during armed conflict: Experiences of former child soldiers in northern Uganda. Child Abuse & Neglect, 35, 551-562.
62.
VindevogelS.CoppensK.De SchryverM.LootsG.BroekaertE.DerluynI. (2013). Beyond child soldiering: daily living conditions’ interference with former child soldiers’ longer term psychosocial well-being in northern Uganda. Global Public Health, 8, 485-503.
63.
VoglerP.CrivelloG.WoodheadM. (2008). Early childhood transitions research: a review of concepts, theory, and practice (Working paper 48). The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation.
64.
WessellsM. (2006). Child soldiers: From violence to protection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
65.
WilliamsR. (2007). The psychosocial consequences for children of mass violence, terrorism and disasters. International Review of Psychiatry, 19, 263-277.
66.
WilliamsR.AlexanderD.BolsoverD.BakkeF. (2008). Children, resilience and disaster: Recent evidence that should influence a model of psychosocial care. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 21, 338-344.
67.
WilliamsonJ.RobinsonM. (2006). Psychosocial interventions, or integrated programming for well-being?Intervention, 4, 4-25.
