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Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda

The present study aimed to evaluate posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems in former Ugandan child soldiers in comparison with civilian children living in the same conflict setting. Participants included 133 former child soldiers and 101 never-ab...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Moscardino, Ughetta, Scrimin, Sara, Cadei, Francesca, Altoè, Gianmarco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Scientific World Journal 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22654596
http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/367545
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author Moscardino, Ughetta
Scrimin, Sara
Cadei, Francesca
Altoè, Gianmarco
author_facet Moscardino, Ughetta
Scrimin, Sara
Cadei, Francesca
Altoè, Gianmarco
author_sort Moscardino, Ughetta
collection PubMed
description The present study aimed to evaluate posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems in former Ugandan child soldiers in comparison with civilian children living in the same conflict setting. Participants included 133 former child soldiers and 101 never-abducted children in northern Uganda, who were interviewed about exposure to traumatic war-related experiences, posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems. Results indicated that former child soldiers had experienced significantly more war-related traumatic events than nonabducted children, with 39.3% of girls having been forced to engage in sexual contact. Total scores on measures of PTSD symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems were significantly higher among child soldiers compared to their never-abducted peers. Girls reported significantly more emotional and behavioral difficulties than boys. In never-abducted children, more mental health problems were associated with experiencing physical harm, witnessing the killings of other people, and being forced to engage in sexual contact.
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spelling pubmed-33611752012-05-31 Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda Moscardino, Ughetta Scrimin, Sara Cadei, Francesca Altoè, Gianmarco ScientificWorldJournal Research Article The present study aimed to evaluate posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems in former Ugandan child soldiers in comparison with civilian children living in the same conflict setting. Participants included 133 former child soldiers and 101 never-abducted children in northern Uganda, who were interviewed about exposure to traumatic war-related experiences, posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems. Results indicated that former child soldiers had experienced significantly more war-related traumatic events than nonabducted children, with 39.3% of girls having been forced to engage in sexual contact. Total scores on measures of PTSD symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems were significantly higher among child soldiers compared to their never-abducted peers. Girls reported significantly more emotional and behavioral difficulties than boys. In never-abducted children, more mental health problems were associated with experiencing physical harm, witnessing the killings of other people, and being forced to engage in sexual contact. The Scientific World Journal 2012-04-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3361175/ /pubmed/22654596 http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/367545 Text en Copyright © 2012 Ughetta Moscardino et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Moscardino, Ughetta
Scrimin, Sara
Cadei, Francesca
Altoè, Gianmarco
Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title_full Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title_fullStr Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title_short Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda
title_sort mental health among former child soldiers and never-abducted children in northern uganda
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22654596
http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/367545
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