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When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Reintegration of ex‐combatants involves multiple challenges. In addition to the trauma‐related psychological sequelae, social obstacles in the community can aggravate psychopathological aggressive tendencies and lead to the continuation of violence in civilian life. However, the association between...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schmitt, Sabine, Robjant, Katy, Koebach, Anke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33942549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2156
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author Schmitt, Sabine
Robjant, Katy
Koebach, Anke
author_facet Schmitt, Sabine
Robjant, Katy
Koebach, Anke
author_sort Schmitt, Sabine
collection PubMed
description Reintegration of ex‐combatants involves multiple challenges. In addition to the trauma‐related psychological sequelae, social obstacles in the community can aggravate psychopathological aggressive tendencies and lead to the continuation of violence in civilian life. However, the association between others’ negative attitudes and ex‐combatants’ ongoing perpetration of violence remains largely unexplored. Between September 2018 and May 2019, we assessed a representative community sample of adults in Eastern DR Congo (N = 1,058) and measured trauma exposure, perpetration, mental health problems (PTSD, depression, and appetitive aggression), perceived stigma (shame, perceived lack of social acknowledgement), experienced stigma, and skepticism toward reintegration with ex‐combatants. Male ex‐combatants (12%, n = 129) had more past trauma and violence perpetration than other community members and a greater number of recent conflicts (including both victimization and perpetration) within the community and with strangers/organized violence. They reported more experienced stigma, more severe PTSD symptoms but were less skeptical about reintegration. Ex‐combatants’ ongoing violence was predicted by an interplay of the community's skepticism toward reintegration and ex‐combatants’ perceived and recently experienced stigma (often attributed to the armed group history) and mental health problems, in addition to lifetime traumatization. These findings promote the need for combined interventions that address individual mental health problems including aggression and collective discriminatory attitudes and behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-82139202021-06-28 When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo Schmitt, Sabine Robjant, Katy Koebach, Anke Brain Behav Original Research Reintegration of ex‐combatants involves multiple challenges. In addition to the trauma‐related psychological sequelae, social obstacles in the community can aggravate psychopathological aggressive tendencies and lead to the continuation of violence in civilian life. However, the association between others’ negative attitudes and ex‐combatants’ ongoing perpetration of violence remains largely unexplored. Between September 2018 and May 2019, we assessed a representative community sample of adults in Eastern DR Congo (N = 1,058) and measured trauma exposure, perpetration, mental health problems (PTSD, depression, and appetitive aggression), perceived stigma (shame, perceived lack of social acknowledgement), experienced stigma, and skepticism toward reintegration with ex‐combatants. Male ex‐combatants (12%, n = 129) had more past trauma and violence perpetration than other community members and a greater number of recent conflicts (including both victimization and perpetration) within the community and with strangers/organized violence. They reported more experienced stigma, more severe PTSD symptoms but were less skeptical about reintegration. Ex‐combatants’ ongoing violence was predicted by an interplay of the community's skepticism toward reintegration and ex‐combatants’ perceived and recently experienced stigma (often attributed to the armed group history) and mental health problems, in addition to lifetime traumatization. These findings promote the need for combined interventions that address individual mental health problems including aggression and collective discriminatory attitudes and behaviors. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8213920/ /pubmed/33942549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2156 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Schmitt, Sabine
Robjant, Katy
Koebach, Anke
When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_full When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_fullStr When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_full_unstemmed When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_short When reintegration fails: Stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_sort when reintegration fails: stigmatization drives the ongoing violence of ex‐combatants in eastern democratic republic of the congo
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33942549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2156
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