ECOLOGICAL INTEGRATED MODEL OF CHILDREN OF WAR - INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY

The psychological trauma associated with war is a topic that has occup ied the attention of mental health researchers and practitioners for s ome time. Most of their attention, though, has focused on the traumati c stress of soldiers, and little attention has been paid to the proble ms and traumatization of civilians caught in war zones, especially the children. In this paper, the limited research on children of war is r eviewed, and themes are extracted. Children suffer from both acute and chronic traumatic stress. The key to determining the amount of suffer ing has to do with the dynamic interaction among five processes within an ecological framework: the child's psychobiological makeup, the dis ruption of the family unit, the breakdown of community, and the amelio rating effects of culture. The intensity, suddenness and duration of t he war-like experience itself constitute an additional component to th is ecological model. In the final section, psychotherapeutic guideline s to help children cope with symptoms associated with war are presente d for current and future caregivers. The prevention of war should be t he primary task of all.