Child soldiers returning home from war: Family and caregiver impact on psychosocial reintegration

Previous research with former child soldiers has documented varying psychosocial outcomes among this group of war-affected youth, suggesting that processes of protection and resilience are at play. However, not enough work has focused on building evidence around the active ingredients in such processes. The family presents a good opportunity for exploring protective variables that may exert a positive impact on the psychosocial adjustment of returning child soldiers. In my thesis, I used a variety of statistical methods, including Structural Equation Modeling, to explore the effects of three family-level variables on the adjustment outcomes of 286 former child combatants from Sierra Leone. Specifically, I was interested in the family placement of the child upon his/her return home, the socio-economic resources of the family with which the child was reunified, and the extent of caregiver knowledge of child experiences with violence during the war.Several findings are noteworthy. First, my research demonstrated that reunification with immediate family members seems beneficial for youth---the youth exhibited lower levels of internalizing problems and higher levels of positive outcomes as compared to their peers who were reunified with extended family members of foster parents. Second, contrary to the hypothesis that low socio-economic status would adversely affect youth, I found that youth in economically disadvantaged families exhibited lower levels of externalizing problems and higher levels of positive behaviors as compared to youth in well-to-do families. Gender did not appear to moderate the impact of family placement or SES. Finally, I found that caregiver's under-estimation of youth's perpetration of violence, as well as youth's direct experiences with violence, was associated with lower levels of prosocial attitudes and confidence/self agency among former child soldiers. On the other hand, caregiver's over-estimation of involvement in and perpetration of violence (often indicative of accurate caregiver reporting of such events) resulted in higher levels of positive behaviors and attitudes among adolescents. My findings highlight the importance of the family in the process of reintegration. In addition, they have implications for developing thoughtful intervention programs that consider the needs of the child in the context of the family with whom he/she is reunified.