Psychological consequences of war-traumatized children and adolescents in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

²Research into the psychosocial consequences of war and political violence on children's and adolescent's developmental wellbeing has shown a steady increase over the last decades. Numerous studies, from differing cultures in different war zones around the world, have documented the effect on children of exposure to war atrocities. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) 1992-1995, at the end of 20 th century found the citizens of BH and the world mental health professionals and scientists unprepared to deal with the adverse consequences for the entire BH population and especially for its most vulnerable part, children and adolescents, to be able to take adequate measures of sufficient mental health care to prevent devastating consequences of severe multiple traumas. Only a few research studies were done during and after this war in BH, the United States, Sweden, Norway, the UK and Germany focusing on the relationship between war trauma, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidal thoughts, acculturation, repatriation, poverty, behavioral problems, school adjustment, relational problems of children and their mothers after deployment of war PTSD veterans and war prisoners, and treatment of psychological consequences in examined children and adolescents from BH. The major part of this paper reviewed available literature on Medline that reported national and international studies which investigated the psychological consequences of war on BH children and adolescents and several papers about children and adolescents from Srebrenica, that were not indexed on Medline, but showed very crucial results for the issue described.

The acculturation and repatriation problems and school behavioral problems reported from teachers among repatriated refugee adolescents in Bosnia-Herzegovina

“…Traumatic events experienced by thousands of people during this conflict may very well have a lasting effect on the mental health of the country [5,7].…”

“…Although, the period of peace was established by The Dayton Agreement, in December 1995, the migrations of Bosnian and Herzegovinian population are continuing today, from Bosnia and Herzegovina and other European countries into some third country. Parallel with that, the significant number of refugee persons is coming back to their homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina, after many years of life in foreign cultures [5].…”

“…In addition, there is the impact of war, the experiences of violence, the remembering and issues of reconciliation, and a variety of psychosocial programs, mostly unevaluated, aimed at helping with these issues. All this has a solid impact on their health and their wellbeing, and has led to long-term emotional scars and mental health problems with children and adolescents [2,5,11]. Exposure to war violence and social isolation are highly predictive symptoms of PTSD; depressive symptomatology was accounted for, primarily by the exilerelated stressors [12].…”

“…Exposure to war violence and social isolation are highly predictive symptoms of PTSD; depressive symptomatology was accounted for, primarily by the exilerelated stressors [12]. Failure to resolve moderate to severe traumatic reactions may result in long-lasting consequences on adolescent ability to engage in productive behavior and function socially, academically, professionally, and personally adequate [5,13].…”

Behavioral Problems and Emotional Difficulties at Children and Early Adolescents of the Veterans of War with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

“…Numerous authors addressed the problems of traumatized veterans and their families 3,4,5). After the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where there are still plenty of traumatized persons (6, 7), psychological trauma has continued in some way (8,9,10). Post-traumatic stress disorder significantly influences general health of individual and decreases his functionality at family, social and work level (13).…”