Verified by 
Key points
- Children are the youngest victims of war-related psychological trauma.
- Disrupted relationships and damaged social support resources are associated with more severe depression and stress reactions.
- Wartime experiences can produce trauma-related stress symptoms that persist for years and can be passed to the next generation.
- Resilience fostered early in life can sustain children during difficult times and promote their personal growth in the aftermath.
The unprecedented scope of the First World War was so great that many at the time referred to it as “the war to end all wars.”
But only years after the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, the Second World War proved the label to be a misnomer. After World War II, the establishment of the United Nations was accompanied by the hope that it ushered in an era of peace. Tragically, since that time, peace has been broken repeatedly by major wars. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower remarked in 1950, “war begets conditions that beget further war.”
There are not many empirical studies of the impact of war on the children who experience it. It is taken on its face that war contains elements of violence, terror, death, and social upheaval that impose adverse effects on the psychological wellbeing of everyone involved, especially children. Wartime adversities have ranged from death and injury to separation from family, forced evacuation and displacement, and homelessness.
Such conditions are known to cause psychological trauma. But there are many important questions about the psychological dynamics of those impacts that need to be explored to lend the most effective support to children during conflict and as they recover in the aftermath of war. Despite the logistical complexity of empirical research, efforts have been made to understand the psychological toll of war on children.
One study of children and adolescents within four months of liberation from military occupation in Kuwait found that seventy percent of the participants reported moderate to severe posttraumatic stress reactions (PTSD). Children who reported hurting someone scored highest in PTSD symptoms.
Another study explored stress reactions to chronic violence in Lebanon among children and adolescents, ages ten to 16. PTSD symptoms were not correlated with the number of war traumas reported but with the types of trauma experienced. Trauma most closely associated with PTSD included being a victim of violence, kidnapping, and losing a loved one.
Children separated from their parents were more likely to suffer depression, but children who witnessed violence showed an increase in prosocial and altruistic behavior.
Similarly, adolescents who were displaced after the war in the Republic of Croatia reported varying levels of PTSD symptoms. More severe levels of depression were experienced by those exposed to stressors that disrupted relationships and damaged social support, such as the death of a family member or friend, separation from family, or homelessness.
More severe stress reactions were associated with longer periods of refugee status and with the severity of parental anxiety. A study of six to 11-year-old Palestinian children who experienced war traumas indicated that 72.8 percent reported at least mild PTSD and 41 percent moderate to severe reactions. The severity of traumatic stress was greater for those who had suffered a greater number of traumas. Consistent with other studies, boys and girls did not differ significantly in reported PTSD symptoms or overall degree of PTSD.
Wartime experiences can produce traumatic stress symptoms that persist for years and can be passed to the next generation. One study explored how veterans’ war exposure PTSD can affect the psychological wellbeing of their offspring 40 years after war-related trauma. The adult children of the veterans showed increased psychological suffering as a function of their fathers’ war exposure intensity. Memories for adversity during childhood can last a lifetime.
The film The Lost Children of Berlin documented the reunion of a group of Holocaust survivors fifty years after the end of World War II. The survivors recounted vivid memories of the fear, suffering, and loss they had endured as children. However, despite the inhuman atrocities they had witnessed, they had kept strong emotional bonds with those who had suffered with them. They remembered those who strengthened their resolve to survive.
Research has highlighted the importance of identifying the most helpful ways of strengthening children’s ability to cope with and heal from the psychological wounds of war. Despite the great variability of the specific experiences of and reactions to war, there are underlying dynamics that influence the ultimate impacts of war on children.
Studies have shown that high levels of social support, close family ties, and family communication can provide a degree of protection to buffer the effect of war trauma on children. Developing healthy coping skills early in childhood can contribute to a foundation of resilience that will benefit recovery and posttraumatic personal growth and wellbeing.
Enduring resilience can be fostered during childhood. Memoirs written late in life by individuals who had been young members of the resistance in Ukraine during World War II revealed the importance of their close family ties and sense of community in fortifying their resolve during the darkest days of the struggle. During childhood, they had been impressed by stories told to them by loved ones.
In addition to happy stories, accounts of overcoming adversity taught them a love for their cultural identity, a strong commitment to community, a sense of meaning and purpose, and the value of persistence. Children need to have a sense of control over events in their lives. They can’t control what others think and do, but they can learn to regulate their reactions and see how their reactions influence the behaviors of others.
Children can also be allowed and encouraged to make appropriate choices in their own lives. Small acts of control begin to develop resilience and immunize children from developing learned helplessness later in life.
We can’t know what traumatic events children might encounter in their lives. But we can give them a firm foundation to develop the resilience that can sustain them during difficult times and promote their personal growth in the aftermath. Close, loving relationships, honest, open communication, and role models for persistence and healthy coping strategies can all help children enjoy lives of meaning, purpose, and hope.
It is easier to endure suffering when we are loved, and it is easier to have hope when we believe that love endures.
References
Batcho, K. I. (2021). The role of nostalgia in resistance: A psychological perspective. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(2), 227-249.
Castro-Vale, I., Severo, M., Carvalho, D., & Mota-Cardoso, R. (2019). Intergenerational transmission of war-related trauma assessed 40 years after exposure. Annals of General Psychiatry, 18(14). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-0238-2
Davis, L., & Siegel, L. J. (2000). Posttraumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: A review and analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3(3), 135-154.
Frydenberg, E., Deans, J., & Liang, R. (2019). Parents and children’s coping: Building resilience and wellbeing in the early years. Social Indicators Research, 145, 629-640.
Kravic, N. (2020). War atrocities and growing up: Risks we have to think about. Psychiatria Danubina, 32, Suppl. 3, 360-363.
McIntyre, E. (Director). (1997). The lost children of Berlin [Film]. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California Shoah Foundation and Fogwood Films.
Thabet, A. A. M., & Vostanis, P. (1999). Post-traumatic stress reactions in children of war. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 40(3), 385-391.
