Depression in children who experienced severe war trauma

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show if the severe war trauma survived in early childhood (age 4-5) make significant influence in development of young person in adolescent age. As an experimental group we took 40 children age 15-16 years (born 1990-91.) who were in Srebrenica during the siege and its fall in July 11th 1995. As a control group we took 40 children age 15-16 (born 1990-91.) who live in a complete family (both parents alive), and did not leave their homes during the war time. We examined the number of traumatic events experienced during the war and after the war time using War Trauma Questionnaire and we got significant difference between the numbers of traumatic events experienced during the war and in post war situation (p<0,05). We measured the level of posttraumatic stress reactions using the Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Questionnaire and did not get significant difference. We also measured the level of depression using Depression Self-Rating Scale (Zung) and did not get significant difference between the two groups. We can conclude that inspide the numerous unpleasant life experiences in the past and nowadays children- adolescents age 15-16 did not show significant difference in experimental and control group at this part of development. It makes us open for further researches about copping mechanisms in children during the war time.

Keywords:

war- trauma, adolescents, child- experience, depression