Building a translational science on children and youth affected by political violence and armed conflict: A commentary

Abstract

Articles in this timely Special Section represent an important milestone in the developmental science on children and youth involved in political violence and armed conflict. With millions of children worldwide affected by past and present wars and conflicts, there is an urgent and growing need for research to inform efforts to understand, prevent, and mitigate the possible harm of such violence to individual children, families, communities, and societies, for present as well as future generations. The four programs of research highlighted in this Special Section illustrate key advances and challenges in contemporary development research on young people growing up in the midst or aftermath of political violence. These studies are longitudinal, methodologically sophisticated, and grounded in socioecological systems models that align well with current models of risk and resilience in developmental psychopathology. These studies collectively mark a critically important shift to process-focused research that holds great promise for translational applications. Nonetheless, given the scope of the international crisis of children and youth affected by political violence and its sequelae, there is an urgent global need for greater mobilization of resources to support translational science and effective evidence-based action.

Agency via Life Satisfaction as a Protective Factor From Cumulative Trauma and Emotional Distress Among Bedouin Children in Palestine

“…A smaller body of studies on the other hand have associated exposure to adverse events with positive outcomes such as: positive coping styles; personal growth; life satisfaction; social; and self-competence (Barber and Schluterman, 2009). More recently, research has begun to focus on functioning and protective factors that enable children to conserve their psychological wellbeing in the face of ongoing traumatic events (Boyden, 2003; Veronese et al, 2012b, 2017a; Masten, 2017). Studies conducted from the last-mentioned perspective view children as competent and socially situated actors who are capable of actively mobilizing sources of agency to protect themselves from the negative consequences of war and violence (Gilligan, 2009; Marshall, 2014; Veronese et al, 2017a, 2018).…”

Family resilience among parent–adolescent dyads exposed to ongoing rocket fire.

“…Although individual family members shape family processes through mutual interactions and interdependence (Masten, 2017), research has mostly focused on the family as a resource for the individual and not vice versa (e.g., Aitcheson, Abu-Bader, Howell, Khalil, & Elbedour, 2017). Therefore, factors that strengthen family resilience have received scant empirical attention (Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009).…”

Healing stories: An expressive-narrative intervention for strengthening resilience and survival skills in school-aged child victims of war and political violence in the Gaza Strip

“…The signs of war are impressed on the bodies and minds of victims, making them, most of the time, passive spectators of their own destiny (Masten, 2017). The traumatic storyline determines the present and the future of the victims, canceling even competences and abilities belonging to the past.…”