Questions of Identity in Children Born of War—Embarking on a Search for the Unknown Soldier Father

Abstract

Objectives Children Born of War (CBOW) are important but largely uninvestigated populations. As a result of being fathered by a foreign soldier and born to a local mother, these children often struggle with identity issues and search for their absent fathers their whole lives. Despite CBOW being a part of every society, which has been involved in armed conflicts, there is almost no systematic research about them. Methods We provided a systematic insight into issues of identity that many CBOW face throughout their lives by assessing N = 146 German and N = 101 Austrian Occupation Children born after WWII. We applied a descriptive analysis of our quantitative questionnaire data. Results Our results suggest that CBOW were often not told the truth about their origin until they were adults. The older they were, the more the disclosure seemed to impact them. After learning the truth, almost all CBOW set out on a search for their biological fathers and wanted to get in touch. Approximately half were able to locate them but many of those had not contacted them eventually. German and Austrian Occupation Children report largely similar experiences. Conclusions Growing up as a CBOW can come with specific difficulties. Locating and getting to know their biological father seems to be a core aspect. It seems particularly important to CBOW to find out about similarities in personality and physical appearance. The possibilities to find their fathers, however, are extremely limited. Implications of the findings are discussed within the context of limitations and potential intervening factors.

“If I was with my father such discrimination wouldn’t exist, I could be happy like other people”: a qualitative analysis of stigma among peacekeeper fathered children in the Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Moreover, the experiences of stigma not only caused difficulties in constructing coherent and positive identity narratives but also resulted out of PKFC's difficulties to manage their multiple identities aspects. This echoes the experiences of CBOW in other settings [23,24,26].…”

“…A conceptual framework defining the psychosocial consequences of growing up as a CBOW was developed in 2012 [ 22 ]. Glaesmer et al emphasize three aspects affecting the mental health of CBOW: experiences of stigmatization and discrimination [ 23 , 24 ], child maltreatment [ 25 ], and identity formation [ 26 ]. While all three categories pose substantial challenges to CBOW [ 27 , 28 ], this article focuses on stigmatization because it was the major concern of those interviewed in the present study.…”

“…being born out of wedlock and having an inter-ethnic background. Thus, their experiences with stigma might be particularly threatening to their social identity [ 24 , 26 ]. Yet, few studies have investigated this group and their participation in society.…”

Loneliness and lack of belonging as paramount theme in identity descriptions of Children Born of War

“…No proof of existence. The vast majority of mothers and other family members remained silent about the biological father and asking questions about him was oftentimes an unspoken taboo irrespective of the background of their parents' relationship (Mitreuter et al, 2019). This conspiracy of silence has been reported as a widespread and omnipresent phenomenon in the context of CBOW (Ericsson and Ellingsen, 2005;Øland, 2005;Schmitz-Köster, 2005;Mochmann and Larsen, 2008;Stelzl-Marx, 2015;Koegeler-Abdi, 2021).…”

“…Identity issues are a widely reported problem amongst CBOW (e.g., Glaesmer et al, 2012) and at the same time remain a largely unresolved and diffuse topic. There has been some recent quantitative and descriptive research (Stelzl-Marx, 2015;Mitreuter et al, 2019) as well as reports from testimonies (Øland, 2005;Schmitz-Köster, 2005) that showed that almost all CBOW set out on an often impossible search for their biological fathers after they had been told the truth about their biological origin. Locating their fathers implied for many to feel more complete and at peace with themselves (Mitreuter et al, 2019).…”