Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140

www.jahonline.org

Original article

Dealing With the Consequences of War: Resources of FormerlyRecruited and Non-Recruited Youth in Northern Uganda

Sofie Vindevogel, Ph.D. a,*, Michael Wessells, Ph.D. b, Maarten De Schryver, M.Sc. c,Eric Broekaert, Ph.D. a, and Ilse Derluyn, Ph.D. daDepartment of Special Education/Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgiumb Program on Forced Migration and Health, Department of Clinical Population and Family Health, Columbia University, New York, New YorkcDepartment of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, BelgiumdDepartment of Social Welfare Studies/Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Article history: Received April 27, 2013; Accepted November 23, 2013Keywords: Child soldiers; War-affected youth; Resources; Coping; Resilience

A B S T R A C TIMPLICATIONS AND

Purpose: This article explores resources that help formerly recruited young people in dealing withwar-related adversity and subsequent challenges, hence fostering their resilience.Methods: Self-reports on pertinent resources were collected from 1,008 northern Ugandan youth,of whom 330 had formerly been recruited by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Based on the conceptualframework developed by the Psychosocial Working Group, the reported resources were themat-ically clustered and quantitatively analyzed.Results: This study identified a range of human, social, and cultural resources, with little differencebetween groups. Religious beliefs, social support, and mental health resources were mostfrequently reported by former child soldiers.Conclusions: These results reveal a multitude of resources and suggest that it is important to buildon these resources in interventions that aim to support former child soldiers in the aftermath ofarmed conflict.

� 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.

* Address correspondence to: Sofie Vindevogel, Ph.D., Department of SpecialEducation, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.

E-mail address: Sofie.Vindevogel@UGent.be (S. Vindevogel).

1054-139X/$ e see front matter � 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.11.023

CONTRIBUTION

This study contributes tothe relatively young disci-pline of strengths-basedresearch and interventionsfor young people in situa-tions of armed conflict, byrevealing the resourcesthat former child soldiersand other war-affectedchildren experience in theaftermath of war.

Worldwide, armed conflicts cause extensive physical andpsychological harm to children [1]. Living in war zones, childrenand their families may be subjected to multiple, interacting riskssuch as family separation, displacement, and sexual violence [2].These stressors add to and compound the chronic poverty andstructural violence that pervade many war zones [3]. Prolongedarmed conflict creates violence embedded in political, economic,and social structures, systematicallyharmingpeople andaffectingtheir lives inmyriadways. An important subgroup ofwar-affectedchildren is child soldiers: that is, childrenwhohavebeen recruitedby or associated with armed forces or armed groups. The psy-chosocial impact of child soldiering experiences is profound, butalso arises from everyday stressors [4e7]. Formerly recruited

children experience stresses related to stigma, deprivation ofeducation, joblessness, and an inability to meet basic needs [8].

Despite these wartime experiences and considerable chal-lenges in war’s aftermath, diverse analysts have noted that manyformerly recruited children exhibit remarkable resilience[5,9e13]. Such focus on resilience has encouraged less singularattention to deficits and emphasizes the resources that enablechildren’s well-being [14]. According to Hobfoll ([14], p. 307),resources are “those entities that either are centrally valued intheir own right (e.g., self-esteem, close attachments, health, andinner peace), or act as a means to obtain centrally valued ends(e.g., money, social support, and credit).” It has long beenemphasized that children’s responses to stress should be inter-preted within the context of their interaction and transactionwith the environment [15]. Resources that have been identifiedas helping young people to deal with war-related and postwarchallenges include a range of individual characteristics as well as

S. Vindevogel et al. / Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140 135

aspects of the social, material, and cultural context. A recentsystematic review of associated factors of postconflict psycho-social adjustment and social integration of former child soldiersidentified family acceptance, social support, and educational andeconomic opportunities as major resources [16].

However, previous research has also pointed to the devas-tating impact of warfare on resources, encompassing multifac-eted and multilevel disruption of the political, social, health,economic, and cultural dimensions of life [2]. This possibly af-fects the ability and readiness to propound or share resourceswithin affected communities. This might particularly concernformer child soldiers, because support for them in war-affectedsettings is often considered “a reward for perpetrators of atroc-ities” [17]. In addition, former child soldiers are often stigma-tized, which may indicate that they possibly experience largersocial exclusion, leading to reduced access to opportunities andsupport [17]. Therefore, it is plausible that they hold significantlydifferent resources and, in particular, fewer communal socio-cultural resources compared with non-recruited young people.

This studyanalyzed thedifferences in resourcesof formerchildsoldiers and resources compared with non-recruited counter-parts, using the conceptual framework of the PsychosocialWorking Group (PWG) [18]. This frameworkwas useful because itintegrates insights from two valuable, complementary ap-proaches to understanding psychosocial well-beingdresource-based approaches [14] and social ecological approaches to childdevelopment [19]dand applies them to diverse cultural contexts.The PWG framework identifies three core domains as spaceswhere resources may be marshaled. The first domain is humancapacity, which encompasses the resources endowed to in-dividuals. The second domain is social ecology, which includessupportive resources atmultiple levels of the social environment.The third domain is culture and values, and includes culturalpractices, human rights, and religious beliefs of the people. Theframework envisions that processes of mobilization, negotiation,and exchange of resources across the domains enable the resil-ience of a system and its members [2,18]. Knowledge of the re-sources that former child soldiers use may inform theprogramming of interventions that aim to facilitate resilient re-sponses to child soldiering, by strengthening resources anddealing with extant barriers. Comparison designs may generateknowledge about the incremental impact of child soldiering, andmay therefore strengthen theweak evidencebase in thefield [20].

Methods

Sites

Northern Uganda has been the hotbed of a 2-decadeelongarmed conflict involving numerous civilian casualties, amongwhom are thousands of child soldiers. This study was carried outin Lira district, which was a site of systematic abductions ofchildren by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In the wake of thecessation of hostilities agreement in 2006, this area continues toundergo a transition from violence toward peace, which requireschildren’s well-being to break cycles of violence [21].

Participants

Participants were young men and women between the agesof 12 and 25 years. The sample included a mixture of in-school

and out-of-school young people. Based on the District Educa-tion Office’s overview of secondary schools in Lira district, sixschools (15%) equally divided over urban (n¼ 2), peri-urban (n¼2), and rural (n¼ 2) areaswere randomly selected. All students ofclasses Senior 2 and 3 of the lower secondary O-level wereinvited to participate; none refused. This resulted in a sample of732 in-school participants. For each included school, the twonearest villages were selected. With assistance of the LocalCouncil 1’s chairpersons, youth in these areas meeting thecriteria of 12e25 years of age and no school attendance wereinvited to participate. This led to a sample of 278 out-of-schoolparticipants; information on possible refusals is missing. Theaggregated sample was composed of 1,010 participants, two ofwhomwere older than 25 years of age and hence were excluded.Approximately one third (n ¼ 330) of participants had beenrecruited by the LRA. All participants provided written informedconsent or assent. Pursuing consent from legally authorizedrepresentatives for minors was an obstacle owing to severalpractical constraints, including primary caretakers living sepa-rately or in a remote residence. Their principals/Local Council 1chairpersons gave approval for the study, the design of whichhad been approved by the Ethical Committee of the Faculty ofPsychology and Educational Sciences.

Measures

The first measure was a sociodemographic questionnaire thatcollected information about the participant’s age, gender, districtand location of residence, occupation, religion, householdcomposition, and former child soldiering experiences. The sec-ond was a free-listing task, a qualitative method in which par-ticipants were asked to generate a list of a maximum of five itemsin response to the statement, “List five things that help you indealing with difficulties.” The bicultural research team carefullydesigned this wording ensure ease of understanding and thelikelihood of inviting participants to identify the most importantresources that they actually use. No attempt was made to haveparticipants list exhaustively or rank order the items theygenerated. The free-listing method itself has proven to beculturally valid and efficient for generating items in Uganda[22,23].

Data Collection

Data were collected from October to December 2010. In-school participants were individually administered a writtenversion of the measure in English (the official language of edu-cation); the researcher and a trained bilingual research assistantremained available for further clarification of questions whennecessary. For out-of-school participants with low levels of lit-eracy, questions were administered verbally in English by theresearcher and simultaneously translated onsite in Lango (thenative language of the region) by trained bilingual research as-sistants. The research assistants received a training session onthe purpose of the study, how to apply its methods in anappropriate, ethical manner, and how to translate and explainthe questions.

Data analysis

Qualitative analysis. A cumulative number of 4,132 resourceswere reported by participants. The first phase of qualitative

S. Vindevogel et al. / Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140136

analysis was to identify, merge, and comprehensively rephraseresources that were conceptually identical (e.g., “teamwork” and“forming groups to do cooperative work”). This procedureresulted in a composite list of 258 unique resources. These re-sources were categorized into the PWG conceptual framework’sresource domains (“human capital,” “social ecologies,” and“culture and values”) and its preliminary subdomains. Becausethe initial work by the PWG did not include an attempt toidentify subdomains in a comprehensive manner, it was neces-sary to generate new subdomains and clusters that captured themeaning of the data. To promote interrater reliability, the firsttwo authors independently categorized the resources using thePWG’s conceptual domains and its original subdomains. Thisinitial categorization resulted in a high degree of homogeneity inwhich the scant discrepancies were systematically situated onintersections of indistinctively defined subdomains, such as so-cial connectedness and social support. To deal with these dis-crepancies and improve the agreement between raters, the (sub)domains’ content and boundaries, deviation and interrelationwith other domains, and centrality in the conceptual frameworkwere extensively discussed, which led to joint categorization ofall items.

Quantitative analysis. Resource items were coded numericallyand allocated to the resource (sub)domains. Because the pro-portion of the total number of listed resources in each (sub)domain correlated highly (r ¼ .99) with the proportion of re-spondents listing them, the resource (sub)domains were trans-formed into dichotomous variables that represent whetherrespondents reported one or more of the included resourceitems. Descriptive statistics were then used to determine theallocation of the categorized resources over the resource do-mains, subdomains, and clusters, and to explore patterns of re-sources in these categories. Chi-square analysis allowed

Table 1Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample, n (%)

Variable Total sample (n ¼ 1,008) Forme

Sex, male 548 (54.42%) 201 (6Age, yearsa 16.70 (2.06) (12e25) 17.4 (2District residents 665 (66.17%) 225 (6Geographic areaUrban 165 (16.45%) 37 (1Peri-urban 452 (45.06%) 118 (3Rural 359 (35.79%) 155 (4Internally displaced persons camp 27 (2.69%) 18 (5

Cohabitation parentsBoth 386 (38.33%) 99 (3Mother 236 (23.44%) 82 (2Father 67 (6.65%) 21 (6None 318 (31.58%) 128 (3

Cohabitation partner 18 (1.79%) 9 (2Own child(ren) 34 (3.39%) 17 (5OccupationStudent 730 (72.42%) 235 (7Farming, bricklaying, shop keeping, etc. 194 (19.25%) 62 (1None 84 (8.33%) 33 (1

ReligionCatholic 535 (54.00%) 164 (5Protestant 349 (35.22%) 126 (3Other 107 (10.80%) 34 (1

a Data are mean (standard deviation) (range).* p � .05.

** p � .01.*** p � .001.

exploration of similarities and variations in reported resourcesacross the participants of this study, and enabled comparisonsbetween formerly recruited and non-recruited participants.Because this was an exploratory study, alpha was set at a lenientlevel of .05 as the threshold for significance.

Results

Sample characteristics

Table 1 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of thesample. One third of participants (n ¼ 330; 32.8%) had beenrecruited by the LRA for an average duration of 1 year (median348.50 days;mean, 564.79 days; standard deviation, 752.74 days;range,1e6,570 days). A third of the former child soldiers (n¼ 113;34.56%) had returned before 2003, approximately half (n ¼ 164;50.15%) between 2004 and 2006, and a minority (n¼ 50; 15.29%)later than 2006.

Resource (Sub)domains

Table 2 gives an overview of the resource (sub)domains andnewly created subdomains, working definitions, and the mostprevalent resource as an example.

Table 3 lists the distribution of resources across domains andsubdomains identified by formerly recruited and non-recruitedyouth. Overall, the subdomains reported most by the partici-pants were religious beliefs, social support, and mental health,which fall under cultural, social, and human capital, respectively.

Human Capacities. Turning next to the data for particular do-mains, more than a third of the listed unique resources fell underthe Human Capacities domain, the two most prominent sub-domains of which were Mental Health and Knowledge and Skills.

rly recruited youth (n ¼ 330) Non-recruited youth (n ¼ 677) c2/t

0.91%) 346 (51.18%) 8.46**

.31) (12e25) 16.54 (1.91) (12e24) 3.43***

8.18%) 440 (65.28%) .8349.24***

1.28%) 128 (18.99%)5.98%) 334 (49.55%)7.26%) 203 (30.12%).49%) 9 (1.34%)

17.25***

0.00%) 286 (42.31%)4.85%) 154 (22.78%).36%) 46 (6.81%)8.79%) 190 (28.11%).74%) 9 (1.34%) 2.46.17%) 17 (2.52%) 4.72*

1.771.21%) 494 (72.97%)8.79%) 132 (19.50%)0.00%) 51 (7.53%)

2.840.56%) 370 (55.62%)8.89%) 223 (33.48%)0.49%) 73 (10.96%)

Table 2Identified (sub)domains of resources

Domains and subdomains Description Example

Human Capacities Resources endowed to individualsMental Health Psychological well-being Reading books or magazines to relax my mindPhysical Health Physical well-being Having food and good, balanced mealsKnowledge and Skills Theoretical or practical abilities Being productive (looking for/doing a job)Livelihood Means of securing income and assets to meet basic

needsSaving money to pay school fees or help parents pay

school feesPersonal Valuesa Subjective ideals and beliefs Being a hard-working person

Social Ecology Resources emanating from the social environmentSocial Connectedness Relationships people have with others and the

benefits these involveBeing in a club/good and cooperative group of

peopleSocial Support Deliberate social engagement to help in social

networkConsulting other people to get advice

Social Service and Infrastructure Public facilities to promote social and humanwelfare

Being at school

Social Support/Social Service and Infrastructurea Support provided by both social networks andsocial service and infrastructure

Receiving advice/guidance and counseling fromother people or organizations

Safetya Peacefulness and harmlessness of livingenvironment

Living in a peaceful, safe area

Law and Ordera Laws and security guidelines set to promote order Laws, rules, and regulations being setCulture and Values Resources emanating from the cultural and moral frameworkCultural Practices Traditional values and practices inherently

developed within specific cultureLeaders meeting on finding solutions for

community and family disputesReligious Beliefs Values and practices derived from specific religion PrayersHuman Rights Fundamental rights to which human beings are

entitledAction taken against abuse of children’s rights

Periphery Broader macro-contextEconomic Climate Mood of global economy of region Reduction of government taxesPolitical Climate Mood of politics of region Actions ending war, bringing political stability

a New subcategory.

S. Vindevogel et al. / Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140 137

The Mental Health subdomain, which was reported significantlyless by formerly recruited youth, included diverse stress reduc-tion strategies such as seeking relaxation, avoiding or fleeingconfrontation, and regulating attention to triggers. The Knowl-edge and Skills subdomain referred to the innate and acquiredcapacities for solving problems, productive activities, and suc-cessful performance. In addition, participants referred to theirPersonal Values and living according to these values, includingbeing responsible, humble, and trustful. The Livelihood sub-domain consisted of all means to generate income and acquireassets, meet the basic needs, and protect and further developthese properties. Differences between formerly recruited youthand non-recruited youth arose only in regard to Having Assets.Moreover, being healthy and maintaining their own PhysicalHealth through adopting a healthy lifestyle was considered to behelpful for a minority of participants.

Social Ecology

Looking across the domains of the framework, the largestpercentage (45.35%) of listed unique resources was related tostrengths inherent in the Social Ecology. There, the subdomainwith the highest prevalence was Social Support, includingnonmaterial (emotional and informational) and material supportreceived from, demanded for, or given to agents in the socialecology. As the subdomain Social Support/Social Service andInfrastructure reveals, certain types of support were providedboth by informal and formal support systems. The most promi-nent example was Guidance and Counseling, provided both bysocial networks and social services, which was reported signifi-cantly more by formerly recruited participants. The SocialConnectedness subdomain showed that having relationships

with significant others making up the social network, such asfamily members, peers, neighbors, and religious, cultural, orpolitical leaders and institutions, constituted a considerablesource of strength because of the involved company and oppor-tunities for sharing with others, among other things. Social Ser-vice and Infrastructure included nongovernmental organization,United Nations, and government supports in areas such as edu-cation, health care, and protection, and housed the secondlargest percentage of allocated resources. Other, smaller sub-domains of social ecology were Law and Order, which includedlaws and security guidelines set to promote order, and Safety,which referred to a peaceful and nonthreatening living envi-ronment and protection measures against external threats.

Culture and Values. The third core domain, Culture and Values,pertained to the grounded beliefs, values, and practices that arecentral parts of a culture. Prominent were subdomains such asReligious Beliefs and Cultural Practices. Particularly prevalent re-sources for participants emanated from religion, including indi-vidual as well as communal praying and worship, and religiousprescriptions on how to live a good life. Culture and culturallyrooted practices and values such as storytelling, ancestor venera-tion, traditional music, and dance formed the next major source ofsupport. Human Rights were also a cultural subdomain, becausecultural values and practices are related to issues such as equalityandprotection,whichare typically regardedashumanrights issues.

Periphery

In the periphery of the three core domains were macro-leveleconomic and political conditions that may also constitute asource of support. For example, the availability of employment

Table 3Prevalence of resource (sub)domains for formerly recruited and non-recruitedadolescents

Resource (Sub)domainsand clusters

Items,n (%)

Formerlyrecruitedyouth, n (%)a

Non-recruitedyouth, n (%)a

c2

Human Capacity 98 (37.98) 214 (64.85) 460 (67.95) .96Mental Health 54 (20.93) 114 (34.55) 282 (41.65) 4.70*

Seeking relaxation 15 (5.81) 61 (18.49) 151 (22.30) 1.95Avoid/flee

confrontation7 (2.71) 12 (3.64) 42 (6.20) 2.88

Controlling/regulatingattention totriggers

3 (1.16) 12 (3.64) 35 (5.17) 1.17

Controlling/regulatingemotions

4 (1.55) 11 (3.33) 17 (2.51) .56

Controlling/regulatingthoughts

5 (1.94) 9 (2.73) 19 (2.81) .01

Being optimistic/courageous

6 (2.33) 9 (2.73) 33 (4.87) 2.56

Being careful/self-care 6 (2.33) 7 (2.12) 23 (3.40) 1.25Addressing the issue 3 (1.16) 7 (2.12) 10 (1.48) .56Accepting situation 5 (1.94) 2 (.61) 4 (.59) .00

Knowledge and Skills 11 (4.26) 87 (26.36) 164 (24.23) .54Productivity 2 (.78) 80 (24.23) 144 (21.27) 1.13Successful performance 6 (2.33) 6 (1.82) 12 (1.77) .00Problem solving 3 (1.16) 1 (.30) 8 (1.18) 1.93

Personal Values 11 (4.26) 35 (10.61) 73 (10.78) .01Livelihood 16 (6.20) 29 (8.79) 47 (6.94) 1.08Having assets 7 (2.71) 16 (4.85) 15 (2.22) 5.15*

Generating income 6 (2.33) 8 (2.42) 19 (2.81) .12Protecting livelihood 3 (1.16) 7 (2.12) 13 (1.92) .05

Physical Health 6 (2.33) 20 (6.06) 38 (5.61) .08Social Ecology 117 (45.35) 307 (93.03) 614 (90.69) 1.55Social Support 30 (11.63) 190 (57.58) 394 (58.20) .04Receiving nonmaterial

support13 (5.04) 120 (36.36) 228 (33.68) .71

Demandingnonmaterial support

4 (1.55) 81 (24.55) 176 (26.00) .25

Demanding materialsupport

2 (.78) 20 (6.06) 46 (6.80) .20

Cooperation 7 (2.71) 19 (5.76) 27 (3.99) 1.59Giving material

support1 (.39) 3 (.91) 14 (2.07) 1.80

Giving nonmaterialsupport

1 (.39) 3 (.91) 8 (1.18) .15

Receiving materialsupport

2 (.78) 0 3 (.44) 1.47

Social Connectedness 28 (10.85) 111 (33.64) 228 (33.67) .00Company 6 (2.33) 61 (18.49) 110 (16.25) .79Sharing 6 (2.33) 28 (8.49) 57 (8.42) .00Sustaining network 5 (1.94) 25 (7.58) 57 (8.42) .21Extending network 7 (2.71) 18 (5.46) 38 (5.61) .01Appreciation 4 (1.55) 2 (.61) 6 (.89) .22

Social Support/SocialService andInfrastructure

4 (1.55) 109 (33.03) 184 (27.18) 3.68

Guidance andcounseling

1 (.39) 88 (26.67) 128 (18.91) 7.93**

Basic requirements(monetary andmaterial)

1 (.39) 29 (8.79) 60 (8.86) .00

Food and farmingrequirements

1 (.39) 2 (.61) 8 (1.18) .75

School fees andrequirements

1 (.39) 1 (.30) 1 (.15) .27

Social Service andInfrastructure

44 (17.05) 98 (29.70) 175 (25.85) 1.66

Education 7 (2.71) 64 (19.40) 116 (17.13) .77Health care 8 (3.10) 21 (6.36) 41 (6.06) .04Protection/law and

order5 (1.94) 19 (5.76) 26 (3.84) 1.91

Development 8 (3.10) 10 (3.03) 22 (3.25) .04Special care 5 (1.94) 6 (1.82) 3 (.44) 4.74

Table 3Continued

Resource (Sub)domainsand clusters

Items,n (%)

Formerlyrecruitedyouth, n (%)a

Non-recruitedyouth, n (%)a

c2

Skills training 5 (1.94) 2 (.61) 8 (1.18) .75Livelihood 1 (.39) 2 (.61) 4 (.60) .00Sensitization 3 (1.16) 2 (.61) 3 (.44) .12Leisure facilities 2 (.78) 1 (.30) 2 (.30) .00

Safety 5 (1.94) 11 (3.33) 10 (1.48) 3.74Law and order 6 (2.33) 9 (2.73) 16 (2.36) .12Laws and regulations 4 (1.55) 9 (2.73) 13 (1.92) .68Security guidelines

and services2 (.78) 0 3 (.44) 1.47

Culture and Values 38 (14.73) 224 (67.88) 461 (68.10) .01Religious Beliefs 16 (6.20) 210 (63.64) 431 (63.66) .00Praying and

worshiping6 (2.33) 193 (58.49) 410 (60.56) .40

Formal forms 4 (1.55) 30 (9.09) 46 (6.80) 1.68Prescriptions 6 (2.33) 8 (2.42) 31 (4.58) 2.77

Cultural Practices 14 (5.43) 37 (11.21) 97 (14.33) 1.87Cultural values 7 (2.71) 33 (10.00) 87 (12.85) 1.72Cultural practices 7 (2.71) 4 (1.21) 12 (1.77) .45

Human Rights 8 (3.10) 7 (2.12) 6 (.89) 2.66Protection 6 (2.33) 5 (1.52) 6 (.89) .81Equality 2 (.78) 2 (.61) 0 4.11

Periphery 5 (1.94) 5 (1.52) 18 (2.66) 1.30Political 3 (1.16) 5 (1.52) 16 (2.36) .78Economic 2 (.78) 0 2 (.30) .50

Nothing 3 (.91) 6 (.89) .00

a Respondents who listed one or more answers allocated to the (sub)domains(coded 0e1).

* p � .05.** p � .01.

S. Vindevogel et al. / Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140138

opportunities was a general economic factor and military oper-ations against the LRA was a general political factor, both ofwhich were seen as resources.

Discussion

Research on former child soldiers is increasingly bringingattention to their resilience and the resources that facilitateresilient responses to the challenges they experience in theaftermath of child soldiering. This study contributes to thisrelatively young and evolving discipline of strengths-basedresearch and interventions for war-affected young people, byrevealing the resources that former child soldiers may experi-ence on multiple social ecological domains.

Among themost important resourceswasreligion.Whereas therole of religion has remained largely unexamined in the literatureon former child soldiers [16], studies on other populations dealingwith life stresses reveal that religiosity forms a lens throughwhichexperiences are shaped and interpreted, and incorporates valuesand prescriptions that may be drawn on as a cognitive copingstrategy, aswell aspractices that stimulateacollectivediscourse formeaning making and mutual assistance [24,25]. Because of theimportance participants assigned to this resource, its role bearsfurther examination through future research.

Second, social relationships and services were found toconstitute major resources. This finding aligns with previousfindings that have consistently indicated the association of socialrelationships, support, and acceptance with the psychosocialwell-being of former child soldiers [16] and with broader resil-ience research that indicates that the presence of familial and

S. Vindevogel et al. / Journal of Adolescent Health 55 (2014) 134e140 139

communal social supports is key to resilience [15]. These re-sources were situated at various social levels, including informalas well as formal support systems. Besides being valuable in theirown right, social relationships and services were reported toproffer assorted emotional, informative, and instrumental re-sources for former child soldiers. This demonstrates the trans-actional and dynamic character of social support [26]. Given theincreasing body of evidence pointing to the pivotal role of socialsupport, this might be a critical resource for the psychosocialwell-being and successful social inclusionof former child soldiers.

Formerly recruited participants also reported drawing on awide repertoire of coping strategies (in the PWG framework,Mental Health resources), the cognitive and behavioral effortsthat one undertakes to deal with stressful experiences [27]. Themost frequently reported coping strategies aimed to influencethe appraisal of stress and reduce psychological discomfortrather than address the cause of experienced stress or changingthe stressful situation. This finding corroborates observationsregarding the high use of avoidant coping and its evaluation ashelpful by former child soldiers and war-affected young peoplein general [9,28].

Moreover, a multiplicity of tangible resources such asknowledge and skills, education, livelihood, and monetary ormaterial assistance were reported. This corroborates findingsfrom earlier studies on associated factors of former child soldiers’psychosocial well-being, which revealed the importance ofschool or training programs, employment, and income-generating opportunities [16]. Education is generally consid-ered a key resource because it enhances access to a range of otherresources such as hopefulness, competencies and coping strate-gies, and perspectives on employment [29]. The same applies toeconomic welfare, which in turn facilitates self-confidence,improved standard of living, a healthy lifestyle, and obtainmentof land ownership, among other things [30]. These resourcesenable one to develop ameaningful social role in civil society andprovide tools for working on a better future, highly valued endsfor former child soldiers [30].

The nature of the identified resources reveals that socialecologies form a rich reservoir of resources in addition to thoseendowed to individuals [26]. Benefitting from this reservoir re-quires people’s emotional and cognitive perception that theseresources are accessible, as well as social systems that facilitatepeople’s access and allow them to effectuate their resources[15,31,32]. The scant differences between formerly recruited andnon-recruited youths’ resources in this study suggest their ca-pacity to recognize and access resources, and an environmentthat allows people to employ and exchange communal resourcesin service of formerly recruited youths’ well-being. This dem-onstrates the importance of conceptualizing resilience as rela-tionally, socially, and culturally scaffolded [12,13,15,33,34].Whether this also represents local understandings of resilienceshould be further examined.

These findings enhanced understanding of human, social, andcultural resources, which is essential for informing prevention,intervention, and policy initiatives about the potential anteced-ents of resilient postechild soldiering trajectories, whatworks forthese young people under challenging circumstances in thewakeof armed conflict, andhowefforts canefficientlybe invested in thepromotion of their resilience [10,11]. The existence of resourcesand resilience is not antithetical to the need for professionalsupport. There is sound evidence that after adversity, such asarmed conflict, investing in resources is a priority [31,34,35]. The

richness and diversity of the identified indigenous resourcessuggest that interventions should start at the grassroots bybuilding on naturally and spontaneously occurring sources andprocesses of support [7,9]. Through targeting availability and ac-cess to and use of resources by linking individual and communalprocesses, interventions are more likely to succeed and be moreefficient and sustainable [31,34], and they also contribute to asense of ownership and have empowering effects on people[32,36]. This has been consistently associated with resilience andthe prevention of stress sequels [11,31,34].

Limitations

The method of eliciting brought forward the voices of thoseparticipants it concerned and illuminated their subjective un-derstanding of their situation. A possible constraint of thismethodwas that the prevalence of resources may represent theiractual helpfulness, but may also be biased by the availability andaccessibility of these resources for participants. Further researchis recommended to clarify this distinction. Moreover, qualitativeanalysis inevitably involves a certain degree of interpretation byresearchers, which might have affected the extent to which the(sub)clusters represent participants’ descriptions [37]. Moreover,the PWG framework determined the structure of the results,which might be different when using other theoretical frame-works. This research revealed only a small difference betweenformerly recruited and non-recruited youths. Although thismight indicate generally comparable accessibility and use of re-sources, it is possible that differences emerge when the analysisincludes sociodemographic variables as covariates. Such analysiswas beyond the scope of this study, but it bears further exami-nation. Moreover, this study mainly focused on resources, butwas part of larger research that also looked into the presence ofchallenges encountered [8]. However, because the reality isanalytically complex and resilience is a matter of dynamicinterplay between challenges and resources [11], this study isonly a first, crucial step toward unpacking the complexity ofhuman responses to adversity [11,12]. Future research couldmake great advances by shedding light on the interplay betweensources of resilience and distress.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the invaluable help of the researchassistants, principals, and LC1 chairpersons who considerablyfacilitated this research. In particular, sincere gratitude andappreciation go to all participants of this study.

Funding Sources

This studywas funded by Peacebuilding Service of the BelgianFederal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Devel-opment Cooperation.

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