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Ideological commitment and posttraumatic stress in former Tamil child soldiers
Author(s) -
KANAGARATNAM PUSHPA,
RAUNDALEN MAGNE,
ASBJØRNSEN ARVE E.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00483.x
Subject(s) - ideology , posttraumatic stress , tamil , psychology , mental health , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , poison control , scale (ratio) , clinical psychology , psychiatry , social psychology , medical emergency , medicine , political science , linguistics , philosophy , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , politics , law
This study focuses on the impact of present ideological commitment on posttraumatic stress symptoms in former child soldiers living in exile. Eighteen men and two women (aged 25–37), who had joined different Tamil armed groups in Sri Lanka between the ages of 13 and 17 years, participated. The Impact of Event Scale was used to measure posttraumatic symptoms. Qualitative methods were used to investigate the participants’ ideological commitment. Participants reported being exposed to many potentially traumatizing events, and had high scores on the Impact of Event Scale. Twenty‐five percent of the sample showed strong ideological commitment to the “cause”. Ideological commitment at the present seemed to predict better mental health when exposure was less intense and overwhelming. Time had a negative impact on ideological commitment.