Effects of Trauma-Therapy and Truth Education, Conflict Resolution and Social Skills Trainings and Traditional Ways of Coping in Northern Uganda

More than 300,000 children are fighting in armed conflicts all over the world. In Uganda an estimated number of 25,000 children have been abducted and forced to fight or work as porters and sex slaves on the side of the rebels during the conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. Each year, thousands of former child soldiers have returned to their communities after they had fled or were freed from the rebels. It is well known that a high percentage of these youths are suffering from mental health problems. This could be one of the possible reasons why they are facing difficulties to reintegrate into their communities.

The main aim of the proposed project is two-fold. On the one hand, the investigators want to systematically explore the relationship between mental health and important variables for reintegration into the communities like aggression, hostility, feelings of revenge, compromises and conflict behaviour and readiness for reconciliation in formerly abducted and other vulnerable youth (orphans, child mothers and handicapped youths) in Northern Uganda. On the other hand, the investigators want to probe the efficacy of existing and newly developed interventions for formerly abducted and other vulnerable youths that are supposed to foster their mental well-being as well as their reintegration into the society and therewith are part of the long-term prevention of new conflicts in Northern Uganda.