The Effects of War on Children
The Effects of War on Children In the times of war children were being used as weapons to kill. Many of these children grow up around war, but did not know of it or just thought it was not real. These children are sometimes brought into war, but after war is where they really cause trouble in different ways. These children sometimes suffer because of what they did. And because of war, children change their behaviors, and the way they see the world, but the thing is does it always leave a negative effect on children. War always leaves some type of negative effect on children, such as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). “The essential feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to a traumatic event … in children[such as] ‘disorganized or agitated behavior.’” (PFEFFERBAUM). The children that suffer from PTSD are mostly children surrounded by war or are in it themselves. These children that suffer from PTSD will always suffer for what they did, if not physically then mentally. Most of the children that suffer don’t suffer for long, because they are either drugged during war or put in therapy. War can change a child 's behavior in many different ways because of the way it may affect them. “During war times and emergencies, often earlier norms and behavior alter and new ways of thinking emerge”.(Raboteg-Šaric). Children at young ages always remember the worst and best times of their lives, so their behavior reflects off the way they acted in the past to the way they act now. But if they get used as weapons during war they get changed because people use drugs to alter their memories. These children have changed and have lost their original selves after years of constant blood shed and death.
War affects the way children see things in their dreams, in the outside world, and in their memories. “...terrifying nightmares and flash- backs reappear in [holocaust survivors] who over the years had
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PFEFFERBAUM, BETTY. "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)." International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family. Ed. James J. Ponzetti. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. 1250-1255. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Feb. 2014
Raboteg-Šaric, Zora, Miomir Žužul, and Gordana Kereteš. "War And Children 's Aggressive And Prosocial Behaviour." European Journal Of Personality 8.3 (1994): 201-212. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2014