Ukraine’s children and the trauma of war

How will Ukraine’s children survive the trauma of this war? Many of them are witnessing horrific violence, have or will lose loved ones, are watching their homes and cities destroyed. So far a million have been forced to flee and resettle in unfamiliar places with different language and culture. Forty percent of the world’s refugees are children and many children also still live in conflict zones, unable to escape.

This hour, how children are scarred by war. We’ll discuss the impact on young people’s minds and bodies and if there are ways to increase children’s resiliency. And we’ll ask why the suffering from other armed conflicts, such as Yemen or Eritrea, draws far less attention from the world. We’re joined by two researchers who have worked with people traumatized by war and refugees from many parts of the world.

Guests

Theresa Betancourt, Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity at Boston College @tsbetancourt

Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, Senior supervising psychologist for the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture and a professor of psychology at the CUNY.

Read more

ABC News, Mental health effects of Ukraine war zone on children

Washington Post, Ukrainian children are fleeing. World War II’s child evacuations inflicted terrible trauma.

Christian Science Monitor, Why do some child soldiers heal and not others? What one scholar found