Therapeutic intervention on post war traumatic stressed children

During the 80´s, Peru underwent a war as a consequence of the "Shining Path" terrorist actions. The war had an influence on all of the Peruvian population, with children being the most affected. It is estimated that nearly 25,000 children lost their mothers, while a further 221 just disappeared. Another 1,200 died as victims of war. More than 600,000 families, were forced to migrate from the countryside to cities. This "odyssey" became one of the most traumatic aspects for the children who had lost everything: land, belongings, language, customs, etc. Nevertheless, the war did not affect every child in the same manner. Some of them seemed to be more traumatized than others and there were differences in their capacity to recover. The following investigation explores how children could respond to a psychological recovery program.

The study was carried out with a group of 31 children who had migrated from emergency zones. Cases were selected among refugee locations with a high incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms due to war.

The methodology used was a Pre Test-Post Test design. As part of a preliminary evaluation, we used a variety of instruments (Family interviews, Vital History, PTS symptoms checklist, graphic tests). The next step was the psychological supervision with a methodology based on psychotherapeutic sessions of semi-structured games.

Finally, there was an evaluation to determine the changes that may have occurred as a result of the program. As a main indicator, it was found that there are variables that marked a difference regarding how much or fast these children would recover. Such variables were age, gender, migration time and level of exposure to violence. There were changes in the PTS symptoms. Thus, while some of them remited, others persisted and paradoxically new symptoms arose, symptoms not present at the beginning of the intervention. These late symptoms are understood as part of the therapeutic process. There were also changes in the group process. Children went through different stages in how they would acquaint to each other. Stages varied from inhibition, avoidance and distance to affective expressions, integration and communication.

The results were analyzed and paired to vital histories in order to find some indicators in the child raising process, type of family ties and in their personal history that could explain the psychological changes during the intervention.