Adolescents and War

Hundreds of thousands of children are forced or legally recruited combatants in no fewer than 70 warring parties across the world. In addition to these child soldiers, thousands of youth voluntarily participate in politically related conflict. Why, how, and in what capacities are such large numbers of teenagers involved in war and how are they affected? Adolescents and War brings together world experts in an evidence-based volume to thoroughly understandand document the intricacies of youth who have had substantial involvement in political violence. Contributors argue that the assumption that youth are automatically debilitated by the violence they experience is much too simplistic: effective care for youth must include an awareness of their motives andbeliefs, the roles they played in the conflict, their relationships with others, and the opportunities available to them after their experiences with war. The book suggests that the meaning youth make of a conflict may protect them from mental harm. For example, Palestinian teens who were actively engaged in the first Intifada have fared better than Bosnian teens who were virtual sitting ducks to the sniper and grenade launches of the hidden forces during the siege of Sarajevo. Covering youthinvolvement in conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and Bosnia, the volume will be of interest to psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists and should be adopted for courses in social psychology, crisis intervention, andinternational conflict.

"Adolescents and War... is one of the very few compilations of research and real-life geographical examples on how war and its aftermath-related environments can affect youth. This book not only offers research findings, possible methodological models for future studies, and a conceptual framework to help readers appreciate equally both the debilitating aftermath of war and the resilience of some youth, but it also offers readers a compilation of well-documented chapters that are bound to have a significant impact on the field...This well-written, coherent book, which is backed up by empirical evidence, is a great vehicle for reaching researchers, practitioners, governments, and community people, and sensitizing to all of us to this timely, burning issue."--PsycCritiques"In the long run, this may be one of the most important contributions of those who study in the context of political violence. Barber and his colleagues have made a good start in this excellent volume." --Political Psychology"Our desire, as psychologists, to see the positive, the adaptive, andthe competent inwar-affected youthsmay often be driven at least in part, and very understandably, by our own despair and grief, and even guilt, at seeing so many millions of youths for whom, irrevocably, war and violence have become the "new normal." The ultimate strength of Barber's volume-Sand of Barber's voice as it comes through the various chapters-llies in that itdoes notaskus to think of war and violence as normative, even in the context of looking at a fuller range of youths' experiences and capacities." --Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology