Terrorism: psychological consequences for children

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Extract from the article: A child needs a healthy environment in which to develop, grow and flourish. However, with the terrorist attacks that Togo has been facing in recent weeks, children living in high-threat areas are constantly living in an insecure environment, marked b

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A child needs a healthy environment in which to develop, grow and flourish. However, with the terrorist attacks that Togo has been facing in recent weeks, children living in high-threat areas are constantly living in an insecure environment, marked by violence. What are the psychological consequences of violence for children? What can be done about it?

The threat of terrorism is a source of insecurity and is seen as a potentially traumatic event. The media coverage of violence against civilians generates fear in the civilian population. There are psychological consequences for potential victims who have been directly affected by these terrorist attacks or for indirect victims who witness or are affected by these events.

What is life like for children in high-threat terrorist zones?

Children living in areas with a high terrorist threat find themselves in a context of separation and mourning, and their memories are shielded by traumatic scenes. The children are often in fear, with the threat of death very often ignored, but they feel that the environment is not safe. These are children who are losing or may lose their caregivers, their parents. In this dynamic, children are constantly exposed to psychological trauma. As a result, their environment is disorganised and they are frightened. As a result, their memory becomes traumatised. Some of them live their daily lives in a state of alert. There is no peaceful construction in terms of cognitive activities, because there is no normal learning space.

What are the psychological consequences of this violence for children?

In the long term, these children may identify with the aggressor, and this can happen to young children, adolescents and young adults alike. The development of these children's personalities takes place in a disruptive social context that affects their attention, concentration and memory. These children become very overexcited, sufficiently agitated, and remain in a state of anticipatory vigilance.

They live close to people and may take drugs because of their impulsiveness. They may even join armed gangs and look to them as their only model.They may lose touch with reality and plunge into mental disorders as a result of their proximity to drugs and pathological grief.They will navigate between emotional dramatisation and behavioural weirdness.

What can be done in this situation?

Set up a psychological unit to deal with psychotrauma in potentially vulnerable children and their parents.

Call on doctors, or even a child psychiatrist, to deal with the mental pathologies associated with this suffering.On a social level, promote spaces for living together with healthy activities such as re-socialisation and relaxation.Opening schools to provide them with structured and effective training to strengthen their resilience. Desensitise learning in the form of erroneous beliefs against a backdrop of religious terrorism.

William O.

Article validated by Dr Sélom Zinsou Degboe, Clinical Psychologist, Addiction Specialist at the CHU Campus in Lomé.