Assessing Resilience in War-Affected Children and Adolescents: A Critical Review

Authors, Year of Publication	Journal of Publication	Region of Conflict	Methodology	Sample Size	Age Statistics	Gender Balance	Sample Type
Betancourt et al. (2010)	Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry	Sierra Leone	Quantitative-dominant mixed methods; longitudinal; purposive, convenience sampling	N = 260	Mean age = 15.13 (SD = 2.22); Range 10–17	88.8% male	Former child soldiers
Cortes & Buchanan (2007)	International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling	Colombia	Qualitative; purposive, convenience sampling	N = 6	Mean age = 14.8 (SD = 0.7); Range 12–18	66.6% male	Former child soldiers
Eggerman & Panter-Brick (2010)	Social Science and Medicine	Afghanistan	Qualitative; community-based random sampling	N = 1011	Mean age = 13.5 (SD = 1.6); Range 11–16	77% male	Afghani children
Klasen et al. (2010)	Child Development	Uganda	Quantitative, cross-sectional; purposive, convenience sampling	N = 330	Mean age = 14.44 (SD = 1.57); Range 11–17	51.5% male	Former child soldiers
Nguyen-Gillham, Giacaman, Naser, & Boyce (2008)	Health and Social Care in the Community	Palestine	Qualitative; convenience sampling	N = 321	Mean age = N/A (SD = N/A); Range 11–16	42.68 % male	Palestinian 10th and 11th graders

Table 2

Aims and main findings of the studies selected for in-depth critical analyses.

Study	Author(s) and Year of Publication	Study Aims	Operational Definition of Resilience	Main Findings
Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers: A longitudinal study of risk, protective factors, and mental health	Betancourt et al. (2010)	To investigate the temporal dynamics of internalizing and externalizing problems, and adaptive/prosocial behaviours	Adaptive/prosocial behaviours following exceptionally prolonged and intense exposure to violence	Increases in adaptive/prosocial behaviours associated with being in school and with higher levels of community acceptance; decreases in adaptive/prosocial behaviours associated with social and economic hardship and post-conflict stigma
The experience of Colombian child soldiers from a resilience perspective	Cortes & Buchanan (2007)	To understand mechanisms and resources that resilient children utilize	Exhibition of mild or no trauma-related symptoms at the time of data collection	Resilience facilitated by sense of agency, social intelligence, empathy, affect regulation, sense of future, hope and growth, and connection to spirituality; the importance of shared experience, caregiving figures, community connection and maintaining respect for human life.
Suffering, hope, and entrapment: Resilience and cultural values in Afghanistan	Eggerman & Panter-Brick (2010)	To understand how communities in war-affected areas make sense of adversity and build resilience	Positive emotional adjustment and good social functioning of communities while experiencing prolonged political and military conflict	Protective factors: hope, cultural affiliation, ideological commitment and networks of social support; risk-factors: stress in realising cultural values, unstable economy and inequitable access to basic facilities
Posttraumatic resilience in former Ugandan child soldiers	Klasen et al. (2010)	To investigate resilience in children and adolescents following war trauma	Absence of psychopathology or clinically significant behavioural and emotional problems	Postraumatic resilience in participants (27.6%); posttraumatic resilience correlated with lower exposure to domestic violence, lower guilt cognitions, less motivation to seek revenge, better socioeconomic situation in the family and more perceived spiritual support
Normalising the abnormal: Palestinian youth and the contradictions of resilience in protracted conflict	Nguyen-Gillham et al. (2008)	To understand how adolescents conceptualize resilience and recovery in dehumanizing and abnormal conditions	A collective phenomenon relating to the resources within individuals and communities that contribute to a positive health outcome	Value of supportive relationships, political participation and education are integral to sense of identity and political resistance; resilience fostered by normalization of everyday life; resilience as a dynamic, fluid construct with multiple contradictions and tensions; importance of local context and social processes.