Children under Fire

Challenging Assumptions about Children’s Resilience

Abstract

This article examines perceptions of childhood and child development and theories of human responses to adversity that have arisen within the social and medical sciences and highlights their influence on policy and practice in the context of armed conflict. It highlights how the idea of childhood as a decontextualized and universal life phase characterized by dependence and vulnerability interacts with and is reinforced by a view of war-survivors as traumatized individuals, victims in need of remedial care. It argues for a paradigmatic shift towards understanding childhood as a highly diverse life phase shaped not simply by biological or psychological universals but also, and more importantly, by personal and environmental factors. This paradigmatic shift involves thinking about children as agents of their own development who, even during times of great adversity, consciously act upon and influence the environments in which they live.