ABSTRACT
The need to understand and respond to the traumatic aftermath of war has a long and important history in the literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As originally conceived, the disorder was viewed as arising from catastrophic events that were “outside the range of normal human experience,” a category in which war quite rightly might be considered to belong. For all too many children living in societies torn by political strife, civil unrest, paramilitary insurgencies, interethnic conflict, or drug cartel and gang violence, warfare is the only experience they have ever known. Moreover, considering the large number who are of child-bearing age during their conscription, or who return to their communities to raise families of their own, the experience of child soldiering has significant implications for the next generation to come.
