Experiences of Social Support Among Former Child Soldiers Living in Northern Uganda: A Phenomenological Approach (WITHDRAWN)

Background and Purpose: Forced conscription of children to serve in armed conflict represents a significant human rights concern of relevance to social work. These children are most commonly referred to as child soldiers. While most research attends to the relationship between war experience and mental health outcomes, current trends suggest that research must shift its focus to the interaction between former child soldiers and their communities post-conflict. Compounding these limitations in the data is a lacking understanding of how community-based service providers interpret the socio-cultural context of these youth, a core component of our inquiry.

This study helps to fill these gaps by examining how former child soldiers living in Northern Uganda experience support in their community since returning from captivity. Additionally, this inquiry also examines how service providers view and experience support within the post-conflict environment. Existing research shows a connection between how one perceives and interprets a problem and how they address it. Therefore, it is imperative that researchers dually focus on the youth themselves and those tasked with designing and implementing services

Methods: Twenty in-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with former child soldiers living in Gulu located in Northern Uganda. Seven in-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with service providers who have worked or are working with former child soldiers in Gulu. For the returnees, 10 were female and 10 were male, their ages ranged from 20-39 years old, and abduction lengths varied from 8 months to 19 years. In relation to the service providers, there were 4 males and 3 females, and all 7 were currently working with the returnees in some capacity. Through a community-based partnership with the Community Rural Empowerment Support Organization (CRESO) in Gulu, a combination of snowball and convenience sampling were used to recruit all participants. With participant consent, all interviews were recorded for later transcription. Using Atlas.ti, horizontalization of the data, thematic clustering, and a composite description of the essence of the experience occurred in line with a phenomenological approach to data analysis.

Results: Data analysis regarding the former child soldier experience of support revealed five important themes: poverty, family acceptance & reconciliation, internal support network, stigma, and the unique situation of child mothers. For service providers, four themes were evident: poverty, child mothers, impact of stigma and client empowerment. Findings suggest that one’s experience of support is directly connected to their child soldier identity, with females experiencing the most negative support. Additionally, service providers, due to the nature of their role, also discussed their experience with client empowerment and its connection to positive support.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings highlight the importance of examining the interaction between an individual and their community, especially for war-affected populations. For social workers working in war-affected environments, especially with child mothers, it is imperative that a transgenerational, gendered lens is utilized when formulating interventions and providing services.