Domestic extremists: dealing with demonstrators

The security department of any healthcare facility faces delicate security problems. In addition to guarding staff and the facility, security professionals must protect the patients. This duty becomes even more difficult, says the author, when hospitals become political and moral battlegrounds for demonstrators.

Violent political contexts and the emotional concerns of township youth

This article presents the findings of a series of studies that examine the perceptions of black South African youth about township life and the civil conflict and violence it encompasses. The studies were conducted with comparable samples of 58-82 youth at 3 points in South Africa's history, all characterized by high levels of violence but differing in terms of their political contexts. These contexts were overt State-community conflict, covert opposition and political repression, and intracommunity violence. The data revealed that in all 3 contexts youth reported a high exposure to violence, but only when violence occurred in the context of intracommunity conflict was it subjectively construed to be the most problematic. Reasons for this may include the real increase in more extreme forms of violence, including deaths, that occurs in intracommunity violence and the blurring of the distinction between political and criminal violence in this context.

Children: ethnic and political violence

Violence stemming from ethnic and political tensions is a problem of increasing proportions throughout the world, and many indicators show that large numbers of children are directly or indirectly exposed to war, political repression, torture, and terrorism. There is growing evidence to suggest that children are at risk under these conditions, and that the consequences of growing up amid danger, chaos, and deprivation can be severe. The articles contained in this special section were assembled to foster greater awareness of this important topic among the readers of Child Development and, hopefully, stimulate new research on ethnic and political violence in many of the disciplines that are represented within the Society for Research in Child Development.

The effects of political violence on Palestinian children's behavior problems: a risk accumulation model

Interviews with 150 Palestinian mothers and their children living amidst the Intifada in the West Bank were conducted to assess exposure to political violence and family negativity as risk factors associated with behavioral problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist. The number of risks present in the child's life was significantly correlated with the number of behavioral problems the child exhibited (R = .53, p < .001). The analysis further examined the role of gender, age, and community context in moderating the impact of high levels of accumulated risk on children's behavioral problems. Under conditions of high accumulated risk, boys evidenced more problems than girls, and younger children exhibited more problems than older children. Community context (as indicated by a high or low level of political violence) was a significant factor for girls but not for boys.

Can ideological commitment protect children's psychological well-being in situations of political violence?

The mental health role of ideological commitment (operationalized as glorification of war, patriotic involvement, and defiant attitudes toward the enemy) was studied among 385 Israeli girls and boys (mean age 12 +/- 2.50). It was hypothesized that experiences of political hardships do not increase psychosocial problems if children have strong ideological commitment. The hypothesis was conditionally substantiated concerning symptoms of anxiety and insecurity, and depression and feelings of failure. Exposure to political hardships did not increase the presence of these symptoms among children who showed strong ideological commitment. In contrast, among children with weak ideological commitment, exposure increased these symptoms, but not linearily. Furthermore, injury and loss decreased social support if children show weak ideological commitment. There was also the mediating role of ideological commitment, showing that political hardships increased the ideological commitment that, in turn, was related to a low level of psychosocial problems.

Attributions and responses to the Arab-Israeli conflict: a developmental analysis

This study assessed the causes ascribed by Israeli children and youth for the Arab-Israeli conflict and the relation of these attributions to their expectations and emotions. The results highlight basic contingencies between the form of attribution and the character of emotional response and future expectation, with marked developmental variations in both the strength and manner of this association. Overall, the findings suggest the utility of Bizman and Hoffman's attributional model as a heuristic for understanding children's perception and response to conflict, but underscore the need for developmental adaptation. Particular attention is drawn to the developing concept of mutuality and its implication for the application of attributional analyses in the young.

Canadian military physician one of many who tried to help Rwandans cope with a "world of hurt"

Lieutenant-Commander Colin Harwood was part of a team from the Canadian Forces Medical Service (CFMS) that was sent to Rwanda in the wake of that country's bloody civil war. The Ottawa-based officer says the CFMS personnel helped ease many serious medical problems during the 10 weeks they spent there, although the sheer numbers of wounded, diseased and orphaned people sometimes seemed overwhelming. The Canadian personnel helped more than 22,000 patients during their stay.

Rape, torture, and traumatization of Bosnian and Croatian women: psychological sequelae

The first 25 Bosnian women admitted to the Zagreb Obstetrics and Gynaecological Clinic or its associated regional psychiatric centers were assessed using both clinical and post-traumatic stress disorder interviews. Most of the women had been multiply traumatized; all had been repeatedly raped. Psychological status was assessed for those women who were not impregnated, for those impregnated who received abortions, and for those impregnated who carried the fetus to term.

[The organization of the work of military forensic medical experts in identifying the dead in an area of armed conflict]

The authors summarize the experience of work of legal physicians in identification of servicemen who have perished on the territory of Chechnya. The article contains data concerning the methods of classification of non-identified cadavers in three identification groups and gives a scientifically substantiated system of pre-identification preparation of cadavers. A number of problematic questions which need its further solution are raised.

Iranian refugee children in Sweden: effects of organized violence and forced migration on preschool children

Using play techniques, individual assessments were made of 50 preschool children from 47 Iranian refugee families living in Sweden, while their parents were interviewed about the children's exposure to violence and separation. Reenacting play involving war and persecution was performed by 19 of the children, most of them eyewitnesses to violence. The study demonstrated ways of obtaining information directly from young children to supplement parental reports.

[Loyalty to professional and military duty]

The author of this article--Chief of the Russian Armed Forces Medical Service--analyses the trends of optimization of medical support of the Army and Navy, taking into account the experience of combat casualty care during Chechen crisis. In order to enhance the efficiency of medical support during combat activities all the personnel is supplied with first-aid kits. Each company is reinforced with a medical assistant or army physician; battalion medical posts--with physicians, medical assistants, aidmen, mobile dressing room and ambulances; regiment medical posts--with two surgeons, an anaesthesiologist, an instrument nurse and nurse-anaesthetist. The primary medical care is provided at the battalion medical post; qualified (secondary) surgical care--at regiment medical posts, and specialized (tertiary) medical care--at special medical detachments (SMD) and military hospitals. The wounded are evacuated from the zone of combat actions by APC or MICV, and then by helicopters. The further evacuation of wounded is realized by transport or medical aircraft, including "Skalpel" flight surgery plane. The experience of army physicians has proved the necessity of multilateral development of Mobile Forces Medical Service and the formation of aeromobile hospitals. An airborne infantry battalion must have a medical company in its organic structure, and respectively a separate medical battalion must have an aeromobile medical company. The SMD which are assigned to act in the emergency situations of peaceful time also can be effective in providing medical care (including specialized care) during local military conflicts. Thinking over the further development of medical support in the Armed Forces the author assigns a number of tasks throughout all the chain of medical command, including medical establishments, medical examination boards, the Corps of Senior medical specialists (in surgery, internal medicine, pathologicoanatomy, sanitary supervision, etc). A special attention is paid to the formation of an efficient system of sanitary-epidemiological supervision in the Armed Forces; the improvement of medical assistance for servicewomen, retired officers and their dependents; the enforcement of military and labour discipline in the units and establishments of medical service; training and education of medical personnel; the strict adherence to the principles of medical ethics, deontology, and oath of physician.