[16] One of the factors is involvement with military forces as they sexually abuse and exploit girls and women during conflicts.
[6] Besides, as HIV-positive mothers give birth to HIV-infected children without anti-retroviral drugs, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS tend to spread fast.
[6] War disrupts the supply of necessities to children and their families like food, water, shelter, health services, and education.
In case of South Sudan, constant violent conflicts along with climate shocks greatly damaged the agriculture-based economy.
[17] In countries across Africa and the Middle East, over 2.5 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The United Nations reported that more than 13 million children are deprived of education opportunities and more than 8,850 schools were destroyed because of armed conflicts in the Middle East.
In addition, gender equality can also be compromised as education disruption in armed conflict zones generally excludes girls.
Neural connections for sensory ability, language, and cognitive function are all actively made during the first year for a child.
Stress in early childhood can impede brain development of children that results in both physical and mental health problems.
[26] Healthy brain and physical development can be hampered by excessive or prolonged activation of stress response systems.
Childhood socioeconomic status influences neural development and affects cognitive ability and mental health through adult life.
Many studies have shown that poverty in early childhood can be harmful in that poor families lack time and financial resources to invest in promoting child development.
[29][30] This suggests that the serious deprivation of resources in armed conflict zones is extremely detrimental to cognitive development of children during warfare.
Okasha and Elkholy (2012) have theorized that psychological immunization can help children who are frequently exposed to conflict to better acclimate themselves to the stressors of war.
[38] The incidence of the effects of war has a 10 to 90 percent variation in terms of developing PTSD, depression and behavioral problems.
[41] Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs are conducted to rehabilitate child soldiers and war-affected children.
However, disarmament consistently failed to attract female combatants who were forced to provide sexual services as they were too afraid to step forward for demobilization process.
[44] Reintegration and rehabilitation depends on the level of violence occurred in the region, acceptance from family and community, and resources like education and training programs to recover war-affected youth.
[47] Helpful community surroundings and stable caregivers are regarded as being able to build capacity to recover from adverse childhood experiences.
Under this, the mental health professional encourages the patients to describe the events of their life – from birth till present.