Healing the Wounds of War and Displacement to Ensure the Future for Colombia's Next Generations
Photo credit: Semillas de Apego, Universidad de los Andes
By Jorge Cuartas & Andrés Moya. Photos provided courtesy of authors.
18 September 2020
The peace agreement between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the Colombian government put an end to the conflict with the oldest guerrilla organization in the Western Hemisphere, which produced over 9 million direct victims, eight million internally displaced people (IDPs), pervasive consequences on the welfare of victims, and widespread mental health problems.
Scholars and practitioners have long recognized the consequences of the conflict on its direct victims, and a comprehensive legal framework and many social programs have been developed to help IDPs and other victims overcome the psychological trauma and economic vulnerability. Nonetheless, growing evidence suggests that displacement and violence produced insidious wounds on families that may compromise the life trajectories and wellbeing, education, and development of Colombia’s future generations.
Recent studies using representative data from Colombia suggest that the civil conflict and violent displacement not only affected families’ dynamics and parents’ practices for those who were directly victimized, but also for those who were indirectly touched by violence either by hearing about a violent act, knowing a victim, or living in a violent area. For instance, one study found that parents who lived in municipalities (the smallest administrative unit in Colombia) with higher homicide rates or presence of armed groups (including FARC guerrillas) had significantly higher odds of using corporal punishment against their young children. Similarly, another study showed reductions in mothers’ engagement in stimulating activities (e.g., playing, singing, reading) with their young children following incidents of violence close to their homes.
“Reduction in parental stimulation and heightened use of corporal punishment are two potential pathways through which displacement and violence can have long-lasting indirect consequences on young children.”
The links between indirect exposure to violence and parents’ behaviors is driven to a large extent by psychological stress. Evidence from the biomedical, psychological, and behavioral economics literature indicates that psychosocial stressors, such as contextual violence, trigger physiological (e.g., segregation of cortisol) and psychological processes (e.g., fear) can alter individuals’ behavior. Evidence from Colombia indicates that among these behavioral responses, IDPs, other victims, and individuals indirectly exposed to violence can exhibit heightened risk aversion, hopelessness, impulsivity, impaired self-control, and increased reactivity and vigilance. These consequences can especially affect parenting, which is a demanding task that requires constant attention, inhibitory control, and self-regulation.
Reduction in parental stimulation and heightened use of corporal punishment are two potential pathways through which displacement and violence can have long-lasting indirect consequences on young children. Indeed, parenting engagement in stimulating activities is a major predictor of the development of skills that are critical for children’s academic and social trajectories. Similarly, meta-analysis and recent evidence from Colombia reveal that corporal punishment is detrimental for young children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, setting early inequities in skill development that can expand across the lifespan.
Protecting children and their families from direct and indirect consequences of violent displacement and the civil conflict in Colombia is therefore tantamount, and critical to the country’s transition to a post-conflict stage and to heal the wounds of war. For this purpose, it is important close the gaps in evidence-based policies that protect caregiver’s mental health and promote early childhood development across the country, and especially among families and communities exposed to violence.
In recent years, we have observed good but separate progress in these two dimensions. On the one hand, starting in 2010 the country witnessed the expansion at scale of public integrated services for early childhood development that has demonstrated positive and persistent effects. Furthermore, data from the Ministry of Health suggests over 800,000 IDPs and victims of violence have received psychosocial support since 2014 under the Comprehensive Health and Psychosocial Support Program for Victims of Violence (PAPSIVI for its Spanish acronym) that was designed under the umbrella of the Victims Law (Law 1448 of 2011).
Figure 1: Psychosocial support for victims of violence.
The linear trend illustrates the evolution in the number of victims that have received psychosocial support. The bar illustrates the overall number of victims officially recognized by the Colombian Government. Source. Ministry of Health and Social Protection, 2019.
Although progress offers a glimpse of hope and a path in the right direction, there is a long road ahead to repair the psychosocial scars of displacement and violence and protect the future of the next generation of Colombians. First, over 90% of IDPs and victims have not received access to the psychosocial support provided by PAPSIVI (see Figure 1 above), and this is also true for most Colombians living in municipalities and communities displaced and affected by on-going conflict. Second, there are large evidence gaps regarding the effectiveness of the PAPSIVI and of other psychosocial support programs that have been put in place in recent years. Finally, though the strategies for early childhood development and psychosocial support have been designed and implemented separately, neither of these strategies consider the importance of promoting caregiver mental health as a pathway to protect and foster early childhood development in contexts of displacement and violence.
As such, more efforts are needed to design, implement, and evaluate novel strategies aimed at promoting caregiver mental health and early childhood development in communities affected by displacement and violence. Doing so is critical to repairing the psychological wounds of war, promoting the healthy development of the next generations of Colombians, and achieving a long-lasting peace.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication belong solely to the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of REACH or the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
About the AuthorS
Jorge Cuartas is a doctoral student in human development, learning, and teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Science & Innovation Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, and Graduate Student Affiliate at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science. His research focuses on child development and parenting in global contexts, the effects of corporal punishment on children’s development, and the design and evaluation of interventions to promote positive parenting and early childhood development. Jorge received an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a M.Sc. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes. Connect with Jorge at jcuartas@g.harvard.edu, or follow him on Twitter (@jcuartas2).
Andrés Moya is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics, Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and an Associate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from Universidad de Los Andes. His research focuses on the economic, psychological, and behavioral consequences of violence and forced displacement. Andrés leads the implementation and impact evaluation of Semillas de Apego, a group-based psychosocial support program for primary caregivers in communities torn by violence in Colombia. Connect with Andrés at a.moya@uniandes.edu.co, or follow him on Twitter (@Andr3sMoya).