Mental Health in the Aftermath of Conflict
The authors survey the recent literature on the mental health effects of conflict. They highlight the methodological challenges faced in this literature, which include the lack of validated mental health scales in a survey context, the difficulties...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20091117081441 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4324 |
| Summary: | The authors survey the recent literature
on the mental health effects of conflict. They highlight the
methodological challenges faced in this literature, which
include the lack of validated mental health scales in a
survey context, the difficulties in measuring individual
exposure to conflict, and the issues related to making
causal inferences from observed correlations. They
illustrate how some of these issues can be overcome in a
study of mental health in post-conflict Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Mental health is measured using a clinically
validated scale; conflict exposure is proxied by
administrative data on war casualties instead of being
self-reported. The analysis suggests that there are no
significant differences in overall mental health across
areas which are affected by ethnic conflict to a greater or
lesser degree. |
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