Placement: Homeland, Battambang, Cambodia
Project Title: Child Trafficking and its Effects on Behavioral
and Emotional Development
Abstract:
Child trafficking is an intractable problem in Cambodia. Thirty
percent of Cambodia’s population lives below the poverty line,
and 90 percent of those below the poverty line live in rural areas.
As land ownership consolidates, poor rural families that previously
depended on subsistence agriculture are put in a particularly vulnerable
and desperate position. These families’ precarious positions,
combined with Cambodia’s proximity to Thailand makes child
trafficking an all too common occurrence.
There is no single, easily summarized version of the trafficking
experience: it can range from a seemingly harmless excursion to
Bangkok with a ‘relative’ to abduction by professional
traffickers for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Because of this
range of experience, trafficking can affect children differently.
In order to help institutional care providers to better understand
the needs of trafficked children, we surveyed approximately 150
children in nine residential centers in the Battambang, a city in
northwestern Cambodia that is a receiving city for trafficking victims
who are repatriated through the Poipet border check point. About
25 percent of respondents had been trafficked. The control was children
living in residential centers who had not been trafficked.
Children completed two surveys: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
(SDQ), which measures behavioral and emotional development; and
a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) questionnaire. Care providers
also filled out an additional SDQ for each child and provided relevant
information about the child’s personal history.
There was no significant difference in the average PTSD severity
score between children who had been trafficked and children who
had not been trafficked. This may indicate that the translated instrument
was not valid, or that symptoms as identified by the DSM-IV for
PTSD are not sensitive to the ways in which responses to trauma
are expressed in Cambodian culture; both possibilities are likely,
since the average PTSD severity score for both groups was disturbingly
high. It is also possible the findings indicate that children do
not regard trafficking as a uniquely traumatizing event.
There was a noticeable difference, however, between the SDQ scores
of trafficked and non-trafficked children. Trafficked children were
much more likely to fall into the high need category (35.1 percent)
compared to non-trafficked children (14.2 percent), which indicates
that either the trafficking experience itself or some variable that
predisposes children to being trafficked significantly affects behavioral
and emotional development.
Further research needs to be conducted to determine with more specificity
what factors contribute to the differences in psychosocial adaptation
between trafficked and non-trafficked children. Knowing that there
is a discrepancy between the two groups can serve as a starting
point for care providers, and should be a spring board for developing
strategies for promoting the healthy development of trafficked children,
whether it is more personal care and attention, group therapy or
individual counseling. Suggestions for future research include a
more culturally sensitive and qualitative inquiry into children’s
responses to the trafficking experience and a longitudinal study
measuring the effectiveness of different interventions in helping
children adjust to life after trafficking.
|
