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There is widespread evidence of "toxic stress" and mental health issues among children trapped in Syria, a major new research project by NGO Save the Children has found, with experts warning the psychological damage could be irreversible.
Findings:
- 78 per cent of children felt grief and extreme sadness some or all the time
- 50 per cent of children said they never or rarely feel safe at school
- 40 per cent of children said they do not feel safe to play outside
- 71 per cent of parents said children increasingly suffer from frequent bedwetting and involuntary urination
- One in four children said they rarely or never have a place to go or someone to talk to when they are scared, sad or upset
"After six years of war, we are seeing a lot of changes in the children. They've gone through things that most of us can't even imagine," report author Alun McDonald said.
"The fear that they feel really never goes away. So they are in this permanent state of stress, of fear, nervousness, and anxiety."
The new report is the largest study of its kind conducted during the course of the conflict.
Save the Children and its Syrian partners interviewed more than 450 children, adolescents and adults across seven governorates in Syria during the past three months.
"Seventy per cent of the parents we spoke to said their children were wetting the bed now," Mr McDonald said.
"Many of them have developed speech problems or memory loss because of everything that they have been through."
The research revealed how the war had ruined childhoods, with 78 per cent of the children surveyed saying they felt grief and extreme sadness, some or all the time.
Half the children surveyed said they never or rarely felt safe at school, with 40 per cent saying they did not feel safe to play outside.
"The children we spoke to have very little support to help them," Mr McDonald said.
"The problem is the parents themselves are also traumatised. They also have been living through six years of war. They feel quite powerless to help them."
The research found a disturbing rise in domestic violence, with more than half of respondents saying such incidents had increased.
"Parents who are feeling incredibly powerless and frustrated are taking out that frustration on the only people who are close to them," Mr McDonald said.
"We have seen a big rise in … domestic violence against children, which is adding to their stress and that feeling that they have nowhere to turn to for help."
Rise in children's self-harm, suicide
Mental health workers inside Syria reported a rise in self-harm and suicide attempts among children as young as 12.
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"About five to six months ago, a child who was 12 years old committed suicide," Syrian mental health worker Sharif was quoted as saying in the report.
"We never had something like this before, even for older people.
"His dad was killed in a car bomb. They tried to explain to the child that, now your dad is a martyr and he is going to paradise, so the child thought that if he died he would see his dad. He hung himself with a scarf."
The report used the term "toxic stress" to refer to the constant state of anxiety and fear endured by these children.
Child health specialists said it was likely to have a life-long and devastating impact on the children's mental and physical health.
American paediatrician Dr John Kahler, who spent time inside the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo last July treating children, said the report's findings were not surprising.
"Kids need security, safety and predictability. Those are the things they need to thrive. And thriving is neurophysiological," the Chicago paediatrician said.
Dr Kahler said such prolonged levels of stress and fear had the ability to "rewire" children's brains.
"When you put not sleeping on top of fear, you get a chronic tension state with cortisone release that just bathes the entire brain and does affect the wiring of it," he told ABC News.
"Once the bombing and stuff has finished, the adult society will say: 'OK, now everything can go back to normal'.
"Well, everything isn't going to go back to normal. Normal has been destroyed. They will be set up to be angry, to be scared, and to be anxious, and none of those things are good for long-term development."
Save the Children have called for more mental health programs across Syria, adequate funding for psychological resources and training for teachers.
But the charity said ultimately, children need the main cause of their stress — the violence that continues to rain down on Syria's villages and cities with impunity — to end.
Topics: refugees, community-and-society, immigration, education, unrest-conflict-and-war, poverty, mental-health, syrian-arab-republic
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