The recent conflicts and fighting in most of Yemen governorates and the sharp shortage of essential needs and insecurity in the country caused deep psychological impacts on children effecting their thinking, feelings, and their attitude and relationship behavior towards those around them.
However, knowing the real magnitude of the impact on children will continue to be unknown even after the end of the conflict for a long time to come. Some of these effects are reversed through this basic study summary results on (case study), which was conducted by Yemen children relief organization (YCR) On a sample of children in (The capital secretariat, Aden, Taiz and Abyan governorates)
The study revealed an important aspect of psychological problems experienced by children during the ongoing conflicts; also the study showed children views on their problems and emotions by using terms of (fear, insecurity, anxiety and danger) to express their emotional reactions.
58.2% of children expressed their feelings of intense fear, over 37% feel anxious , 36.4% said they are unsafe and 32.7% mentioned that they suffer from sleep problems due to fear of heavy weapons and air strikes and anti-air defenses.
the study of psychological state of children revealed that the source of fears with children is the sound of gunshots and the sound of bombing, the fear of death ,the fear of losing one of their parents, fear of fighting jets, fear of armed men, fear of future and the fear of darkness due to power cuts for many days.
In addition, the study exposed that children experienced high level of emotions reflected on their physical integrity, where 31% of them suffers from physical symptoms related to their psychological status such as headache, chest pain, stomach pain and tiredness, also 21.9% of the sample are suffering of many physical symptoms couldn’t have any explanation and related to their psychological status. It was a clear difference of the results in the governorates due to the conflict condition in the targeted areas. Children also expressed their frustration when they were not allowed to go out to play and closing all kindergartens, fun places and play parks and the described their feelings of continues tension because of the parents’ concerns.
Some of the children stated that they are unsettled because of rumors of schools closure for the whole year.
Children parents reported during the assessment of the state of their children that 5% of children are suffering of enuresis (bed-wetting), 2% suffering from stuttering in speech, 47% sleeping disorder insomnia, 24% have problems with concentration and 17% suffering of panic attacks.