Answer:
Participation in war as a soldier provides significant challenges to the well-being of any child. As it does for adults, war poses significant and often lethal risks for children who serve as combatants, as well as for children who serve in support roles. Like adults, children can emerge from their war experiences physically injured or maimed or psychologically traumatized; in addition, the fact of living in a war zone and their direct experiences of war can mean that they may face severely limited life prospects. The issue of the well-being of child soldiers is, however, far more complex than a simple tally of the effects of war on those who are killed, wounded, injured, or exploited. It also encompasses the broader question of whether participation in war negatively impacts the well-being of all children who are recruited and whether recruitment as a combatant or in a support role affects childhood well-being per se. In wartime, the situation for children is rarely simple. Child soldiers are recruited in war zones in which there may be few communities that have not been profoundly affected by war and war imposes significant risks to the well-being of all children, both combatants and noncombatants. A clear understanding of the well being of child soldiers requires a nuanced perspective of the broad social, cultural and economic conditions under which children are recruited.
