Children's representations of war trauma and family separation in play

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a non-intrusive research instrument for children who have experienced war trauma and family separation that has the capacity to elicit verbal and non-verbal representations of their experiences in their play. A related objective was to explore the relationship between the family's disclosure of traumatic events and the children's play. The research was conducted among 21 Algerian and West and Central African children. The methodology was based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. The play of children from a community and a clinical group was compared to identify play indicators that were potentially indicative of positive mental health.Results suggest that indicators of play structure may be more important than indicators of play content in identifying children with potential mental health difficulties as a result of trauma. In particular, a flexible approach to trauma and a modulated approach to the disclosure of traumatic events may be related to positive mental health.These results suggest that this non-intrusive directed play interview is a valid and culturally sensitive instrument for assessing the verbal and non-verbal representations of war trauma in refugee children