title: What if Astyanax had survived? War, children, and youth.
abstract: What, then, might have happened to Astyanax had he survived? He might have become a Greek slave and accepted his lot, or he might have felt loyalty and an obligation to his Trojan ancestry and organized acts of revenge. Depending on his personal characteristics and the people and the community that raised him, a number of outcomes are possible. The fact that after 3000 years we know little more than did the Homeric bards, however, gives us reason to be humble. There is evidence that each experience of loss or violence is additive and reduces coping ability. Although the psychologic disturbances of children and youth exposed to war do appear less intense than might have been expected, as Garmezy and Rutter noted in 1985, it is impossible to know the cost, the vulnerabilities that have been veiled, and what might have been. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is how some children seem able to transcend their misfortunes and even to be steeled by them. Coles has recorded how a 6-year-old, African-American girl, initiating school desegregation in New Orleans in the face of mob violence and daily threats to her life, told him that if she managed to get through with some success, she had an explanation: "It will be because there is more to me than I ever realized."
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pfefferbaum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001601:Bereavement; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development; D012649:Self Concept; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D014857:Warfare