Presencial: Sala Àngels Torrents, CED

Virtual: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7905645674
Codi: 1984

Title: The long-lasting effect of armed conflicts deaths on the living: Quantifying family bereavement

Abstract:
Armed conflicts escalate combatant and civilian mortality and yield enduring consequences for surviving family members. Yet the lasting impact of bereavement on close relatives, persisting well beyond the conflict’s conclusion, is often overlooked. Prolonged conflicts intensify bereavement prevalence, with individuals accumulating losses of multiple relatives. These losses significantly affect individuals across several dimensions, including trauma, mental health, financial status, and caregiving during childhood and old age.

Our quantification of population-level parental and offspring loss in high-intensity conflicts reveals that conflict-derived bereavement levels largely surpass fatality rates. For example, in 2023, one in every 20 Syrian adults had lost an offspring, and one in every 25 had lost a parent. That year, one in 65 Palestinians had lost an offspring, and one in 100 had lost a parent.

This quantification underscores bereavement as a profound yet unrecognized consequence of conflict, with potentially far-reaching implications lingering for decades after the conflict’s end.