This course provides an overview of the particularities of human development, from birth through late adolescence, in a violence-ridden and war-torn environment. The major theories of human development are covered from a culturally informed, gender sensitive and critical perspective. The course is designed to promote critical thinking as to the specific development process and life-course formation during childhood and adolescence in Third World societies. This course will thus foster an understanding of emotional, social, personality, and moral/ethical development during the early elementary and adolescent years. It pays special attention to how commonly identified risk factors –such as poverty, single parenthood, loss of family members, political assassination, and political imprisonment, suppression of movement and deficient education- affect child and adolescent development. Students will be examining risk factors affecting large populations of children, in addition to the other factors that may shape and determine child’s vulnerabilities, coping abilities and mental health well-being in general.
