step 5 Emily Song -internet (child soldiers) 1

link-http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/118309.php

The article I have found from the internet website (www.medicalnewstoday.com) was mainly based on the studies and findings mentioned from the article JAMA (Journal of the American Medical association), summarizing the information from the magazine. It talks about the health concerns of the child soldiers in comparison to the children in Nepal who were not forced as child soldiers.

In summary, the researchers set out to determine the mental health effects on two groups, they found out more than half of the child soldiers met the symptom cutoff score and criteria for depression and PTSD. From the statistical information, the research showed that child soldiers may be significantly exposed to depression and PTSD, compared to the children who are never exposed as child soldier. The researchers concluded that the difference in health issues between the two groups is determined by greater exposure to striking events by the child soldiers and mentioned important health implications about the necessity of a focused programming and the importance of screening as a base for intervention.

As I was reading this article, I personally thought this was a quite reliable source because the researchers' names and their status were mentioned clearly below the article. Also, as the author had mentioned the detailed statistics and further descriptions of the studies, I was somehow convinced by the information. Even though this article is a second hand resource and no further background information of the author is given except his name, I concluded his lists of the researchers and their interpretation were quite valid as all of the data and the descriptions were linked right below the article. Also, the recent dates convinced me to think this as the most recent proven facts. Therefore, the article I believe is not a biased source for the conclusions were based on the detailed studies. Furthermore, the fact that this article is from a medical website and other medical texts and information were linked together for further explanation, I believe this meets the level of validity. On the other hand, assume that the author’s purpose in writing this article was to share tragic lives of the child soldiers and how their environment may also affect their health compare to other children. Also, the author might have used this media as various people around the globe are more likely to come in contact with this article through internet than direct from the medical sources.

To sum up I am glad that I had a chance to know more about the child soldiers and what it really meant to be a child soldier. My knowledge and perception about the internet also changed because I oftentimes questioned the reliability of the information on the internet. Although internet is a great source to find various types of information, I always struggled to find a good quality material. As one of the advantages of the internet source, that anyone can post information through the internet was also a disadvantage for people like me to find a credible source, I never enjoyed finding resources from the internet. However, after reading this article, I figured, if I can distinguish what is credible and not from the given texts and resources, internet can be a great source.