Indigenous Age-Grade Militia Demobilization Exposure and Post-Conflict Hyperarousal in South Sudanese Nuer Households: A Cohort-Comparison Estimation of Initiation Timing and Mental Health
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The central problem is that existing trauma models treat exposure as a uniform dose, ignoring the culturally patterned sequencing through which Nuer age-grades move from initiation to demobilization and back into household life. To illustrate the estimation logic and demonstrate the framework's applicability, the paper draws on the DHS Program indicator 'Years of exposure to the risk of mortality for women' (id MM_AMRT_W_EXP), comprising 112 country-survey observations from 34 African countries between 1992 and 2025, with a mean of 139374.598 and a standard deviation of 74624.488. Demobilization exposure is not a discrete event but a temporally structured process whose mental health consequences depend on the fit between age-grade scheduling and household reintegration demands. The contribution is a testable specification of timing-sensitive mechanisms linking indigenous age-grade institutions to post-conflict hyperarousal, together with a methodological argument for cohort-comparison estimation in settings where experimental designs are infeasible.
Institution: Cairo University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223240583