Intergenerational Transmission Of Trauma Research Articles

Intergenerational trauma transmission through family psychosocial factors in adult children of Rwandan survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi

Thirty years after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, children of survivors are being increasingly documented to be at higher risk compared to their peers for adverse mental health outcomes. However, no studies in Rwanda have empirically explored family psychosocial factors underlying this intergenerational transmission of trauma. We investigated family psychosocial factors that could underlie this transmission in 251 adult Rwandan children of survivors (mean age = 23.31, SD = 2.40; 50.2% female) who completed a cross-sectional online survey. For participants with survivor mothers (n = 187), we found that both offspring-reported maternal trauma exposure and maternal PTSD were indirectly associated with children's PTSD via maternal trauma communication (specifically, nonverbal and guilt-inducing communication), and that maternal PTSD was indirectly associated with children's PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms through family communication styles. For participants with survivor fathers (n = 170), we found that paternal PTSD symptoms were indirectly associated with children's anxiety and depression symptoms via paternal parenting styles (specifically, abusive and indifferent parenting). Although replication is needed in longitudinal research with parent-child dyads, these results reaffirm the importance of looking at mass trauma in a family context and suggest that intergenerational trauma interventions should focus on addressing family communication, trauma communication, and parenting.

Toward a multi-level approach to the study of the intergenerational transmission of trauma: Current findings and future directions.

A central goal in the field of developmental psychopathology is to evaluate the complex, dynamic transactions occurring among biological, psychological, and broader social-cultural contexts that predict adaptive and maladaptive outcomes across ontogeny. Here, I briefly review research on the effects of a history of childhood maltreatment on parental, child, and dyadic functioning, along with more recent studies on the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Because the experience and sequelae of child maltreatment and the intergenerational transmission of trauma are embedded in complex biopsychosocial contexts, this research is best conceptualized in a developmental psychopathology framework. Moreover, there is a pressing need for investigators in this area of study to adopt dynamic, multi-level perspectives as well as using developmentally guided, sophisticated research methods. Other directions for research in this field are suggested, including the implementation of collaborative interdisciplinary team science approaches, as well as community-based participatory research, to increase representation, inclusion, and equity of community stakeholders. A greater focus on cultural and global perspectives is also recommended.

Victor Erice’s Film The Spirit of the Beehive: A Coded Warning Against Submission in the Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War

ABSTRACT This essay discusses Victor Erice’s film The Spirit of the Beehive in terms of issues relevant to psychoanalysis today: the impact of socio-political trauma on the psyche. Through his cinematic artform, Erice captures the isolation and emotional deadness of village life in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War which we discuss in terms of the contemporary interest in intergenerational transmission of trauma as well as the expansion of the psychoanalytic paradigm to include socio-historic events impacting unconscious processes. Through a personal narrative of a young girl’s plight, the film captures her mind-numbing surrender to fantasy elaborations – which serves as an allegory for the people of Spain’s mind-numbed surrender to fascist dogma. Throughout the film, a witness is needed, so Erice turns to us, his viewers to take on this role. Beyond being a coded exposé of Franco’s regime, the film serves as a warning with disturbing relevance today.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder in intergenerational trauma transmission among Eritrean asylum-seeking mother-child dyads

ABSTRACT Background: Traumatic stress among forcibly displaced people has a variety of adverse consequences beyond individual mental health, including implications for poor socioemotional developmental outcomes for their children post-displacement. Objective: This study explored the intergenerational transmission of maternal ICD-11 Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and depression among asylum-seeking mothers for their children’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties. Method: Participants were 127 trauma-affected Eritrean mothers of preschool-aged children in Israel. The severity of child difficulties was compared between mothers with probable ICD-11 CPTSD (94.5% comorbid depression), ICD-11 PTSD (48.5% comorbid depression), unimorbid depression, and healthy mothers, using multivariate analyses of variance, while controlling for children’s direct exposure to adverse life experiences. Results: Probable ICD-11 CPTSD and PTSD were present in 23.6% and 26.0% of mothers, respectively. Relative to maternal PTSD, CPTSD was significantly and strongly associated with elevated child internalizing symptoms (d = 2.44) and marginally significantly, although strongly, associated with child externalizing symptoms (d = 1.30). Post-hoc exploratory analyses documented that, relative to maternal PTSD and depression, CPTSD and depression comorbidity was marginally significantly but strongly associated with child internalizing (SMD = .67), but not externalizing symptoms (SMD = .35). Conclusions: Findings implicate maternal CPTSD and comorbid depression in child socio-emotional development and inform clinical assessment, prevention, and intervention to attenuate poor development among children in unstable post-displacement settings.

Gendered Postmemorial Legacy: Lily Brett’s and Elizabeth Rosner’s Poetic Renditions of the Holocaust

This article explores Lily Brett’s The Auschwitz Poems (2004) and Elizabeth Rosner’s Gravity (2014), two female-authored second-generation poetic renditions of the Holocaust. Examining these works through the lens of postmemory, my goal is to shed new light on the intergenerational transmission of trauma from a gendered perspective, focusing on its connections with poetry. I argue that both anthologies share at the core of their narrative a gender-focused layer of meaning, which penetrates into a postmemorial experience that is to a great extent defined by this social construct. This essay fosters scholarship on postmemory by conceiving it as a double-edged process encompassing both aesthetics and a form of social activism, and informed by feminism, which is mirrored in the reconception and rethinking of both the female body and gender hierarchy.

Specters and Cryptonyms of Return. Polyphony in the Postmemorial Novel Sefer by Ewa Lipska

The article discusses polyphonic narrative strategies typical of postmemorial prose on the exampleof Ewa Lipska’s novel Sefer, framing it through references to Bakhtin’s categories of polyphony,non-co-presence and the two-voice word, on the one hand, and to concepts of postmemory (MarianneHirsch’s category) and hauntontology (Jacques Derrida’s concept), Nicolas Abraham andMária Török’s cryptological theory, and the Freudian metapsychology of the secret, on the other.The polyphonic nature of the text refl ects the dynamics of intergenerational transmission of trauma,revealing a subjectivity haunted by traces of violence that take the form of extensive allusions andtextual tropes. Lipska deconstructs the postmemorial model of the narrative of return, questioningthe reparative abilities of acts of imagination.

Echoes of ancestral trauma: Russo-Ukrainian War salience and psychological distress among subsequent generations in Holocaust survivor families.

The Russo-Ukrainian War intensified when Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The current study examined whether children (second generation; G2) and grandchildren (third generation; G3) of Holocaust survivors are more preoccupied with the war relative to comparisons. Moreover, whether there was more exacerbation in psychological distress in Holocaust survivor families relative to comparisons since the escalation of the war. A random sample from a web-based survey company included 1,071 Jewish Israeli adults (297 Holocaust G2, 224 comparison G2, 379 Holocaust G3, and 171 comparison G3). The average age of the participants was 62.95 ± 10.25, 61.79 ± 10.13, 34.02 ± 8.65, and 33.55 ± 8.26, respectively. Participants answered questionnaires on background characteristics, Russo-Ukrainian War exposure, Russo-Ukrainian War salience, and general psychological distress before and since the escalation of the war. Findings showed that Holocaust G2 and G3, relative to comparisons, reported more Russo-Ukrainian War salience. Moreover, more psychological distress symptom exacerbation was found in Holocaust survivor families relative to comparisons since the escalation of the war. Finally, Holocaust G2 and G3 with more Holocaust survivors in the family showed higher anxious preoccupation with the war and Holocaust G3 with more survivor grandparents showed more exacerbation in psychological distress. Findings suggest a specific vulnerability due to intergenerational transmission of trauma in Holocaust survivor families, including increased preoccupation with and perceptiveness to potential threats of human-induced trauma. Strengthening previous recommendations, mental health practitioners should focus on reducing the preoccupation with threat and the increased psychological distress of Holocaust survivor families when faced with current adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma

Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma

Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its association with attitudes toward reconciliation.

We aimed to investigate the link between mothers' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their adult offspring's attitudes toward reconciliation and psychopathology among survivors of the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. We also sought to examine whether parenting styles mediate the relationship between mothers' PTSD symptoms and their adult offspring's psychopathology, if any. Mother-child dyads (N = 181) were recruited in Rwanda and completed measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, depression, attitudes toward reconciliation, and parenting styles. Adult offspring of mothers who suffered from more severe PTSD symptoms had less favorable attitudes toward reconciliation, even after controlling for their own PTSD symptoms. Mothers' PTSD symptoms were not associated with their adult offspring's PTSD or depression symptoms. In addition, mothers' PTSD symptoms did not predict their parenting styles. These results suggest that the mental health of survivors of mass violence has repercussions on the intergroup attitudes of the following generation. This study has practical implications for sustainable peacebuilding in postconflict societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Family involvement and secondary traumatization in Holocaust survivor families: An actor-partner interdependence model.

The study aimed to examine the interpersonal relationships between family involvement (i.e., emotional and behavioral strategies that underscore family members' well-being and familial legacy) and secondary traumatization (i.e., symptoms of distress resulting from close contact with a traumatized individual) in Holocaust survivors and comparison families. We assessed levels of family involvement and secondary traumatization in children and grandchildren of survivors (Holocaust G2 and G3) and comparisons. Next, we examined whether there are within and between generation relationships between family involvement and secondary traumatization (i.e., G2's family involvement affects G3's secondary traumatization and vice versa). The sample included 92 Holocaust G2-G3 dyads and 67 equivalent comparison dyads (comparison G2 and G3 of European origin, whose parents or grandparents were not in Nazi/pro-Nazi dominated countries). Participants answered questionaries on background characteristics, family involvement, and secondary traumatization. Secondary traumatization was significantly higher among Holocaust G2 and G3 than comparison G2 and G3, respectively. Family involvement was significantly higher among Holocaust G2 than comparison G2. An Actor-Partner Interdependence model showed that participants who reported greater family involvement reported higher secondary traumatization in all families (i.e., an actor effect). A significant partner effect was found only in Holocaust families. In these families, greater family involvement in one generation was related to higher secondary traumatization in the other generation. The findings suggest a unique interpersonal mechanism of intergenerational transmission of trauma in Holocaust families that appears to affect both generations, which may help design multigenerational interventions with survivor families, focusing on family involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Intergenerational Trauma, Dependency, and Detachment.

The literature on intergenerational transmission of trauma is predominantly focused on the mental health functioning of children and grandchildren of trauma survivors. Research shows that having a traumatized parent is related to increased psychopathology and dysfunctional attachment patterns in the next generation, but little is known about the effects of parental trauma on other aspects of interpersonal relating. The current study addresses this gap. Participants were young adult students from an urban college; individual and parental trauma histories, and indices of unhealthy dependency, dysfunctional detachment, and healthy dependency, were obtained. Results indicated that a wide range of parental traumas were positively correlated with dysfunctional detachment, but not related to destructive overdependence or healthy dependency. These results suggest that a wide range of parental traumas have a negative impact on the next generation's interpersonal dependency by fostering a tendency to distance themselves from close relationships.

Growing Up with a Cheating Father: A Qualitative Analysis of Adult Daughters’ Family and Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of a father’s infidelity on his adult daughter’s experience of family and romantic relationships. The participants of this study were 13 women aged between 22–37 years. Their experiences were elicited through semi-structured interviews. MAXQDA−20 was used to assist in analyzing the data. The analysis revealed three main themes and associated sub-themes: family of origin, the effects of the father’s infidelity, and romantic relationships. The daughters tended to replicate the same patterns in their romantic relationships as those in their family of origin. Having experienced parental infidelity during their childhood, the daughters model their mothers and form relationships with partners similar to their fathers. That is, their fathers’ affairs lead to intergenerational trauma transmission for these women.

Finnish care leavers‘ social inclusion during the transition to adulthood

Young people receiving aftercare services, hereinafter referred to as care leavers, are dependent on supportive and caring relationships with their family, friends, and other support networks when transitioning to independent life. According to previous research, care leavers often have low resilience, which impairs their ability to cope with challenges and leads to problems related to housing, studying, mental health, substance abuse, and somatic morbidity; these issues can impair social inclusion and increase vulnerability.The aim of this qualitative study was to describe care leavers’ experiences of social inclusion (N = 16). The participants were between 18 and 20 years of age, with twelve being women and four being men. Most of the participants had been in child welfare institutions and some in foster care. They had left out-of-home care between one and three years before the study. Data were collected during 2016 in Finland using thematic interviews, and subsequently analysed by qualitative content analysis. The care leavers described their experiences of social inclusion by discussing interpersonal relationships formed during childhood, in foster care, and later in life. Their descriptions emphasised the significance of trauma and growth and development, the ability to mend interpersonal relationships and avoid intergenerational trauma transmission, as well as the value of corrective relationships. The care leavers felt that daily activities promoted social inclusion and improved health and well-being.This research is important as it gives to care leavers a voice on their social inclusion. The results provide new insight into a vulnerable, marginally researched group with high support needs and a propensity for social exclusion. The results can be utilised to develop aftercare services that focus on strengthening care leavers’ resilience related to social inclusion, personal resources, and the ability to gather corrective experiences.

Intergenerational Transmission of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Prior to Birth: Effects on Human Fetal Amygdala Functional Connectivity

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a potent risk factor for developing psychopathology later in life. Accumulating research suggests that the influence is not limited to the exposed individual but may also be transmitted across generations. In this study, we examine the effect of CM in pregnant women on fetal amygdala-cortical function, prior to postnatal influences. Healthy pregnant women (N= 89) completed fetal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) scans between the late second trimester and birth. Women were primarily from low socioeconomic status households with relatively high CM. Mothers completed questionnaires prospectively evaluating prenatal psychosocial health and retrospectively evaluating trauma from their own childhood. Voxelwise functional connectivity was calculated from bilateral amygdala masks. Connectivity of the amygdala network was relatively higher to left frontal areas (prefrontal cortex and premotor) and relatively lower to right premotor area and brainstem areas in fetuses of mothers exposed to higher CM. These associations persisted after controlling for maternal socioeconomic status, maternal prenatal distress, measures of fetal motion, and gestational age at the time of scan and at birth. Pregnant women's experiences of CM are associated with offspring brain development in utero. The strongest effects were found in the left hemisphere, potentially indicating lateralization of the effects of maternal CM on the fetal brain. This study suggests that the time frame of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease research should be extended to exposures from mothers' childhood, and indicates that the intergenerational transmission of trauma may occur prior to birth.

Intergenerational transmission of trauma: A biological perspective.

This commentary is based on an invited panel for the 2022 International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) annual meeting entitled "Perspective Discourses On…Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: A Biological Perspective." This was a new format introduced by ISTSS to facilitate discussion around timely topics. This session included scholars from different backgrounds (e.g., epidemiology, neuroscience, environmental health) who shared their approaches to understanding the biological bases of the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Specifically, the panel presented information about putative direct and indirect mechanisms of transmission, including epigenetic and environmental factors, and pointed to behavioral and neurobiological outcomes in offspring. This commentary synthesizes some of the current knowledge gained by these different approaches and identifies key areas to advance in future work.

“A calf cannot fail to pick a colour from its mother”: intergenerational transmission of trauma and its effect on reconciliation among post-genocide Rwandan youth

BackgroundMore than one million Rwandans were killed over a span of one hundred days during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. Many adult survivors were severely traumatized by the events, and young people, including those who were born after the genocide, have experienced similar genocide-related trauma. Building on a growing body of research on the generational transmission of trauma, our study addressed the following questions: (1) what are the possible mechanisms of trauma transmission from older generation to post-genocide Rwandan youth, and (2) what are the effects of intergenerational trauma on reconciliation processes in Rwanda.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted in Rwanda among youth born after the genocide, with parents who survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis and among mental health and peace-building professionals. Individual interviews (IDIs) included 19 post-genocide descendants of survivors and six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 36 genocide survivor parents residing in Rwanda’s Eastern Province. Ten IDIs were also conducted with mental health and peace-building professionals in the capital city of Kigali. Respondents were recruited through five local organisations that work closely with survivors and their descendants. An inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.ResultsFindings from this study suggest that the trauma experienced by genocide survivor parents is perceived by Rwandan youth, mental health and peace-building professionals, and survivor parents themselves to be transmitted from parent to child through human biology mechanisms, social patterns of silence and disclosure of genocide experiences, and children’s and youth’s everyday contact with a traumatized parent. Genocide-related trauma among survivor parents is seen as often being triggered by both life at home and the annual genocide commemoration events. Additionally, when transmitted to genocide survivor descendants, such trauma is understood to negatively affect their psychological and social well-being. Intergenerational trauma among youth with genocide survivor parents limits their involvement in post-genocide reconciliation processes. Findings specifically show that some youth avoid reconciliation with a perpetrator’s family due to mistrust as well as fear of re-traumatizing their own parents.

Some psychoanalytic reflections on the Irish real estate bubble

AbstractWe use the recent destructive Irish residential real estate bubble and its parlous economic and social consequences to explore the role of repressed ancestral suffering in driving institutional and broader societal responses to contemporary events. We demonstrate how a traumatic past can become interwoven in the fabric of the social order, rendering state and parastatal organizations and their leaders powerless. The concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma is key to our analysis. We show how the Irish obsession with owning property and land is a psychic attempt to transcend the traumatic past to “inhabit” an idealized pre‐colonial land leading to emergent feelings of empowerment, euphoria and omnipotence. We also explain why the Irish real estate bubble is being re‐enacted so soon. The potential to enhance interpretation through insights from literature, drama, and poetry is illustrated.

Attachment, Mentalizing and Trauma: Then (1992) and Now (2022).

This article reviews the current status of research on the relationship between attachment and trauma in developmental psychopathology. Beginning with a review of the major issues and the state-of-the-art in relation to current thinking in the field of attachment about the impact of trauma and the inter-generational transmission of trauma, the review then considers recent neurobiological work on mentalizing and trauma and suggests areas of new development and implications for clinical practice.

The mechanisms of influence in intergenerational trauma transmission from mother to baby after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina: what have we learned since then?

IntroductionAfter the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina that lasted from 1992 to 1995, the populations gradually rebuilt their lives haunted by the spectrum of personal and collective painful souvenirs. Regarding the children who were born after the war, some mothers would rather not talk about it to protect their children from what they might be feeling while others would definetely share what they have experienced to protect their children. Because the intergenerational transmission of war trauma from mother to baby has been poorly explored among populations who recently lived in a warzone, we seeked to highlight the particularity of the interpersonal relations between the mother and her child in connection with maternal psychotrauma, by searching the factors of influence on the functioning of the dyad.ObjectivesThe main objective of this study is to determine and conceptualize the modes of transmission of trauma from the study of mother-baby interactions in a Bosnian environment, after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.MethodsIn 2003, 40 mothers and their babies aged 2 to 36 months living in Sarajevo were enrolled in the study. Among these mothers, 31 lived in or near the warzone and 9 were either displaced in other areas of the country or were refugees in foreign countries. We assessed the level of severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (Blake et al, 1998). In order to examine the quality of the mother-child dyads of mothers who lived through the war, we videorecorded a 10-minute free play of 23 dyads in their home environment. Then the interactions were coded using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development observation grid by two independent raters.ResultsThe results showed that all mothers who lived through the war presented post-traumatic symptoms but only half of them showed a PTSD. Videotaped observations of mother-child interactions during playtimes revealed that their interactions are less linked to the mother’s PTSD than to the influence of PTSD on maternal attitudes and thereby extending to those of their infant. They are less sensitive to their children’s signals. They are also more intrusive and detached. Overall, they are more focused on themselves than on their child when they are interacting. As a result, their children are more focused on play and less actively engaged in communicating with their mothers.ConclusionsThe interactions between the mother and her child cover a set of relatively complex processes during which the two partners influence each other. When a mother lives through the war, she will pass on to her child an often painful life story. And thus, it is not only the content but also the way she transmits it that influences how the child receives the objects of the transmission.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Historical trauma and the impact on IPV among Indigenous women

ABSTRACT Indigenous women experience violence 1.2 times more throughout their lifetime than their non-Indigenous women counterparts. Advocates who recognize that historical traumatic events are associated with the high rates of violence are vital to the healing process. This study focuses on interviews of 15 Indigenous women advocates who work with Indigenous women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). It seeks to explore the lived experiences of participants and their perception of historical trauma as a contributor to IPV. Participants from the Midwest region of the United States were asked 1) to share their perceptions on views regarding the way historical trauma shapes Indigenous women’s experiences of IPV, and 2) about their views regarding how historical trauma shapes Indigenous women’s reaction to IPV. The findings identify colonization as a generator of historical trauma and intergenerational transmission of trauma. In this study, participants share their own experiences in working with clients as well as their own personal stories of IPV. Results can contribute to the body of knowledge for practitioners and provide a foundation for understanding the connection between historical trauma and IPV.