Past Trauma Research Articles

"Everything was stuck in my inside and I just wanted to get it out": Psychological distress, coping, and help-seeking for young adult Australian Hazaras from refugee backgrounds.

Hazaras form an Afghan ethnic minority group in Australia who arrived as refugees and through humanitarian resettlement schemes over the past three decades. This qualitative study explored psychological distress in a community sample of young adult Hazaras with a refugee background. The aim was to contribute to a more detailed understanding of their mental health, coping, and help-seeking in Australia. Eighteen Hazaras, nine males and nine females aged 18-30 years (M = 22.39, SD = 3.35), in Perth, Melbourne, or Sydney, who had been living in Australia on average 7.17 years (range 1 to 16 years), participated in a semi-structured interview based on Kleinman's explanatory model framework. Participants described mental and physical health as interconnected and their explanatory models for psychological distress focused on their current difficult life experiences as refugees. Findings indicated noteworthy gender differences, with young women reporting less distress associated with adaptation than did young men. Some young people used positive coping strategies in the community, while others engaged with a variety of mental health services. Level of satisfaction with these services varied considerably, with satisfaction highest for services provided by multicultural centers. Generally, respondents were not focused on their past traumas, but more interested in planning for their futures in Australia. Key implications for culturally appropriate training and specialized interventions for use with young adult Hazaras from refugee backgrounds are discussed.

Care Aides’ Perceptions of Caring for Nursing Home Residents With Past Psychological Trauma

The dynamic interplay between dementia and psychological trauma can exert powerful effects on nursing home residents’ behavioral symptoms and quality of life. Our objectives in this exploratory study were to assess care aides’ perceptions of how often they worked with residents with past psychological trauma, the types of trauma encountered, and reasons for these beliefs. We conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews (n = 10) with care aides in June 2019 to inform the development of a trauma needs assessment (4 questions) that we included in a large survey of nursing staff (2019 - 2020). Care aides (n = 3761) were sampled from 91 randomly selected urban nursing homes stratified by health region, owner operator model, and size. We completed basic statistics and content analyses. Care aides identified residents they believed to have psychological trauma histories and provided reasons for their beliefs. Approximately 12% of the reported traumatic events were disclosed to staff. The most common, broad categories of trauma to emerge during analysis were abuse (40%) and war exposure (30%). Each had sub-categories. The most common categories of signs of trauma were re-experiencing symptoms such as flashbacks and nightmares (28%), and avoidance of specific triggers, such as water or intimate care (24%). The majority of the reported signs of trauma were persistent and distressing for staff and residents. Some behaviours assumed to be responsive behaviours of dementia may relate to traumatic stress symptomatology. Implementing trauma-informed supports for residents and care aides is essential to person-centred care and optimal quality of life.

A Case for Trauma-Informed Dementia Care: The Emancipatory Power of Psychological Resilience and Trauma From COVID-19

The dominant nonpharmacological therapeutic approach in dementia care is “person-centered.” The racial disparities in disease and diagnosis affliction, represents an urge to incorporate trauma sensitivity. Antipsychotic use rates among this population being substantially higher than two years ago, as well as increasing evidence of ACE scores being a significant risk factor in dementia development, we need to consider the emancipatory power of trauma-informed dementia care. Data were collected from 103 peer-reviewed journal articles. Person-centered care practices were analyzed for adherence to SAMHSA’s principles that guide a trauma-informed approach. Studies were rated on a Likert-scale in six areas: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment and choice; and cultural, historical & gender issues. It was observed that of the 103 search returns, 38 met study criteria. Within these data, it was observed that the majority of studies scored low on incorporation and adherence to SAMSHA’s trauma-informed approach. While a few studies mentioned the magnifying effects of a current traumatic event on preexisting vulnerabilities, no study highlighted the growth or flourishing potential in triggering past trauma and the current traumatic event offering an opportunity of mind-somatic integration. This paper proposes trauma-informed dementia practices consider: 1) intake and assessment to include a screening of ACE score; 2) evaluation of (re)integrating current losses into current developmental and lifespan phase; and 3) offering therapeutic support of current traumatic event (COVID-19) to metabolize past traumatic events in the context of current developmental and lifespan phase.

‘Lateral violence stems from the colonial system’: settler-colonialism and lateral violence in Aboriginal Australians

ABSTRACT The tendency of Indigenous people to direct their frustration and anger, due to oppression, toward members of their own group is known as lateral violence. While settler-colonization is often attributed as the main cause of lateral violence, research has not examined what specific aspects lead to lateral violence in Aboriginal communities. In a qualitative study, using yarning and thematic analysis, 17 Aboriginal Australians (53% male, 47% female) ranging in age from 18 to over 60, discussed what they believed to be the causes of lateral violence. Knowledge holders identified historical and contemporary causes and perpetuating factors of lateral violence, all of which were related to settler-colonialism. These causes included living in a colonial society, native title, access and competition for limited resources, the process of obtaining confirmation of Aboriginality certificate, identity issues and internalized racism, past traumas, and returning back to traditional lands. Settler-colonialism is a structure through which lateral violence was, and is, allowed to flourish. Challenges to the settler-colonial system need to be made to effectively combat lateral violence.

Absenz und Evidenz

The sitios de memoria on sites of former clandestine detention centres and the Gedenkstätten on sites of former Nazi concentration camps are places in which a traumatic past is remembered. They are also marked by a profound duality: they can be places of accusation or places of (self)therapy; places to exhibit the evident or places that open a space for the absent. The article argues that, while Argentine sitios de memoria emphasize the (self)therapy of the affected society, Gedenkstätten focus on the accusation of the perpetrators. It outlines the different sociopolitical constellations under which discourses about the past were established in post-National Socialist societies in Austria and Germany, and in post-dictatorial Argentina, respectively. It also shows how these foundational moments influence the subsequent unfolding and development of memory discourses which in turn are symbolically inscribed in the sites that deal with the commemoration of the past.

Gambling and homelessness in older adults: a qualitative investigation.

Homelessness is one of the most significant harms associated with gambling and appears to affect older adults disproportionately, but the relationship has received little research attention. This exploratory study investigated how gambling and homelessness is linked in older adults. Using qualitative research methods, we undertook in-depth semi structured face-to-face individual and group interviews to gather data from a purposive sample (n = 48) of key informants working in service provision for older adults (aged 50+ years) experiencing gambling-related harm and/or homelessness in Victoria, Australia. Thematic analysis of data focused on evaluating mechanisms and identifying contextual conditions that activate pathways between gambling and homelessness. The relationship between gambling and homelessness in older adults is often indirect and non-linear, and can represent a reflexive cycle. Experiencing periods of homelessness into older age can contribute to gambling, often because the adverse impacts of homelessness on older adults' mental and material wellbeing increase the appeal of gambling. Additionally, comorbidities (e.g. substance use, mental illness, past trauma) and structural conditions (e.g. gambling accessibility, poverty, housing insecurity) can activate gambling. Furthermore, because gambling in the older homeless adult population is frequently hidden and regularly overlooked by service providers, it often continues unabated. Gambling in older adults can also contribute to the onset of first-time homelessness. Large and rapid losses from high-intensity gambling frequently characterize this route to homelessness. Such gambling is often triggered by major life events and changes (e.g. bereavement, job loss, relationship difficulties), and the outcomes are often worsened by the conduct of gambling operators and creditors. The link between gambling and homelessness in older adults is complex, with connecting mechanisms often contingent upon individual, interpersonal and structural conditions and contexts. There is potential for preventative and ameliorative action given many of the underlying conditions appear modifiable through policy intervention.

De Holocausto (1978) a Chernobyl (2019): ¿Qué puede hacer el audiovisual ante un pasado traumático y un futuro amenazado?

Retracing the cultural history of the reception of the TV series Holocaust (1978) as it redefined the politics of the State and put the testimony for the first time at the centre of the cultural field, undermining how the Jewish genocide was perceived until then, the article aims at discuss —by the contributions of Annette Wieviorka and Georges Didi-Huberman, among others— through a comparison with the hbo series Chernobyl (2019) and other cinematographic productions, what audio-visual is capable of in front of different forms of State violence, of a traumatic past and of a threatened future.

Challenging the Myth of “Attention Seeking” Women with Suicidality: A Grounded Theory Study about Applying Counter-Pressure to Manage System Entrapment

Some women who express suicidal intent and engage in non-lethal self-harm perceive that nurses and other health care workers label them as attention-seeking and manipulative. An understanding of women’s help-seeking behaviors that challenges suicide myths is presented. The purpose of this study was to examine help-seeking for suicidality in women with histories of intimate partner violence using a multiple qualitative research design of grounded theory and photovoice. Women from New Brunswick, Canada, over the age of 19 who left an abusive partner (n = 32) were interviewed and seven local women from this sample participated in five photovoice group sessions where they collectively examined self-generated photos of their experiences. Transcripts of the interviews and group sessions were analyzed using the constant comparative approach, yielding a theoretical rendering of women’s help seeking. Results include a process of Applying Counter-Pressure as a way of pushing back against System Entrapment, or the sense of being invalidated and dehumanized by health care providers with the goal to Feel Human. Findings provide an understanding of women’s behavior when seeking help for suicidality and may reduce nurses’ assumptions and judgments when providing care. Trauma and violence informed care provides a framework from which to guide interventions that acknowledge the role of past and ongoing trauma in women’s lives, supporting nurses’ capacity to be validating and helping women to continue living.

“We have a shared history”: roots travel to Indonesia across Indo-European generations

This article explores senses of belonging of three Indo-European generations and examines how these are influenced by roots travel to contemporary Indonesia. We use the notion of roots tourism to refer to tourism to ancestral homelands to ‘experience heritage at the personal level’. While the notion of roots tourism has gained scholarly attention, multiple diasporic generations are often studied as a single phenomenon. By analysing life story interviews with Indo-Europeans from the first, second and third generation within twenty-one families, this article examines the motivations, expectations, lived experiences and meanings of their travels. The multigenerational nature of the empirical data enables differentiation across diasporic generations, and highlights generational nuances and interlinkages in Indo-Europeans’ senses of belonging, positions within larger colonial family histories and travel experiences. We argue that ancestries, and personal and collective memories of the colonial Dutch East Indies connect various Indo-European generations to contemporary Indonesia. The accounts reveal both personal and familial transformations, as travels potentially fostered engagements with own or familial traumatic pasts, disrupted familial practices of silences or sparked interests to travel or (re)discover one’s Indonesian heritage.

The Effect of Psychodrama on Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Case Report

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a chronic pain syndrome that often coexists with common musculoskeletal pain, sleep disorders, bowel syndrome, mood disorders, and fatigue. Although the aetiology of FMS pain has not been elucidated yet, psychotherapy methods are used in addition to physical methods to treat these pains. This study aims to examine the effect of psychodrama on a 62-year-old patient with back and chest pain and who lived alone. This patient participated in psychodrama group psychotherapy with 8 members who were all female and diagnosed with FMS. An informed consent form was obtained from the case for the study. This research is important because there are very few studies on fibromyalgia complaints with psychodrama group therapy, and it contributes to the literature. Studying the case with past trauma and losses in the psychodrama scene has led to a significant reduction in fibromyalgia complaints. As a result, the patient's pain level decreased from 90% to 32.5%, and the anxiety level decreased from advanced to normal. Thus, psychodrama group psychotherapy was found to be effective in reducing FMS pain.

“I am no longer afraid”

“I am no longer afraid”

Erken Çocukluk Dönemindeki Sığınmacı ve Türk Asıllı Çocukların Okula Uyum Sürecinin Analizi

Suriye'de yaşanan iç savaşın uzaması ve memleketini terk edip gelen sığınmacıların ülkelerine geri dönememelerinden dolayı bir çok çocuk farklı ülkelerde ve kademelerde okula gitmeye başlamıştır. Sığınmacı çocukların acil olarak karşılanması gereken ihtiyaçlarının başında da eğitim ihtiyacı gelmektedir. Bu araştırma, erken çocukluk döneminde okul öncesi eğitimi alan, sığınmacı ve Türk asıllı çocukların okula uyum sorunlarını belirlemek amacıyla yürütülmüştür. Çocukların dil engeli ve yaşadıkları travmanın okula uyumlarına etkisinin incelendiği bu çalışmada çocuk gözlemleri, ebeveyn ve eğitmen görüşleri alınmak suretiyle nitel araştırma modellerinden Durum Araştırması uygulanmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi ÇABA Çok Amaçlı Erken Çocukluk Eğitimi Merkezi’nde (ÇABAÇAM) kayıtlı 4 sığınmacı çocuk ve özellikle gelişimsel olarak dezavantajlı ailelerden gelen 4 Türk asıllı çocuk, ebeveynleri ve 11 eğitmen oluşturmaktadır. Katılımcılar amaçlı örnekleme yöntemlerinden Ölçüt Örneklemesi olarak nitelendirilen örneklem türü kullanılarak belirlenmiş, verilerin analizinde betimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda sığınmacı çocukların okula uyumunu etkileyen en önemli faktörün dil sorunu olduğu görülmüştür.

‘Comfort women must fall’? Japanese governmental responses to ‘comfort women’ statues around the world

This article examines Japanese governmental responses to memorial statues dedicated to ‘comfort women’ – women across the Asia-Pacific whom the Japanese military forced into conditions now recognised as sexual slavery before and during World War Two. This article discusses four cases around the world in which Japanese government officials have demanded the removal of comfort women statues: 1) Glendale, California; 2) San Francisco; 3) Manila; and 4) Berlin. The global expansion of comfort women memorialisation is significant to contemporary statue politics and crises of memory in three ways. Firstly, East Asian diasporas have become important actors in the remembrance of Japanese colonialism and the Asia-Pacific War outside East Asia. Secondly, these statues constitute attempts by diasporas to recover and reclaim a traumatic past through material culture. Thirdly, despite the global geographical reach of comfort women memory activism, neither nationalism nor the power of the nation-state have declined in today’s transnational world.

Making sense of the past to understand the present: Attributions for historical trauma predict contemporary social and political attitudes

Research indicates that the memory of collective trauma influences attitudes towards contemporary social and political issues. We suggest that the specific attributions for trauma that members of victim and perpetrator groups make provide a more nuanced understanding of this relationship. Thus, we constructed and validated a measure of attributions for the Holocaust. Then, we ran a preregistered study on representative samples in Germany ( N = 504) and Israel ( N = 469) to examine whether attributing the Holocaust to essentialist or contextual causes influences attitudes towards the immigration crisis and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Results indicated that, among Germans, attributing the Holocaust to German character was associated with positive attitudes to immigration via collective guilt. Among Israelis, attributions to German character were associated with negative attitudes to non-Jewish immigration, a hawkish stance in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, and pro-Israel attitudes via a sense of perpetual victimization. Results reveal how attributions about past trauma affect contemporary social and political attitudes among victims and perpetrators.

The Palestinian Re-experience of Historical Violence: “A Wound Never Completely Scabbed Over”

ABSTRACT This paper explores the pitfalls of applying trauma theory to Palestinian American literature without considering the nuances of this group’s experience both in the United States and abroad. In the two Palestinian American novels Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin (2010) and Hala Alyan’s Salt Houses (2017), the aesthetic renderings of memories illustrate an ongoing tragedy manifested in the communal responsibility to remember catastrophic events such as the 1948 War known as the Nakba and their subsequent events. This act of remembering a traumatic past synchronises with wars, violence, land confiscation and living in diaspora. I argue that trauma theory should attend to both individual and collective Palestinian memory in these novels to understand the characters’ psychological ailment, not only as a persistent memory, which is interrupted by reminders of a traumatic past, but also as an ongoing re-experience of a historical violence started during the Nakba that continues to affect many Palestinians in the present.

Hidden Identities in Contemporary Cambodian Photography

AbstractThis article examines the works of three photographers, Kim Hak (b. 1981), Khvay Samnang (b. 1982), and Neak Sophal (b. 1989), all born in the post-Khmer Rouge era and all established relatively early in their careers. These third-generation Cambodian photographers construct portraitures that steer away from identity to address the larger issues of individuals and local communities in present-day Cambodia, which still lives in the shadow of the trauma of the Khmer Rouge. Kim's photography avoids a direct representation of people who suffered through the Khmer Rouge regime and instead presents small, ordinary objects that were kept secretly in their household; Khvay documents the hardship of local communities in Phnom Penh and their questioned identity by portraying masked faces; Neak questions the hardship of the youth, women, and townspeople through the erasure of face in her series of photographs depicting various community groups in Cambodia. This subtle avoidance of portraying individuals in a direct, straightforward way signifies a multi-faceted interpretation of the traumatic past, its resilience, and the newly added social problems of contemporary Cambodia, which struggles in the aftermath of the genocide and more recent economic growth.

Demographical, Anatomical, Disease-Related, and Occupational Risk Factors for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common focal mononeuropathy. It causes characteristic symptoms, including numbness and paresthesia in the hand due to median nerve compression at the wrist. Objectives: We aimed to investigate CTS prevalence and personal, psychosocial, biomedical, and occupational factors related to it comprehensively, according to scattered publications, without the simultaneous evaluation of all CTS risk factors. Methods: A total of 345 patients referred to a hand clinic with a complaint of paresthesia in upper extremities and suspected CTS. The patients underwent neurological assessment and electrodiagnostic (EDX) tests to confirm the diagnosis. The demographic information, past medical history, past trauma history, and occupational history of all the patients were recorded and finally analyzed with SPSS software. Results: Of the patients, 213 (67.1%) met the criteria for CTS, of whom 160 (75%) were female. Females were significantly more affected by CTS than males (P < 0.05). The mean age was higher in the CTS patients (53.80 ± 11.57 years) than in non-patients (42.39 ± 12.31 years, P < 0.001). No statistical relevance was found between CTS prevalence with occupational history, underlying medical conditions, positive Tinel’s and Phalen's tests, and muscle atrophy. Conclusions: We recognized age and gender as main determinants in developing CTS. We also found that older age was related to higher CTS intensity.

Maternal trauma but not perinatal depression predicts infant-parent attachment

Understanding if maternal depression is a predictor of infant-parent attachment classification is important to furthering knowledge about the early pathways and predictors of socio-emotional development. Yet few studies that have utilised the Strange Situation Procedure, the gold standard for measurement of infant-parent attachment, have examined antenatal depression as a predictor of attachment, and none has also included a measure of maternal trauma. This study uses data on 224 women recruited in early pregnancy and followed up until 12months postpartum. Maternal depression was measured in pregnancy using the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM and repeat Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as well as Stressful Life Events scale across pregnancy and postpartum including items on domestic violence. A past history of trauma was measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Attachment was measured using the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at 12months postpartum. We found that maternal depression was not associated with insecure or disorganized attachment. However, a maternal history of childhood trauma and current domestic violence both predicted insecure-avoidant attachment at 12months, whereas increased number of stressful life events prior to conception and in pregnancy was associated with insecure-resistant attachment. Neither trauma, past or current, nor depression predicted disorganized attachment. In the first study to have included measures of antenatal depression, maternal childhood trauma, and current stressful events as predictors of infant attachment measured using the SSP, we found maternal experiences of past and current trauma but not depression were significant predictors of infant-parent attachment security.

The Recent History Teaching in the Political Function of Education: The Macro Public Policies on Memory and the Construction of Citizenship

The relationship between the recent public policies on memory linked to the dictatorships from 1960 to 1980 in the Southern Cone and the disciplinary curricular renewal of History curricula and programs in Uruguay, inspired this article. The controversial contents of the recent past and the violation of human rights, responsibility of the dictatorial State (1973-1984) were discussed in the classroom. The analysis of these episodes showed challenges and difficulties for the teachers and the educational system. From resistance to address the recent past for fear of confronting the families’ versions or violating secularism, to defiant strategies, their approach revealed a still traumatic past for Uruguayan society. To examine how it was taught in 3rd year high school history, qualitative research was used, based on “the case study” . Classroom observation, analysis of the teacher’s documentation and interviews with three teachers revealed that they accepted the challenge, selecting and developing a variety of strategies, incorporating family testimonies, promoting debate and reflection and emphasizing both on the construction of critical citizenship and on local history.

Sloppy Bonnie: A Roadkill Musical for the Modern Chick

Sloppy Bonnie: A Roadkill Musical for the Modern Chick