What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to investigate how trauma is passed down through generations in families affected by significant historical traumas.

February 12, 2007

Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma across Three Generations: A Preliminary Study

Key Points

This study aims to investigate how trauma is passed down through generations in families affected by significant historical traumas.
Qualitative interviews were conducted with representatives from three families.
Participants included first, second, and third generations of trauma survivors or victims.
Content analysis was used to assess the qualitative data.
The transmission of trauma was found to persist across three generations.
Three distinct types of trauma were identified: Holocaust experience, immigration trauma, and war-related dislocation.
Interviews revealed significant personal impacts on the descendants of trauma survivors.

Abstract

This qualitative study reports a preliminary investigation of the intergenerational transmission of trauma across three generations, and across three types of trauma. Representatives of three families in which the first generation had experienced a trauma were examined. Trauma included experiencing the Holocaust, being placed in a transit camp following immigration from Morocco, and being forced to dislocate as the result of a war. The representatives of successive generations were administered qualitative, open–ended interviews regarding their life as survivors or victims, or as the second/third generation of survivors/victims. A content analysis revealed that the intergenerational transmission of three types of trauma was perpetuated across three generations.

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