The effects of the intergenerational transmission of the Holocaust trauma on family functioning, resilience, anxiety and depression: A case-control study

Background

Effects of Intergenerational transmission of a major trauma from one remains unclear. The present case-control study aims to clarifying the mechanisms of transmission among families of Holocaust Survivors (HS). We hypothesized that the high level of depressive and anxiety disorders (DAD) among HS impairs family system, which results in damaging resilience of their children (CHS) yielding a higher level of DAD

Methods

49 CHS and 28 control subjects complete the Resilience Scale for Adults, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale. We test a mediation model with Family types as the predictor; resilience as the mediator;and DAD as the outcome variable.

Results

Results confirm that CHS'family types are more often dysfunctional than in the control group. Moreover, growing in a dysfunctional family seems to impede development of resilience and, therefore, enhance the occurrence of DAD.

Limitations

The present investigation is correlational and should be confirmed by other prospective investigations. Moreover, our entire set of measures is based on self-report questionnaires.

Conclusions

We propose a mechanism of transmission of the noxious effects of a major trauma from one generation to the next. It appears that it is not the trauma per se that affects the levels of DAD but its effects on family dynamics, altering the development of resilience skills and the risk of DAD. We discuss both theoretical and clinical implications of our findings.