The theory of transgenerational transmission suggests that children raised in the family of the rapist repeat the experience in the future. However, not only domestic violence, but also historical events had a significant impact on people.
Is violence transmitted through generations?
The European Research Council provides € 1.48 million to fund planned research on violence. According to EU statistics, every 3 women in their lives have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse.
The consequences of traumatic experiences are multifaceted - panic attacks, obesity or an increased likelihood of repeated violence. Children of women experiencing violence and abuse are also at increased risk of mental and physical illness.
Until now, the reasons for the possible transfer of traumatic experience at an early age to a child have been clarified. Affected women often suffer from postpartum depression or have difficulty establishing close relationships with their baby. This may interfere with the optimal development of the child.
Has the Holocaust left its mark on generations?
More than 50 years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, researchers and clinicians have been studying the long-term effects of injuries, and many studies have shown that genocides in Rwanda, Nigeria, Cambodia, Armenia, and the former Yugoslavia caused clear psychopathological symptoms in the descendants of survivors.
Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder and behavioral disorders were more pronounced in children of exhausted parents. In the medical literature, the first study concerning the transgenerative effects of trauma was published in 1966.
Dr. Vivian Rakoff was a researcher in Montreal, a city where thousands of Holocaust survivors settled in. Other psychiatrists and psychologists who also treated people after the Holocaust published case reports.
Main conclusion: Mental disorders in people who survived the Holocaust were the result of "survivor syndrome." The idea that parental traumatic experiences could reach the second generation soon gained popularity.
Clinical studies have revealed a wide range of affective and emotional symptoms transmitted from generation to generation. The main problems of Holocaust survivors:
- distrust of the world;
- violation of parental functions;
- chronic sadness;
- inability to convey feelings;
- constant fear of danger;
- pressure on educational achievement;
- anxiety due to separation.
The Second Generation literature has grown rapidly and abundantly since the mid-1980s. Controlled studies have confirmed that Holocaust injury has a psychological effect on surviving children.
Can injuries be transmitted to third-generation children?
A 2005 scientific study found no signs of transgenerational transmission of injury to the third generation. A review of the literature suggests that current studies of transgenerative transmission of injury are not conclusive.
Newer studies have revealed that trauma can transmit to the 3rd and 4th generation. The grandchildren revealed various mental disorders that were indirectly related to the experience of grandparents.
There is no consensus between clinical observations and empirical studies on the existence of long-term psychological effects on Holocaust survivors and their offspring. Considering that case reports indicate transgenerative transmission of trauma, systematic studies have not found any psychopathological manifestations.
This study seeks to determine whether the children of Holocaust survivors are injured. Scientists note that the study of this particular sample is important information.
The vast majority of specific literature is based on the populations of America, Europe or Israel. First-generation immigration to Brazil and Brazilian culture itself help to learn more about the transmission of domestic violence.
