Stress and Health
Volume 32, Issue 4, 2016, Pages 367-373

Mental Health in Offspring of Traumatized Refugees with and without Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (Article)

Muhtz C.* , Wittekind C. , Godemann K. , Von Alm C. , Jelinek L. , Yassouridis A. , Kellner M.
  • a Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and Schön Klinik Hamburg-Eilbek, Hamburg, Germany, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • b Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • c Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • d Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • e Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • f Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
  • g Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Abstract

Intergenerational transmission of psychological trauma and the impact of parental post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on offspring are controversially discussed. We studied 50 offspring (36 women and 14 men, mean age 42.1 years) of refugees who were severely traumatized as children at the end of World War II. From these, 25 of the refugees currently suffered from chronic PTSD, and 25 had no PTSD. Parental PTSD status did not significantly influence mental health [as per the Symptom Checklist (SCL)-90-R] or quality of life (assessed by the 36-item Short-form Health Survey) in their children. In the entire sample, frequency of talking with the mother about the flight correlated with phobic anxiety (r = 0.67, p = 0.03). Interestingly, the stated burden of having a parent with a history of flight significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with almost all subscales of the SCL-90-R. These results in a non-clinical sample do not support a specific role of parental PTSD in intergenerational trauma transmission. Our other remarkable, but preliminary, results need to be studied in larger samples using more subtle interaction or schema analyses. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Author Keywords

Post-traumatic stress disorder Refugees World War II Intergenerational trauma

Index Keywords

Short Form 36 progeny refugee adult child phobia mental health human Refugees middle aged war controlled study Adult Children health status Aged Mental Disorders quality of life Symptom Checklist 90 Humans psychology male female clinical article Article adult World War II posttraumatic stress disorder Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84920901726&doi=10.1002%2fsmi.2630&partnerID=40&md5=0f2fe140091670d4e798b09126f00fc9
DOI: 10.1002/smi.2630
ISSN: 15323005
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English