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Chapter 2 - Transgenerational Trauma Transmission in Refugee Families

The Role of Traumatic Suffering, Attachment Representations, and Parental Caregiving

from Part I - Refugee Family Relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2020

By
Nina Thorup Dalgaard ,
Marie Høgh Thøgersen  and
Karin Riber
Edited by
Lucia De Haene  and
Cécile Rousseau
Lucia De Haene
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium
Cécile Rousseau
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
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Summary

The transgenerational transmission of refugee trauma refers to the phenomenon in which children are transformed and sometimes affected by their parents’ traumatic experiences from the past and by their parents’ current posttraumatic symptoms. The present chapter aims to explore the interactions between parental traumatization, attachment representations, and caregiving behavior in understanding processes of transgenerational trauma transmission in refugee families. Theoretical and empirical evidence is presented in order to understand the overt and the subtle behavioral and emotional disruptions within the parent-child dyad brought on by or associated with a parental trauma history and how this may affect children’s psychosocial wellbeing and mental health. Two case vignettes are presented in order to illustrate the potentially adverse consequences of parental unresolved loss, ongoing refugee trauma, and subsequent disrupted caregiving. Finally, the clinical implications of the presented findings are discussed.

Keywords

transmission of traumarefugee familyattachmentmental health
Type
Chapter
Information
Working with Refugee Families
Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships
 , pp. 36 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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