Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:30:41.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-traumatic stress symptoms linked to hidden Holocaust trauma among adult Finnish evacuees separated from their parents as children in World War II, 1939–1945: a case-control study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2010

Pentti Andersson
Pentti Andersson*
Affiliation:
Developmental Psychology, Åbo Akademy University, Campus Vasa, Finland and National Center for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Pentti Andersson, Associate Professor, National Center for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Insitute, Stockholm, Sweden. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to identify long-term effects of diagnostic criteria on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-C) for a test group of Finnish evacuees from World War II and compare the outcome effect with a control group of children who lived in Finland during the war in 1939–1945.

Methods: 152 participants were recruited by the local leader of the Finnish War Child Association in Sweden and Finland. The selected group answered questions on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-C) and the EMBU (Swedish acronym for “Own Memories of Parental Rearing”).

Results: Evidence suggests a link between childhood parental separation and termination of the internalized attachment hierarchy of origin in a detachment process among Finnish evacuees. Based on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Total (PCL-C) diagnosis an extreme traumatization for 36.7% of the test group subjects was identified, including a hidden Holocaust trauma in the population of Finnish evacuees.

Conclusions: The study met the criteria for satisfying global evidence value. Sixty-five years after the end of World War II and in line with other studies on war children, the data show high levels of different trauma exposures from the war with 10.6 higher risk (odds ratio) for the exposed group of Finnish evacuees. Despite some limitations, the data highlight the need for further investigation into different parts of the detachment process among seriously traumatized groups to reveal resilience and other dimensions of importance in professional mental health creation.

Keywords

PTSDEMBUodds ratiocausal inferenceparental separationdetachment
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , May 2011 , pp. 654 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M., Waters, E. and Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Hilldale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edn, text revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Andersson, P. (2010). Assessment and application of psychometric properties of the new Swedish version of the PTSD Checklist – civilian (PCL-C). Children in War, 1, No 7, ISSN 1745–7211.Google Scholar
Arrindell, W. A. and Perris, C. (2000). Parental influences do matter! Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 100, 249–251.Google Scholar
Arrindell, W. A. et al. (1994). Parental rearing behaviour from a cross-cultural perspective: a summary of data obtained in 14 nations. In Perris, C.., Arrindell, W. A. and Eisemann, M., (eds.), Parenting and Psychopathology (pp. 145–172). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Arrindell, W. A., Gerlsma, C., Vandereycken, W., Hageman, W. J. J. M. and Daeseleire, T. (1998). Convergent validity of the dimensions underlying the parental bonding instrument (PBI) and EMBU. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 341–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, E. B., Jones-Alexander, J., Buckley, T. C., Forneris, C. A. (1996). Psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 669–673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss (Vol. I). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss (Vol. II). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and Loss (Vol. III). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gerlsma, C. (1994). Parental rearing styles and psychopathogy: notes on the validity of questionnaires for recalled parental behaviour. In Perris, C.., Arrindell, W. A. and Eisemann, M. (eds.), Parenting and Psychopathology (pp. 75–105). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gilman, S. E. (2007). Invited commentary: The life course epidemiology of depression. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166, 1134–1137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, S. (2002). Children in the Holocaust: dealing with affects and memory images in trauma and generational linking. Doctoral thesis, Department of Education (Pedagogiska institutionen). Stockholm: University Press.Google Scholar
Kaplan, S. and Modell, A. H. (2008). Children in Genocide: Extreme Traumatisation and Affect Regulation. London: International Psychoanalytical Association.Google Scholar
Kavén, P. (2004). 70.000 små öden. [70,000 small destinies: Finnish War children.] Otalampi: Sahlgren's Förlag.Google Scholar
Kuwert, P., Spitzer, C., Träder, A., Freyberger, H. J. and Ermann, M. (2007). Sixty years later: post-traumatic stress symptoms and current psychopathology in former German children of World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 955–961. doi: 10.1017/S104161020600442X.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagnebro, L. (1994). Finska krigsbarn [Finnish War Children]. Doctoral dissertation. ISBN 91–7174-985–3. ISSN . Umeå: Umeå Tryckeri.Google Scholar
Perris, C., Jacobsson, L., Lindström, H., von Knorring, L. and Perris, H. (1980). Development of a new inventory for assessing memories of parental rearing behaviour. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 61, 265–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pesonen, A. K., Raikkonen, K., Heinonen, K., Kanantie, E., Forsen, T. and Erikson, J. G. (2007). Depressive symptoms in adults separated from their parents as children: a natural experiment during World War II. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166, 10, 1126–1133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlenger, W. E. et al. (1992). The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in the Vietnam generation: a multimethod, multisource assessment of psychiatric disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5, 333–363.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003). Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
van der Kolk, B. A. and Fisler, R. E. (1994). Childhood abuse and neglect and loss of self-regulation. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 58, 2, 145–168.Google ScholarPubMed
Weathers, F., Litz, B., Herman, D., Huska, J. and Keane, T. (1993). Reliability, validity, and diagnostic utility. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. San Antonio: TX.Google Scholar