Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:01:52.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The significance of experiences of war and migration in older age: long-term consequences in child survivors from the Dutch East Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2013

Trudy T. M. Mooren  and
Rolf J. Kleber
Trudy T. M. Mooren*
Affiliation:
Foundation Centrum'45, Diemen, the Netherlands Foundation Arq, Diemen, the Netherlands
Rolf J. Kleber
Affiliation:
Foundation Arq, Diemen, the Netherlands Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Trudy T.M. Mooren, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Foundation Centrum '45, Nienoord 5, 1112 XE Diemen, the Netherlands. Phone: +31-20-6274974; Fax: +31-20-6253589. Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Background:

This study examines late consequences of war and migration in both non-clinical and clinical samples of child survivors of World War II. This is one of the very few studies on the mental health of children who were subjected to internment in camps, hiding, and violence under Japanese occupation in the Far East. It provides a unique case to learn about the significance of experiences of war and migration in later life.

Methods:

Long-term sequelae of the Japanese persecution in the Dutch East Indies (DEI) in child survivors were studied by analyzing sets of standardized questionnaires of 939 persons. Instruments dealt with post-traumatic responses, general health, and dissociation. Participants were recruited through community services and registers of clinical services. Discriminant analyses were conducted to evaluate the significance of early experiences in determining group belonging.

Results:

Compared with age-matched controls that lived through the German occupation in the Netherlands during World War II, the child survivors from the DEI reported both more trauma-related experiences and mental health disturbances in later life. In particular, the number of violent events during the war, among which especially internment in a camp, contributed to the variation among groups, in support of the significance of these disruptive experiences at older age.

Conclusion:

The results underline the long-term significance of World War II-related traumatic experiences in the population of elderly child survivors who spent their childhood in the former DEI.

Keywords

psychotraumachild survivorsWorld War IIresiliencerisk factorsmigration
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 25 , Issue 11 , November 2013 , pp. 1783 - 1794
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2013 

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

Aarts, P. G. and Op den Velde, W. (1996). Prior traumatization and the process of aging: theory and clinical implications. In van der Kolk, B., McFarlane, A. C. and Weisaeth, L. (eds.), Traumatic Stress (pp. 359–377). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Arrindell, W. A. and Ettema, J. H. M. (1986). SCL-90 – Handleiding bij Een Multidimensionele Psychopathologie-Indicator [SCL-90 Manual for a Multidimensional Psychopathology Indicator]. Lisse, the Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.Google Scholar
Barel, E., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Sagi-Schwartz, A. and Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2010). Surviving the Holocaust: a meta-analysis of the long-term sequelae of a genocide. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 677–698. doi:10.1037/a0020339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, E. M. and Putnam, F. W. (1986). Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 727–735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bramsen, I. and Van der Ploeg, H. M. (1999). Fifty years later: the long-term psychological adjustment of ageing World War II survivors. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 100, 350–358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Danieli, Y.(ed.) (1998). International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doreleijers, T. A. H. and Donovan, D. M. (1990). Transgenerational traumatization in children of parents interned in Japanese civil internment camps in the Dutch E.I. during World War II. Journal of Psychohistory, 17, 435–447.Google Scholar
Fazel, M., Reed, R. V., Panter-Brick, C. and Stein, A. (2012). Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high-income countries: risk and protective factors. The Lancet, 379, 266–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forstmeier, S., Kuwert, P., Spitzer, C., Freyberger, H. J. and Maercker, A. (2009). Posttraumatic growth, social acknowledgment as survivors, and sense of coherence in former German child soldiers of World War II. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 1030–1039.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ginty, A. T., Phillips, A. C., Roseboom, T. J., Carroll, D. and Derooij, S. R. (2012). Cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to acute psychological stress and cognitive ability in the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study. Psychophysiology, 49, 391–400. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01316.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glaesmer, H., Gunzelmann, T., Braehler, E., Forstmeier, S. and Maercker, A. (2010). Traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder among elderly Germans: results of a representative population-based study. International Psychogeriatrics, 22, 661–670. doi:10.1017/S104161021000027X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glück, T. M., Tran, U. S. and Lueger-Schuster, B. (2012). PTSD and trauma in Austria's elderly: influence of wartime experiences, postwar zone of occupation, and life time traumatization on today's mental health status – an interdisciplinary approach. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 3, 17263. doi:10.3402/ejpt.v3i0.17263.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N. and Alvarez, W. (1979). Impact of event scale: a measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keilson, H. (1979). Sequential Traumatization in Children. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University (First Edition in German: 1979).Google Scholar
Kestenberg, J. S. and Brenner, I. (1996). The Last Witness: The Child Survivor of the Holocaust. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Kleber, R. J. and Brom, D. (2003). Coping with Trauma: Theory, Prevention and Treatment. Abingdon, Oxford, UK: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Krell, R. (1990). Children who survived Japanese concentration camps: clinical observations and therapy. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 35, 149–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuwert, P., Brahler, E., Glaesmer, H., Freyberger, H. J. and Decker, O. (2009). Impact of forced displacement during World War II on the present-day mental health of the elderly: a population-based study. International Psychogeriatrics, 21, 748–753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuwert, Ph., Spitzer, C., Träder, A., Freyberger, H. J. and Ermann, M. (2007). Sixty years later: posttraumatic stress symptoms and current psychopathology in former German children of World War II. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 955–961. doi:10.1017/S104161020600442X.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lis-Turlesjka, M., Luszczysnka, A., Plichta, A. and Benight, C. C. (2008). Jewish and non-jewish World War II child and adolescent survivors at 60 years after war: effects of parental loss and age at exposure on well-being. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78, 369–377. doi:10.1037/a0014166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maercker, M., Schützwohl, M. and Solomon, Z. (eds.) (1999). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A Lifespan Developmental Perspective. Kirkland: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.Google Scholar
Mazor, A., Gampel, Y., Enright, R. D. and Orenstein, R. (1990). Holocaust survivors: coping with post-traumatic memories in childhood and 40 years later. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 3, 1–14.Google Scholar
Mooren, G. T. M. and Kleber, R. J. (2001). The impact of war in Bosnia and Hercegovina: devastated trust. International Journal of Mental Health, 30, 6–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, M. K. (1994). Long-term effects of trauma: post-traumatic stress among civilian internees of the Japanese during World War II. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 681–698.3.0.CO;2-3>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ros, W. J. G., Winnubst, J. A. M., Defares, P. B., Joppen, J. G. G. M. and Van Leeuwen, G. M. (1985). Omgaan Met Stress [Coping with Stress]. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: University of Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Schafer, J. L. (1997). Analysis of Incomplete Multivariate Data. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003a). Affect Regulation and Disorders of the Self. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003b). Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Shmotkin, D. and Lomranz, J. (1998). Subjective well-being among Holocaust survivors: an examination of overlooked differentiations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 141–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slone, M., Shechner, T. and Oula Khoury, F. (2011). Parenting style as a moderator of effects of political violence: cross-cultural comparison of Israeli Jewish and Arab children. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36, 62–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, J. (1996). Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences, 3rd edn. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, B. G. and Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using Multivariate Statistics. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.Google Scholar
Van der Kolk, B. A., Roth, S., Pelcovitz, D., Sunday, S. and Spinazzola, J. (2005). Disorders of extreme stress: the empirical foundation of a complex adaptation to trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18, 389–399. doi:10.1002/jts.20047.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van der Ploeg, E., Mooren, T. T. M., Kleber, R. J., Van der Velden, P. G. and Brom, D. (2004). Construct validation of the Dutch version of the impact of event scale. Psychological Assessment, 16, 16–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Ee, E., Kleber, R. J. and Mooren, T. T. M. (2012). War trauma lingers on: associations between maternal posttraumatic stress disorder, parent-child interaction, and child development. Infant Mental Health Journal, 33, 459–468. doi:10.1002/imjh.21324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. and Sagi-Schwartz, A. (2003). Are children of Holocaust survivors less well-adapted? A meta-analytic investigation of secondary traumatization. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16, 459–469.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaskeliene, I. (2012). Long-Term Psychological Effects of Political Repression in Lithuania to Second Generation (Doctoral Dissertation). Vilnius: Vilnius University.Google Scholar
Yehuda, R.et al. (2005). Relationship between cortisol and age-related memory impairments in Holocaust survivors with PTSD. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 678–687. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.02.007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed