Transgenerational Trauma Transmission in Vietnamese Refugee Families

Abstract

Generational trauma refers to the transmission of adverse emotional and behavioral responses to a traumatic event from one generation to the next, often resembling those experienced by the individual who directly experienced the trauma (American Psychology Association, 2023). The complex traumatic nature of the refugee experience places this population at especially high risk to PTSD and other sequalae of trauma. Therefore, children of refugees are highly susceptible to developing generational trauma related to their parent(s) primary trauma. A multitude of studies have demonstrated children of refugees have significantly worse mental health than children of non-refugees and immigrants (Gadermann et al., 2022; Flink et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2018). Current detection methods are largely qualitative and not replicable or scalable. Existing research also lacks exploration into the pathways of this generational trauma transmission. The present study was conducted in US-born second-generation Vietnamese refugees and employed a modified Stroop task (Stroop, 1935; Perlstein & Motta, 2013) along with qualitatively scaled questionnaires, to assess mechanisms of generational trauma transmission in refugee families. Results indicated significant attentional bias towards trauma-related stimuli in the 2nd generation refugee group, as compared to the non-refugee group. Our analyses also revealed complicated and conflicting associations between generational trauma and family communication levels, indicating the importance of culturally specific approaches in trauma research to ensure the legitimacy of findings across diverse populations. Key words: Generational trauma transmission, 2nd generation refugees, Family communication openness, Family communication problems, Modified Stroop Task, Secondary trauma