The Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Cambodian Skipped-Generation Households

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Abstract

Adopting a mixed-method research design, surveys and lifeline interviews, this study investigates the intergenerational effects of complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Cambodian grandmothers and its implications on the well-being of their offspring in subsequent generations in migrant skipped-generation households. The sample consists of three generations: 128 grandmothers, 41 daughters, and 121 grandchildren (aged 5-9 and 15-22). The findings highlight the persistent indirect effect of trauma via parenting style with a higher incidence found among the second generation. A significant direct effect is discovered among the third generation, where grandmother’s trauma symptoms predict their grandchildren’s depression and grandmothers’ distress is associated with lower nutrition among their grandchildren (aged 0-3). The decline in parental supervision and involvement among grandmother caregivers, due to a high level of trauma, leads to an increasing risk of vulnerability and abuse among the grandchildren. Beyond Western PTSD categories, the coping responses to trauma among grandmothers uncover significant roles of religion, ‘karma in Buddhism’, for meaning-seeking of trauma, and cultural-specific expression, ‘stop thinking’, to detach the excessive thoughts from unchangeable past trauma. The secondary traumatization linked to grandmothers’ trauma in second and skipped-generational effects indicate broader societal implications for the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Cambodian families.

Bio

Speaker: Thida Kim holds a master’s degree in Family and Developmental psychology from the Philippines and a master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies from Thailand. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Social Psychology at The University of Hong Kong, as well as CKS PhD Dissertation Research Fellow. She was a visiting PhD student at Flinders University. Her research interest is in the interrelation between social and psychological factors and implications on the individual’s and family’s well-being and agency.

Moderator: Prof. George Chigas is an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus in Cambodian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he taught courses in Cambodian literature and cultural history. He earned his doctorate in Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and his masters in Asian Studies from Cornell University. He is the author of Tum Teav, A Translation and Literary Analysis of a Cambodian Classic. He currently lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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