The current reconciliation process taking place in Canada is a collaboration between Aboriginal residential school survivors, their families, the Canadian government, and churches are finally addressing the impacts still felt by Indian Residential Schools. In these schools students were forced to abandon their culture and language in order to assimilate into the dominant society. Decades […]
This paper reviews research that has explored the concept of intergenerational trauma and the effects of the Indian Residential School system (in Canada) where Aboriginal children were forced to attend schools filled with abuse and neglect. The effects of intergenerational trauma continue to impact Aboriginal communities, especially if a family has a history at Indian […]
The theory of historical trauma was developed to explain the current problems facing many Native Americans. This theory purports that some Native Americans are experiencing historical loss symptoms (e.g., depression, substance dependence, diabetes, dysfunctional parenting, unemployment) as a result of the cross generational trauma from historical losses (e.g., loss of population, land, and culture). However, […]
A study was conducted to see the effects of trauma transmitted to offspring through genetics. 38 pregnant women who were at or near the World Trade Center during the attack were the research subjects. The study collected saliva from those women to test their levels of cortisol. The results found that the women who developed […]
This article is a review of the literature on intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from fathers to sons in families of war veterans. The review addresses several questions: (1) Which fathers have a greater tendency to transmit their distress to their offspring? (2) What is transmitted from father to child? (3) How is […]
A new social work program is being set up in Indigenous communities to help Indigenous people deal with trauma. The University of Toronto is sponsoring the program. The idea to hold the program in the communities of students resulted from many people not being able to leave for 2 years to get a master’s degree. […]
According to a study conducted in Canada, women who attended residential school were more likely to experience violence, especially if they were sexually abused as children. The study was conducted over a timeline of seven years, and interviewed 259 women several times during that period. After hearing of the study’s conclusions, tribes in Canada began […]
Trauma has been garnering more and more attention over the past few years, with the rampant climb of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the understanding of what can cause it. Intergenerational trauma among American Indians is an area of study that has just started to generate attention from communities inside Indian country, academia and the medical […]
The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship of health risk behavior and disease in adulthood to the breadth of exposure to childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. This has not been previously described. The results found a strong graded relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse […]
In this study Roberta Lynn uses two interlinking frameworks to address her own family’s history of historical trauma. The first framework focuses on six phases of unresolved grief over several generations, starting with European Contact. The second framework addresses healing oneself and then healing family. In this portion the author describes Ni mii puu culture […]
The film focuses on a First Nations girl named Aila and her family on a reserve in Canada. Her parents attended residential school where they experienced trauma that continues to haunt them into adulthood, which results in substance abuse. During Aila’s childhood it is still mandatory that children attend residential school, but her family pays […]
History at its best helps the present make sense of the past. History at its best tells the nation’s story through the voices of all the people. These voices enlighten and provide wise counsel for the present, creating healthy and creative communities. History at its worst not only ignores the different voices, but eliminates them […]
