Paying attention to the children: The intergenerational transmission of fathers’ traumatic wartime captivity

This chapter reviews some of the findings of a multi-cohort longitudinal study spanning over three decades, focusing on the secondary post-traumatic stress symptoms among adult offspring of Israeli former prisoners of war (POWs) whose fathers were captured by the Egyptians and Syrians during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The effects of captivity on the ex-POWs’ mental health and parenting as well as its consequential effects on their offspring are examined in the veterans (fathers), their wives (mothers), and their offspring. The chapter discusses offspring characteristics that may render them vulnerable or resilient: (1) gender; (2) the Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism; and (3) differentiation of self. Findings include the strong intergenerational effects of trauma, particularly on sons; very late-onset results of PTSD in the fathers; the possible mediating effects of parental PTSD; and the role of the offspring’s genetic and personality characteristics.