Intergenerational transmission of trauma among U.S.-resettled Bhutanese and Somali Bantu refugees

• In Event: Intergenerational impacts of war and instability: Caregiver trauma exposure, mental health, parenting, and offspring development

Abstract

Background: Refugees experience post-traumatic stress at rates ten times that of the general population in their regions of resettlement and these adverse mental health outcomes are known to cross generations. In addition to facing higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, children of refugees experience resettlement and acculturative stressors and barriers to access mental health care, further compounding risk to their long term health and well-being. To investigate intergenerational impacts of refugee experiences, the present study used multilevel modeling to examine how various caregiver exposures to adversity (material deprivation, combat exposure, threat of violence or death, recent poverty) impact child mental health outcomes (post-traumatic stress, internalizing, externalizing, and functioning).
Methods: Data were drawn from baseline measures of 101 Bhutanese and Somali Bantu refugee families enrolled in a cluster randomized controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of the Family Strengthening Intervention for Refugees in New England. Female caregivers’ provided self-reports on their trauma experiences, recent daily hardships, and depression anxiety. Children provided self-reports on demographics and mental health, as well as reported on their caregivers’ parenting behaviors. Hierarchical linear models were conducted using Stata 16.0.
Results: Children of refugees who were born in the United States reported more externalizing and internalizing symptoms, as well as post-traumatic stress symptoms, than children of refugees not born in the United States. Older children and children who were female reported lower functioning. More neglectful parenting increased depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms, but also increased child functioning. Of the family-level effects of female caregivers’ adverse experiences, only maternal deprivation significantly increased child depression.
Conclusions: Female refugee caregiver trauma experiences, poverty, and mental health did not directly impact child mental health outcomes, with the exception of material deprivation which increased child depression. Poor parenting practices, particularly neglectful monitoring, and being U.S. born negatively impacted children’s mental health. The latter effect may reflect the impact of acculturative stress on children of Bhutanese and Somali Bantu refugees.

Authors

• Candace Jasmine Black, Queen Mary University of London
  Presenting Author

• Jenna Berent, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Haley Grieco-Page, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robert T Brennan, Research Program for Children and Adversity at Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theresa Stichick Betancourt, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author