Common symptoms of intergenerational trauma include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, and self-destructive behaviors. Also known as generational trauma or transgenerational trauma, this type of trauma often goes unrecognized. The idea behind intergenerational trauma is that exposure to early adverse events, such as child abuse, parental incarceration or divorce, substance abuse, poverty, or natural disasters, affects people so profoundly that future generations may be impacted as well.

In either case, studies on intergenerational trauma show that children’s lives are shaped not only by their own experiences but also their parents’ experiences years before they were born. For example, the infants could be predisposed to anxiety, but it is also possible the connections could boost their resilience. Scientists are uncertain if these connections affect children’s social or emotional development. They discovered stronger connections between the brain regions that control emotional regulation in babies whose mothers experienced emotional neglect in childhood. The researchers used special non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand what was happening in 1-month-old infants’ brains. A 2021 study found that moms who experienced emotional neglect as children went on to have infants with altered brain circuitry in areas responsible for fear responses and anxiety. The effects of these experiences can appear in the trauma survivor’s offspring. Research shows they might also pass down the trauma of their own childhood.Įarly life experiences, such as neglect and abuse, can impact the structure and function of the brain. Parents pass down all kinds of traits to their children, from hair and eye color to freckles.

Intensive Outpatient (IOP) / After-School.Partial Hospitalization (PHP) / Day Program.

Effects of intergenerational trauma