Researchers have recently examined the impact of veterans' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on family relationships, and on children of veterans in particular. Family members of individuals with PTSD may experience numerous difficulties. This fact sheet explains the common problems that children of veterans experience and provides recommendations for how to cope with these difficulties. Although much of the research described here has been conducted with children of Vietnam veterans, it is likely that much of the information applies to children of combat veterans of other conflicts.
Can children get PTSD from their parents?
It is possible for children to display symptoms of PTSD because they are upset by their parent's symptoms (secondary traumatization). Some researchers have also investigated the notion that trauma and the symptoms associated with it can be passed from one generation to the next. Researchers describe this phenomenon as intergenerational transmission of trauma. Much research has been conducted with victims of the Holocaust and their families (see Kellerman 7 for review), and some studies have expanded on these ideas to include families of combat veterans with PTSD.
Ancharoff, Munroe, and Fisher 8 described several ways to understand the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of trauma. These mechanisms are silence, overdisclosure, identification, and reenactment.
• When a family silences a child, or teaches him/her to avoid discussions of events, situations, thoughts, or emotions, the child's anxiety tends to increase. He or she may start to worry about provoking the parent's symptoms. Without understanding the reasons for their parent's symptoms, children may create their own ideas about what the parent experienced, which can be even more horrifying than what actually occurred.
• Overdisclosure can be just as problematic. When children are exposed to graphic details about their parent's traumatic experiences, they can start to experience their own set of PTSD symptoms in response to the horrific images generated.
• Similarly, children who live with a traumatized parent may start to identify with the parent such that they begin to share in his or her symptoms as a way to connect with the parent.
• Children may also be pulled to reenact some aspect of the traumatic experience because the traumatized parent has difficulty separating past experiences from present.
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Kids & PTSD
Excerpt from Article Written by Jennifer L. Price, Ph. D.
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