Scoping Review of Intergenerational Posttraumatic Growth in Survivors of Abuse and Their Offspring

Objectives The goal of this review is to research how posttraumatic growth can be inherited across generations between parents/caregivers who have an abuse history and their offspring. Objectives of this scoping review include: Identify studies seeking to investigate intergenerational (vicarious) posttraumatic growth in offspring born to parents with abuse history. Examine specific features of each study such as basic study design and results. Explore common themes amongst the studies and patterns in the results, conclusions or recommendations. Identify the variables that the studies identify as contributing to intergenerational posttraumatic growth. Introduction Literature examining the intergenerational effects of child abuse history has primarily focused on the negative outcomes shared between parents who were abused and their children (Bartlett et al., 2017; Kaufman & Sigler, 1987; Lotto et al., 2023); less focus has been given to the positive changes that may result from this transmission (Lange et al., 2020; Tedeschi et al; 2018). Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) theory allows for this reframing. In the 1980s and 1990s research began to emerge highlighting the various positive changes people experienced following various traumatic events such as cancer diagnosis (Collins et al., 1990); HIV infection (Bower et al., 1998), and sexual assault (Burt & Katz, 1987; McMillen et al., 1995). PTG is defined as the positive psychological changes that occur, often unexpectedly, following a traumatic life experience (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996; Tedeschi et al., 2018). Importantly, PTG remains rooted in the subjective, or constructivist, definition of trauma. It posits that what is traumatic to one may not be to another. An event, according to PTG, qualifies as traumatic if it challenges one’s world views or understanding of self. PTG pays careful attention to not only how people survive traumatic experience, but also how they thrive (O,Leary & Ickovics, 1995; Ortega-Williams et al., 2020) by focusing on survivors’ perceived benefits and positive changes following a traumatic experience. Posttraumatic Growth has also been shown to be passed “vicariously” to others who did not experience the trauma themselves but were exposed to it through a survivor (Arnold et al., 2005; Georges, 2023; Tedeschi et al., 2018). Examples of vicarious posttraumatic growth have been documented among health professionals (Shiri et al., 2008), interpreters (Splevins et al., 2010), disaster workers (Linley & Joseph, 2005), spouses and parents (Weiss, 2002), and among families (Hafstad et al., 2010). While examples of vicarious PTG are growing, less focus has been given to intergenerational PTG that may occur, particularly between parents and their children (Georges, 2023). Increased focus should be placed on understanding how PTG occurs intergenerationally, particularly among caregivers who experienced child abuse or other forms of abuse. It is possible that the lessons they learned from their traumatic experience influenced how they parented. What’s more, it is possible these lessons have been passed on to their children who may one day be parents too. Children born to survivors of trauma learn about their parents’ trauma in a variety of unconscious and conscious ways resulting in them internalizing the trauma as if it were their own (Auerhahn & Laub, 1998; Ceredeña et al., 2021; Fonagy & Target, 1996). However, less is known about posttraumatic growth, or positive reframing including relational healing and lessons learned from the traumatic experience, that may occur in this intergenerational transmission.