All showed the same findings - if there is a history of abuse and trauma within a family or for an entire group historically, the trauma passes through the bloodline. There have been research studies done on Native American survivors of boarding schools, abuse survivors, 9/11 survivors, and intergenerational domestic abuse survivors. This idea asserts environmental factors–abuse, stress, nutrition–have the potential to affect the genes of future generations. These research results support the idea of epigenetic inheritance. Compared to children of Jewish families who didn’t live in Europe during the war, the 32 research participants’ survivors had a higher chance of developing stress disorders. They also looked at the genes of their children. Rachel Yehuda and her team looked at the genes of 32 Jewish men and women who had been confined in concentration camps, hid, witnessed torture, or suffered violence. Although there is debate whether genetics play a role in the transmission of trauma across generations, a research study at Mount Sinai hospital discovered a possible link. In addition to intergenerational abuse, the transmission of trauma, known as secondary traumatization, is where the effects of trauma trickles down from generation to generation. Another consequence of the intergenerational curse is children might enter into relationships with abusive partners because these relationships mimic what these children saw at home.īecause intergenerational violence goes from one generation to another, it is difficult to break the curse. Another example of intergenerational violence is when a grandparent physically abused their son, and the son goes on to do the same to his own children. Because they might have seen one parent abuse the other parent, it normalizes abusive behavior by showing children this is an acceptable way to act toward your partner in a romantic relationship.
In the cycle of intergenerational violence, people who have been abused by their relatives or witnessed domestic violence in their household are more likely to continue the abuse they’ve suffered and observed. Intergenerational violence occurs when abuse passes through the family, starting from the older generation–parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents–to the younger generation–children.
These terms indicate violence involving and affecting several generations within families. Within domestic violence, there’s a term known as intergenerational or transgenerational violence.