Elsevier

Journal of Psychiatric Research

Volume 68, September 2015, Pages 167-175
Journal of Psychiatric Research

The Danieli Inventory of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma, Part I: Survivors' posttrauma adaptational styles in their children's eyes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.06.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Multigenerational legacies of Holocaust trauma can be measured in community samples.

  • Analyses showed that Holocaust survivor parents adopt diverse survival strategies.

  • Victim, numb and fighter adaptational styles were found to underlie the strategies.

  • Scales created to measure them showed acceptable to excellent internal consistency and English-Hebrew congruence.

Abstract

A comprehensive valid behavioral measure for assessing multidimensional multigenerational impacts of massive trauma has been missing thus far. We describe the development of the Posttrauma Adaptational Styles questionnaire (Part I of the three-part Danieli Inventory of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma), a self-report questionnaire of Holocaust survivors' children's perceptions of each parent and their own upbringing (60 items per parent). The items were based on literature and cognitive interviewing of 18 survivors' offspring. A web-based convenience sample survey was designed in English and Hebrew and completed by 482 adult children (M age = 59; 67% women) of Holocaust survivors. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted by using maximum likelihood extraction with Geomin rotation to examine the factor structure of the original 70 items for each parent. Conducted hierarchically, the analysis yielded three higher-order factors reflecting intensities of victim, numb, and fighter styles. The 30-item Victim Style Scale (α = .92–.93) and 18-item Numb Style Scale (α = .89) had excellent internal consistency; the consistency of the 12-item Fighter Style Scale (α = .69–.70) was more modest. English-Hebrew analyses suggested good-to-excellent congruence in factor structure (φ = .87–.99). Further research is needed to evaluate the validity of the measure in other samples and populations.

Section snippets

Overview and participants

Participants were adult children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who volunteered to participate in a web survey. Inclusion criteria were that at least one parent or grandparent had lived in or had to leave one of the countries occupied by or under direct influence of the Nazi regime, for any period of time during 1933–1945 (Bogyeski, 2013). This wide definition increased the potential for natural variability in the severity of the ancestors' exposure and the intensity of their

Sample description

The web survey method provided a demographically and geographically diverse convenience sample. The majority of participants were women (67%). All participants spoke English (78%) or Hebrew (22%). Participants averaged 59.8 years of age (SD = 6.9), with most born immediately postwar (1945–1950, 27%) or later (47%), most frequently in North America (39%), followed by Europe (18% Western, 15% Eastern) and Palestine/Israel (16%). While many were raised in lower middle or lower class homes (49%),

Discussion

This study reports on Part I of a larger initiative aimed at developing a heretofore missing measure of the multidimensional impacts of the Holocaust on survivors and their children based on an international sample of adult children of Holocaust survivors. The results informed the creation of a 60-item set of scales for assessing adult children's perceptions of their parents' victim, numb and fighter posttrauma adaptational styles. While we did not set out specifically to test Danieli's (1985)

Role of funding source

The funding agency played no role in the research other than providing financial support.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Contributors

All named authors have read and approved the manuscript and agree to the order of authorship.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants to Yael Danieli, Principal Investigator, from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Anti-Defamation League and Richard Rockefeller, M.D. The senior author wishes to express profound gratitude to William E. Schlenger for invaluable guidance and to John Fairbank, Harold Kudler, Daniel W. King, Lynda A. King and Robert Pietrzak for helpful suggestions. Karen Judd Smith spared no effort in building and maintaining the bilingual site, Sigal

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