Intergenerational Effects of Trauma Experience in Communist Albania

Abstract

Albania experienced several decades of severe Communism from 1944 to 1990 during which time trauma inflicted by Communist regime was very common. The current study explores the effects of intergenerational trauma for Albanian victims of communism. Adult offspring of victims (N=233) reported anxiety, anxious and avoidant attachment, level of hope, and religiosity, as well as parents’ trauma type (loss of life, freedom, or opportunity) and current residency/location (N=148 in Albania and N=84 in the U.S.). Findings provide evidence of intergenerational effects of trauma showing significantly higher prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety in offspring of Albanian victims than in the general population (21.62% in the Albanian and 39.28% in the U.S. sub-sample). By exploring avenues of transmission, findings indicate that higher anxious attachment to each parent was associated with higher levels of anxiety. Participants expressed less avoidant attachment to father if mother had experienced trauma, indicating a compensatory process. In addition, higher levels of hope were associated with less anxiety in the US sub-sample but not in the Albanian sample. Processes linking trauma type, religiosity, hope, and attachment to anxiety are discussed for each sub-sample. This study offers novel insights into the intergenerational effects of trauma experienced under communism. The sociocultural context and specific applications of the results for clinical and non-clinical settings are discussed.