Intergenerational Trauma in Refugee Contexts: Implications and Interventions for Family Behavioral Health

It is not tremendously remarkable in this day and age, thankfully, to suggest that children who experience traumatic events often experience a number of difficult consequences in their schooling, social life, and other markers of health down the line. It is more or less common knowledge that the old tagline of “kids are resilient,” while capturing an optimistic sensibility of what can be built in these key developmental years, is at the very least a deep oversimplification that can diminish the very real concerns and situations among a vulnerable group that often is deprived of the agency needed to create a sense of safety and self-determination in the world. This is all the more so when considering the unique situation of children from refugee families, who are learning to live in a brand-new context without any familiar supports. The so-called “Lost Boys” of Sudan and South Sudan are illustrative of a kind of generational trauma that may be informative for doing work in refugee contexts.