Perceived parental rearing behavior in children of Holocaust survivors

Abstract

Holocaust survivors have often been described as inadequate parents. Their multiple losses were assumed to create child-rearing problems around both attachment and detachment. Empirical research, however, has yielded contradictory evidence regarding the parenting behavior of Holocaust survivors when investigated with classical parenting instruments. The present pilot-study investigated parental behavior with a new self-report instrument that also included salient Holocaust dimensions. The parent perception of 159 adult children of Holocaust survivors was thus compared with 151 control subjects. Factor analysis of data yielded four major kinds of parental rearing behaviors: transmission; affection; punishing and over-protection. While the second-generation group rated their parents higher on transmission, other differences in child-rearing practices were small, if taken as a whole. These findings largely support the descriptive literature on transgenerational transmission of trauma while at the same time refuting the view that Holocaust survivors function more inadequately than other parents do.