In this commentary, we support and expand the framework of vicarious memory presented by Pillemer et al. (2024) by refracting it through the prism of an lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ...queer/questioning, and more identities (LGBTQ+) intergenerational community project-a community project that places storytelling at its heart. By doing this, we queer Pillemer et al.'s model and argue that opening channels for storytelling is uniquely important for LGBTQ+ communities. Given that LGBTQ+ generations have, for an array of reasons, been kept apart from each other, our community project brings to light important issues around access to vicarious memory. We consider this lack of access a form of epistemic injustice that we, as community-engaged scholars, seek to understand and resist. Building on Pillemer et al.'s proposals, our LGBTQ+ community project invites questions about the impact of vicarious memory at different developmental stages, the possible detriments of transmitting maladaptive narratives, and the potential impacts of vicarious traumatization.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, the construct of historical trauma was introduced into the clinical and health science literatures to contextualize, describe, and explain disproportionately high rates of ...psychological distress and health disparities among Indigenous populations. As a conceptual precursor to racial trauma, Indigenous historical trauma (IHT) is distinguished by its emphasis on ancestral adversity that is intergenerationally transmitted in ways that compromise descendent well-being. In this systematic review of the health impacts of IHT, 32 empirical articles were identified that statistically analyzed the relationship between a measure of IHT and a health outcome for Indigenous samples from the United States and Canada. These articles were categorized based on their specific method for operationalizing IHT, yielding 19 articles that were grouped as historical loss studies, 11 articles that were grouped as residential school ancestry studies, and three articles that were grouped as "other" studies. Articles in all three categories included diverse respondents, disparate designs, varied statistical techniques, and a range of health outcomes. Most reported statistically significant associations between higher indicators of IHT and adverse health outcomes. Analyses were so complex, and findings were so specific, that this groundbreaking literature has yet to cohere into a body of knowledge with clear implications for health policy or professional practice. At the conceptual level, it remains unclear whether IHT is best appreciated for its metaphorical or literal functions. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm surrounding IHT as an explanation for contemporary Indigenous health problems renders it imperative to refine the construct to enable more valid research.
Twenty years ago, meta-analytic results (k = 19) confirmed the association between caregiver attachment representations and child-caregiver attachment (Van IJzendoorn, 1995). A test of caregiver ...sensitivity as the mechanism behind this intergenerational transmission showed an intriguing "transmission gap." Since then, the intergenerational transmission of attachment and the transmission gap have been studied extensively, and now extend to diverse populations from all over the globe. Two decades later, the current review revisited the effect sizes of intergenerational transmission, the heterogeneity of the transmission effects, and the size of the transmission gap. Analyses were carried out with a total of 95 samples (total N = 4,819). All analyses confirmed intergenerational transmission of attachment, with larger effect sizes for secure-autonomous transmission (r = .31) than for unresolved transmission (r = .21), albeit with significantly smaller effect sizes than 2 decades earlier (r = .47 and r = .31, respectively). Effect sizes were moderated by risk status of the sample, biological relatedness of child-caregiver dyads, and age of the children. Multivariate moderator analyses showed that unpublished and more recent studies had smaller effect sizes than published and older studies. Path analyses showed that the transmission could not be fully explained by caregiver sensitivity, with more recent studies narrowing but not bridging the "transmission gap." Implications for attachment theory as well as future directions for research are discussed.
This review examines mechanisms contributing to the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation. To provide an integrated account of how self-regulation is transmitted across generations, we ...draw from over 75 years of accumulated evidence, spanning case studies to experimental approaches, in literatures covering developmental, social, and clinical psychology, and criminology, physiology, genetics, and human and animal neuroscience (among others). First, we present a taxonomy of what self-regulation is and then examine how it develops-overviews that guide the main foci of the review. Next, studies supporting an association between parent and child self-regulation are reviewed. Subsequently, literature that considers potential social mechanisms of transmission, specifically parenting behavior, interparental (i.e., marital) relationship behaviors, and broader rearing influences (e.g., household chaos) is considered. Finally, evidence that prenatal programming may be the starting point of the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation is covered, along with key findings from the behavioral and molecular genetics literatures. To integrate these literatures, we introduce the self-regulation intergenerational transmission model, a framework that brings together prenatal, social/contextual, and neurobiological mechanisms (spanning endocrine, neural, and genetic levels, including gene-environment interplay and epigenetic processes) to explain the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation. This model also incorporates potential transactional processes between generations (e.g., children's self-regulation and parent-child interaction dynamics that may affect parents' self-regulation) that further influence intergenerational processes. In pointing the way forward, we note key future directions and ways to address limitations in existing work throughout the review and in closing. We also conclude by noting several implications for intervention work.
In this commentary on Pillemer et al. (2024), we aimed to highlight a particular type of vicarious memories and their functional significance by exploring the transmission of conflict-related ...memories across generations, shifting the focus from personal to collective memory. We discuss how historical family memories influence the subsequent generation's perception of their parents' experiences, societal contexts, individual and group identities, values, and intergenerational relationships. While studies emphasize the temporal and mnemonic limitations of memory transmission, such as the loss of details and potential distortions, understanding how vicarious memories can intersect with collective memories is important. This understanding not only shapes how individuals perceive themselves and others but also influences societal interpretations of the past, fostering intergroup understanding and collective memory continuity across generations.
The importance of vicarious memories is clear for various situations, such as facilitating adaptation to novel events, as well as for aspects of psychological health, such as identity development, ...and personal connection. However, the utility of vicarious memories depends on having access to them. This commentary addresses the issue of access-how people are able to find and hear vicarious memories-in the context of research on intergenerational storytelling in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer, and more (LGBTQ+) communities. Four questions are raised to broaden the research on vicarious memories, which address: concerns of access at different developmental stages, whether the reception and internalization of vicarious memories is a natural process, whether shared identity characteristics facilitate the utility of vicarious memories, and the impact of social location on the meaning of vicarious memories. Implications include considering how inequitable access requires intentionally structuring situations where vicarious memories might be shared and heard.
This review used 4 types of longitudinal models (descriptive models, prediction models, developmental sequence models and longitudinal mediation models) to identify regular patterns of psychosocial ...development in adolescence. Eight patterns of adolescent development were observed across countries: (1) adolescent maturation in multiple developmental domains; (2) heterogeneous continuity of personal relationships; (3) good goes together with good, and bad with bad, across time in adolescence; (4) parents transmit values and behaviors to their adolescent children over time; (5) adolescent psychopathology leads to erosion of personal relationships with parents and peers; (6) adolescent psychopathology prevents adolescent independence from parents; (7) parental interference in personal issues of adolescents has counterproductive effects over time; (8) mood variability and (social and personal) uncertainty are mechanisms that maintain psychopathology in adolescence. Principles of life span developmental psychology are used to discuss adolescent maturation, and a developmental contextual perspective is used to discuss links between the various developmental patterns. Strengths and limitations of the various longitudinal models, and links between longitudinal and experimental research are discussed.
Objectives: Studies have described the experiences of racial microaggressions in everyday life and on college campuses, yet prior research has not explored how microaggressions and microaffirmations ...are experienced by students who are first in their family to attend college. Method: This qualitative investigation of 296 open-ended survey responses described the lived experiences of first-generation college students at a large, public, predominately White institution. Results: Students experienced microaggressions in the form microinsults, microassaults, and microinvalidations, and microaffirmations in the form of microsupports, microcompliments, and microvalidations on campus. Conclusions: Study implications include the development and implementation of regular positive and intentional communications by faculty, staff, and peers on college campuses.
Objective: First Nations peoples experience disproportionate health inequities compared to most non-Indigenous populations. Historical trauma is one factor that has received growing attention in ...relation to health inequities among First Nations populations. The goal of the present study was to improve understanding of the specific forms, impacts, and mechanisms of transmission of events that lead to historical trauma and the historical trauma response in First Nations peoples. Method: Five focus groups were conducted among adult members of one First Nations community in Canada (N = 34; 70.4% female). Results: Conventional content analysis revealed the numerous forms that historical trauma take in this First Nations community; individual-, familial-, community-, and societal-level impacts of historical trauma; and ways in which historical trauma has been transmitted in this community. Loss of culture, alcohol use, and parenting were major themes identified across these domains. Conclusions: Findings provide important information on the experience of historical trauma in one First Nations community, highlighting the roles of loss of culture; alcohol use; and parenting in the forms, impacts, and transmission of historical trauma.
What is the public health significance of this article?
This study provides important information on the experience of historical trauma in one reserve-dwelling First Nations community. Results highlight the roles of loss of culture, alcohol use, and parenting in historical trauma. An important next step is to use this Indigenous knowledge to guide the development and rigorous evaluation of a culturally grounded, trauma-informed intervention that addresses historical trauma among First Nations peoples.
This article engages with alternative understandings of psychic transmission of experience from the first to the second generation of diaspora, conventionally seen as a transfer of pathologies and ...traumas. By drawing on Jacques Lacan’s concept of lack and subjectivation, the article argues that this transfer is a transmission of diaspora’s lack of home—home here is taken as a Lacanian lack which is provisional, multiple and in flux. The article proposes that this transmission is an inevitable structural necessity which takes place during the intergenerational Oedipal encounters between the first and the second generation. The second-generation character Gogol in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake has been taken as a case in point whose subjectivation reveals the complex dynamics of interaction between the first and the second-generation diaspora, leading to the formation of a pastiched second-generation subjectivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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