Parental Communication and Psychological Distress in Children of Holocaust Survivors: a Comparison Between the U.S. and Israel

Debra F. Okner and Joseph Flaherty
Additional contact information
Debra F. Okner: Northwestern University-McGaw Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, University of Illinois College of Medicine
Joseph Flaherty: University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1989, vol. 35, issue 3, 265-273

Abstract: To determine how the children of Holocaust survivors in Israel and the U.S. differ on measures of parental communication and psychological distress, we performed a comparative study on 140 subjects in the U.S. and 54 in Israel using a written questionnaire. Respondents in Israel reported more communication by their parents, but also a higher level of demoralization; this may be due to more demoralization among the general population. In both populations, parents' general communication correlated negatively with anxiety, depression and demoralization and positively with guilt. Parents' Holocaust communication resulted in similar findings; however, in Israel only a negative correlation with demoralization reached significance. Parental communication about the Holocaust thus seems to be of less importance in Israel in determining the children's psychological outcome. This may be due to a greater role by Israeli society in forming children's perception of the Holocaust.

Date: 1989
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076408903500307 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:35:y:1989:i:3:p:265-273

DOI: 10.1177/002076408903500307

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().