INTRODUCTION: The Communist Party's reign in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989) saw the persecution of thousands of individuals. The State Security campaign "Asanace" (meaning "sanitation") was conducted to expel critics of the regime from the country using psychological and physical terror. Although stories of dissidents are frequently presented in public spaces, little is known about the experiences of their children. METHODS: To address this gap, we conducted interpretative phenomenological analyses of semi-structured in-depth interviews with five adult descendants of Czechoslovakian dissidents. RESULTS: Our analyses revealed that while participants appreciated and were inspired by their parents' dissident activities, they tend to distance themselves from it in order not to live in their parents' shadow. Furthermore, for them, the "Asanace" campaign primarily meant emigration, which in turn affected their sense of self and (national) identity dispersion. Consequently, they experienced feelings of being uprooted and different. Furthermore, they faced challenges acculturating. However, they also recognized their resilience as being rooted in their migration experience and the legacy of their parents' dissidence. DISCUSSION: By highlighting intergenerational differences and the impact of family legacy on individuals' strengths and weaknesses, this study contributes to our understanding of the psychological consequences of living in, escaping from and adjusting to life beyond oppressive regimes.

National Institute of Mental Health Klecany Czechia

School of Psychology University of New York Prague Prague Czechia

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Bartels L., Sachser C., Landolt M. A. (2021). Age-related similarities and differences in networks of acute trauma-related stress symptoms in younger and older preschool children. Eur. J. Psychotraumatol. 12:1948788. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2021.1948788, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Bartley A., Spoonley P. (2008). Intergenerational transnationalism: 1.5 generation Asian migrants in New Zealand. Int. Migr. 46, 63–84. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.2008.00472.x DOI

Berenbaum M. (2023). Holocaust. Available at:(https://www.britannica.com/event/Holocaust).

Braga L. L., Mello M. F., Fiks J. P. (2012). Transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience: a qualitative study with Brazilian offspring of holocaust survivors. BMC Psychiatry 12:134. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-12-134, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Brown G. L., Mangelsdorf S. C., Neff C., Schoppe-Sullivan S. J., Frosch C. A. (2009). Young Children’s self-concepts: associations with child temperament, mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, and triadic family interaction. Merrill-Palmer Q. 55, 184–216. doi: 10.1353/mpq.0.0019, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Burchert S., Stammel N., Knaevelsrud C. (2017). Transgenerational trauma in a post-conflict setting: effects on offspring PTSS/PTSD and offspring vulnerability in Cambodian families. Psychiatry Res. 254, 151–157. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.04.033, PMID: PubMed DOI

Cohn I. G., Morrison N. M. (2018). Echoes of transgenerational trauma in the lived experiences of Jewish Australian grandchildren of holocaust survivors. Aust. J. Psychol. 70, 199–207. doi: 10.1111/ajpy.12194 DOI

Dalenberg C. J., Straus E., Carlson E. B. (2017). “Defining trauma” in APA handbook of trauma psychology: Foundations in knowledge. ed. Gold S. N. (Washington: American Psychological Association; )

Dalgaard N. T., Diab S. Y., Montgomery E., Qouta S. R., Punamäki R.-L. (2019). Is silence about trauma harmful for children? Transgenerational communication in Palestinian families. Transcult. Psychiatry 56, 398–427. doi: 10.1177/1363461518824430, PMID: PubMed DOI

Danieli Y. (1998). “Introduction” in International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. ed. Danieli Y. (Boston, MA: Springer; ), 1–17.

Dikyurt A. E. (2023). Bosnian Americans: transmission of trauma between generations. J. Aggress. Confl. Peace Res. 15, 301–311. doi: 10.1108/JACPR-08-2022-0736 DOI

Dunn E. C., Nishimi K., Powers A., Bradley B. (2017). Is developmental timing of trauma exposure associated with depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adulthood? J. Psychiatr. Res. 84, 119–127. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.09.004, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Eyal G. (2004). Identity and trauma: two forms of the will to memory. Hist. Mem. 16:5. doi: 10.2979/his.2004.16.1.5 DOI

Fivush R. (2011). The development of autobiographical memory. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 62, 559–582. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131702 PubMed DOI

Fivush R. (2019). Sociocultural developmental approaches to autobiographical memory. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 33, 489–497. doi: 10.1002/acp.3512 DOI

Gindelsky M. (2019). Testing the acculturation of the 1.5 generation in the United States: is there a “critical” age of migration? Rev. Econ. Househ. 17, 31–65. doi: 10.1007/s11150-017-9400-2 DOI

Gregor P. (2006). Vyšetřeování akce asanace [investigating the asanace campaign]. Secur. Imperii 13, 177–178.

Hauner M., Wiskemann E., Bradley J. F. N., Odlozilik O., Zeman Z. A. B. (2023). Czechoslovak history. Available at:(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Czechoslovak-history).

Heimann M. (2011). Czechoslovakia: the state that failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hennink M., Kaiser B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: a systematic review of empirical tests. Soc. Sci. Med. 292:114523. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523, PMID: PubMed DOI

Hennink M. M., Kaiser B. N., Marconi V. C. (2017). Code saturation versus meaning saturation: how many interviews are enough? Qual. Health Res. 27, 591–608. doi: 10.1177/1049732316665344, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Kebede S. S. (2010). The struggle for belonging: Forming and reforming identities among 1.5-generation asylum seekers and refugees. University of Oxford. Oxford

Koutek O. (2006). Akce asanace [Asanace campaign]. Secur. Imperii 13, 174–176.

Lagattuta K. H., Wellman H. M. (2001). Thinking about the past: early knowledge about links between prior experience, thinking, and emotion. Child Dev. 72, 82–102. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00267, PMID: PubMed DOI

Lemmon K., Moore C. (2001). “Binding the self in time” in The self in time: Developmental perspectives. eds. Moore C., Lemmon K. (Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers; ), 163–179.

Lichtman H. (1984). Parental communication of holocaust experiences and personality characteristics among second-generation survivors. J. Clin. Psychol. 40, 914–924. doi: 10.1002/1097-4679(198407)40:4<914::AID-JCLP2270400408>3.0.CO;2-U, PMID: PubMed DOI

Maercker A. (2023). How to deal with the past? How collective and historical trauma psychologically reverberates in Eastern Europe. Front. Psych. 14:1228785. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1228785, PMID: PubMed DOI PMC

Marshall S., Reese E. (2022). Growing memories: benefits of an early childhood maternal reminiscing intervention for emerging adults’ turning point narratives and well-being. J. Res. Pers. 99:104262. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104262 DOI

McCormack L., Joseph S. (2018). PHENOMENA: a 9-step guide to avoiding pitfalls when doing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)—IPA and the “lived” experience of complex trauma, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Montagnes B. P., Wolton S. (2019). Mass purges: top-down accountability in autocracy. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 113, 1045–1059. doi: 10.1017/S0003055419000455 DOI

Orellana M. F., Thorne B., Chee A., Lam W. S. E. (2001). Transnational childhoods: the participation of children in processes of family migration. Soc. Probl. 48, 572–591. doi: 10.1525/sp.2001.48.4.572 DOI

Povinelli D. J., Landry A. M., Theall L. A., Clark B. R., Castille C. M. (1999). Development of young children’s understanding that the recent past is causally bound to the present. Dev. Psychol. 35, 1426–1439. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.35.6.1426, PMID: PubMed DOI

Rumbaut R. G. (2004). Ages, life stages, and generational cohorts: decomposing the immigrant first and second generations in the United States. Int. Migr. Rev. 38, 1160–1205. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00232.x DOI

Sebele-Mpofu F. Y. (2020). Saturation controversy in qualitative research: complexities and underlying assumptions: a literature review. Cogent Soc. Sci. 6:1838706. doi: 10.1080/23311886.2020.1838706 DOI

Smith J. A. (2017). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: getting at lived experience. J. Posit. Psychol. 12, 303–304. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1262622 DOI

Smith J. A., Flowers P., Larkin M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Smith J. A., Osborn M. (2008). “Chapter 4: interpretative phenomenological analysis” in Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. ed. Smith J. A. (Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE Publications; )

Sossin K. M. (2007). Nonmentalizing states in early-childhood survivors of the holocaust: developmental considerations regarding treatment of child survivors of genocidal atrocities. Am. J. Psychoanal. 67, 68–81. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.ajp.3350014, PMID: PubMed DOI

Suleiman S. R. (2002). The 1.5 generation: thinking about child survivors and the holocaust. Am. Imago 59, 277–295. doi: 10.1353/aim.2002.0021 DOI

Tan T. X. (2016). Emotional and behavioral disorders in 1.5th generation, 2nd generation immigrant children, and foreign adoptees. J. Immigr. Minor. Health 18, 957–965. doi: 10.1007/s10903-016-0388-0, PMID: PubMed DOI