War in the former Yugoslavia still reverberates in the lives of the generations that lived through it. The aim of this study was to compare a cohort that had direct experience of the war (first generation, G1, n = 89) with those born after the war (second generation, G2, n = 30). All participants stay or live in the Czech Republic. We used an individualized approach, with a structured interview of 91 questions, supplemented by quantitative methods to measure traumatic stress (PCL-5), adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and centrality of the event (CES). G1 had a higher mean ACE score compared to G2, and the two generations did not differ in centrality of the event and trauma symptom severity, in the rate of psychiatric outpatient care use, psychiatric hospitalizations, diagnosed PTSD, current psychiatric medication use and in illicit drug use. A number of signs were indicative of good resilience, including the ability to move internationally, which implies language proficiency, and the ability to earn a sufficient income. G1 and G2 respondents represent a group of educated individuals with their mental health mostly matching that of the general population, as well as people who have success in their professional and personal lives.

Department of Neurology St Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Czech Republic

Department of Psychology National Institute of Mental Health Czechia Czech Republic

Department of Psychology University of New York Prague Czech Republic

Masaryk University Central European Institute of Technology Centre for Neuroscience Czech Republic

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