Intergenerational transmission of the trauma of Holocaust: a study conducted by the Adult Attachment Interview in an Italian sample

The existence of long-term psychological effects of the Holocaust on the survivors and their offspring still keeps the scientific and clinical literature divided. A number of studies, recently, have used attachment theory as a conceptual framework for exploring the intergenerational effects of traumatic experiences. The purpose of this study is to understand in which way the process of trauma transmission can be investigated from an attachment perspective. We hypothesize that the intergenerational transmission of the "shadow" of the Holocaust (Moses, 1993) has weighed on the "second generation", through the mechanism of "frightening/frightened" responses given by the parent. Participants to this study were interviewed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). The data did not show a significant difference between the two groups.