Caregivers’ Traumatic Experiences and Children’s Psychosocial Difficulties: the Mediation Effect of Caregivers’ Sense of Coherence

Previous studies examining the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of trauma have mostly adopted a pathogenesis framework; our study employs the Salutogenic framework instead. In this study, we explore the role of caregivers’ sense of coherence in trauma transmission to children aged 3 to 12 in three age groups. Sense of coherence has been recognized as a protective factor in trauma study, but less is known about its role in intergenerational transmission of trauma. We suggest that caregivers’ sense of coherence mediates the association between the cumulative exposure to traumatic events of caregivers and the psychosocial difficulties experienced by their children. The sample consisted of 547 caregivers in Hong Kong who had experienced trauma. Participants completed measures of their traumatic experiences, sense of coherence and their children’s difficulties. The findings reveal that the mediation effect of caregivers’ sense of coherence was observed to be stronger when their children were older. No significant mediation was found among caregivers with children aged 3 to 5 (b = .02, SE = .07, 95%CI = -.09, .20, ns), partial mediation was found among caregivers with children aged 6 to 8 (b = .24, SE = .06, 95%CI = .13, .35), and full mediation was found among caregivers with children aged 9 to 12 (b = .21, SE = .09, 95%CI = .05, .40). The results suggest the possibility of a cumulative effect of caregivers’ trauma on their children, and we propose to enhance caregivers’ sense of coherence to mitigate the negative impact of trauma transmission.