Book of Abstracts

Albania experienced several decades of severe Communism from 1944 to 1990 during which time trauma inflicted by Communist regime was very common. The current study explores the effects of intergenerational trauma for Albanian victims of communism. Adult offspring of victims (N=233) reported type of trauma experienced by parents (loss of life, freedom, and opportunity), anxiety, anxious and avoidant attachment, level of hope, and religiosity, as well as current residency/location (N=148 in Albania and N=84 in the U.S.). Findings showed significantly higher prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety in offspring of Albanian victims than in the general population (21.62% in the Albanian and 39.28% in the U.S. sub-sample). By exploring differences between the two sub-samples, findings indicated that participants in Albania, whose mothers had experienced trauma, expressed higher levels of anxiety and less avoidant attachment to father, indicating a compensatory process. In addition, higher levels of hope were associated with less anxiety in the US sub-sample but not in the Albanian sample. Processes linking trauma type, religiosity, hope, and attachment to anxiety are discussed for each sub-sample. This study offers novel insights into the intergenerational effects of trauma experienced under communism. The sociocultural context and specific applications of the results for clinical and non-clinical settings are discussed.