Intergenerational Impacts

Intergenerational Impacts are the effects of abuse that were passed on to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Aboriginal people who attended residential schools. They include the following:

1. Alcohol and drug abuse
   
2. Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effect
   
3. Sexual abuse
   
4. Physical abuse
   
5. Psychological and/or emotional abuse
   
6. Low self-esteem
   
7. Dysfunctional families and interpersonal relationships
   
8. Parenting issues such as emotional coldness, rigidity, neglect, poor communications, and abandonment
   
9. Suicide
   
10. Teen pregnancy
    
11. Chronic, widespread depression
    
12. Chronic, widespread rage and anger
    
13. Eating disorders
    
14. Sleeping disorders
    
15. Chronic physical illness related to spiritual and emotional states
    
16. Unresolved grief and loss
    
17. Fear of personal growth, transformation, and healing
    
18. Behaviours such as false politeness, not speaking out, passive compliance, excessive neatness, obedience without thought
    
19. Patterns of paternalistic authority and patterns of misuse of power to control others, similar to "whispering in the dark", but refusing to support and stand with those who speak out or challenge the status quo
    
20. Breakdown of the social glue that holds families and communities together, such as trust, common ground, shared purpose and direction, a vibrant ceremonial and civic life, co-operative networks and associations working for the common good
    
21. Disunity and conflict between individuals, families, and factions within the community
    
22. Flashbacks and associative trauma
    
23. Educational blocks including aversions to formal learning programs and fear of failure
    
24. Spiritual confusion
    
25. Sense of inferiority or aversion in relation to whites and especially whites in power
    
26. Toxic communication such as backbiting, gossip, criticism, put downs, personal attacks, sarcasm, secrets
    
27. Becoming oppressors and abusers of others
    
28. Co-dependent behaviours in the workplace;
    
29. Cultural identity issues including denial of the validity of one's own cultural identity
    
30. Destruction of social support networks
    
31. Disconnection from the natural world as an important dimension of daily life and hence spiritual dislocation;
    
32. Voicelessness, or a passive acceptance of powerlessness in being able to influence and shape the world in which one lives

Many generations of Inuit, Mètis, and First Nation children spent the greater part of their childhood in residential schools. The abuse and neglect they suffered while there left its mark on their adult lives, as well as the lives of their descendants whose families have been characterized by further abuse and neglect.

"Intergenerational or multi-generational trauma happens when the effects of trauma are not resolved in one generation. When trauma is ignored and there is no support for dealing with it, the trauma will be passed from one generation to the next. What we learn to see as "normal" when we are children, we pass on to our own children. Children who learn that ... or [sic] sexual abuse is "normal", and who have never dealt with the feelings that come from this, may inflict physical and sexual abuse on their own children. The unhealthy ways of behaving that people use to protect themselves can be passed on to children, without them even knowing they are doing so. This is the legacy of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools."

(Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 1999:A5)

References: Aboriginal Healing Foundation (1999). Aboriginal Healing Foundation Program Handbook, 2nd Edition. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation.