Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : We provide a within group study of 65 Former Hidden Children (FHC; i.e. Jewish youths who spent World War II in various hideaway shelters across Nazi-occupied Europe) evaluated by the Hopkins Symptom Check List, the Sense of Coherence Scale, the Resilience Scale for Adults, which has a six factors solution, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The aim of the present paper is to address the sensitization model of resilience (consisting in a reduction of resistance to additional stress due to previous exposure to trauma) and to identify the family, psychological and socio-demographic characteristics that predict resilience among a group of FHC. In multiple regression analyses, and in accordance with the sensitization model, the number of post-war traumas negatively predicts the resilience. Moreover, the sense of coherence and the number of children positively predict it. Our data also confirm that the resilience construct is multi-factorial, five domains of resilience being influenced by psychological or socio-demographic characteristic while a sixth one remains unaltered. Future studies of resilience among survivors of massive trauma occurring during childhood should take these variables into account when attempting to test models of resilience. Therapeutic implications are discussed, limitations are considered and further investigations are proposed.

Documents en relation

DI-fusion