AUTHOR=Preiss Marek , Fňašková Monika , Nečasová Markéta , Heissler Radek , Bob Petr , Prokopová Alice , Šamánková Dita , Sanders Edel , Rektor Ivan 

TITLE=Wellbeing and national identity in three generations of Czech and Slovak Holocaust survivors

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.919217

DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2022.919217

ISSN=1662-5153

ABSTRACT=Subjective well-being (SWB) is an important factor of global adjustment and intergenerational satisfaction in seriously traumatized people that has not been studied so far in homogenous populations of Central and Eastern Europe. This study focuses on the SWB in three generations of survivors living in the Czech Republic and Slovakia after World War II. The focal group were Holocaust survivors (ages 71–95), Holocaust survivors’ children (ages 30–73), and their grandchildren (ages 15–48), compared to aged-matched comparisons without Holocaust history. The first and second generation of Holocaust survivors scored significantly lower than comparison groups in well-being, as measured by the Schwartz Outcome Scale-10. There was no significant difference in life satisfaction in any of the three generations. Within the focal group, identification as Jewish or as also Jewish was comparable in all three generations of Holocaust survivors (74% in the first, 79% in the second, and 66% in the third generation), and was associated with lower SWB scores than in Holocaust survivors declaring other than Jewish identity. The focal group generated more national identities than comparisons. The outcomes are discussed in the context of the history of Central and Eastern Europe.