Abstract
Knowing one's identity, name, and biological parents is considered essential to personality development and psychological well-being. This study assessed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, subjective quality of life (QoL), psychological distress, and potency in a group of adults who were children during the Holocaust (child Holocaust survivors) and who did not know their true identity. Twenty-three such survivors were compared to 23 child Holocaust survivors who knew their identity. Results showed that survivors with lost identity had lower physical, psychological, and social QoL and higher somatization, depression, and anxiety scores than did survivors with known identity. The findings suggest that the psychological consequences of not knowing one's identity are long-lasting.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 859-869 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Traumatic Stress |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. and by the Israel Science Foundation Grant number 777/99-1. We thank Dr. Avi Besser for his invaluable help with all the drafts and data analyses of this paper.
Keywords
- Child holocaust survivors
- Lost identity
- PTSD
- Quality of life
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health