Aggression expression in grandchildren of Holocaust survivors--a comparative study

Ninety-seven Israeli children (59 girls and 38 boys), with a mean age 10.1 +/- 1.9, participated in this study. Fifty-four of them were grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and 43 were controls. All subjects were administered the EAS, a projective test designed to assess the extent of externalization of aggression in reaction to frustrating events. Grandchildren of Holocaust survivors did not differ in their expression of aggression from controls. As difficulties in externalizing aggression are considered in the literature to be a central factor in the maladaptation of survivors and subsequently in their sons and daughters, the results of the present study were interpreted to be one possible indication that transgenerational transmission of trauma has ceased in the third generation.