Authoritative and permissive parenting in fathers resulted in less self-judgment and isolation.

Authoritarian parenting had a positive association with self-judgment and isolation. However, permissive fathering showed a positive association with self-compassion. None of the parenting styles moderated intergenerational trauma’s relationship with self-compassion. Hypothesis 2 proposed that higher intergenerational trauma and authoritarian parenting would lead to lower self-compassion this prediction was not supported. No significant relationship was found between perceived fathers’ or mothers’ trauma and self-compassion, but fathers’ trauma had a positive relationship with self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification within the self-compassion construct. Hypothesis 1, which suggested a negative relationship between intergenerational trauma and self-compassion, was partially supported. Bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were used to test hypotheses. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic data. Participants completed an online self-report questionnaire containing demographic questions, a modified Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) (Han, 2005 Mollica et al., 1992) for each of their parents, the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) (Buri, 1991), and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) (Neff, 2003a). Using convenience sampling, the researcher recruited 275 adult participants in the United States who had Vietnamese refugee parents. The researcher sought to determine if intergenerational trauma and parenting style in Vietnamese refugee families impact their offspring’s ability to engage in self-compassion. Although self-compassion has served as a protective buffer against traumatic symptoms and racial trauma (Chopra, 2021 Germer & Neff, 2015 Neff, 2011), there are no studies that examine the link between both intergenerational trauma and parenting styles on adult children’s self-compassion. Research on intergenerational trauma in Vietnamese refugee families suggests that parent-child relationships can be a path for trauma transmission. Intergenerational trauma originates from distressing experiences that negatively impact survivors and their descendants (O’Neill et al., 2016).

Intergenerational trauma refugee