https://aub.ie/MilitaryREACH-McCormack2021

McCormack, L., Hogan, M., & Devine, W. (2022). Transgenerational exposure to combat: Military family, moral dilemmas, reclaiming self. Traumatology, 28(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000298

This qualitative study used interviews with four Australian Army Veterans who grew up with a father in the military to explore how combat trauma experiences across multiple generations may be consequential for Veterans. Veterans discussed the personal and relational consequences of their fathers’ combat trauma, as well as the combat trauma that they experienced themselves. Several themes emerged from the interviews demonstrating that, despite strained father-son relationships and combat stress, Veterans found opportunities for growth.

https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000298

Parents
Trauma

International Military

Veteran

Veteran

Adulthood (18 yrs & older)
Young adulthood (18 - 29 yrs)
Thirties (30 - 39 yrs)

Cross-Sectional Study
Qualitative Study

McCormack, Lynne, Hogan, Matthew, Devine, Wendy

Children of veterans commonly join the armed forces, yet little research explores transgenerational exposure to combat trauma. This ideographic study sought positive and negative interpretations from veterans exposed vicariously as children to combat related trauma and primarily as personnel deployed to combat. Semistructured interviews provided the data for transcription and analysis using interpretative phenomenological analysis. One overarching superordinate theme, military family, moral dilemmas, reclaiming self, highlights a layered struggle for autonomy from a fractured relationship with a veteran father, the lack of preparedness for moral confrontation in combat from the larger military family, and a sense of betrayal from both father and organization in reconnecting with civilian life. Despite intermittent opportunities for shared connections between father and son, their fathers’ resistance to sharing personal combat narratives brought distance and resentment. This was compounded by perceived organizational betrayal, where participants felt morally unprepared for the 'cultural' threats of war. Feelings of shame and moral injury plagued 'self' post service; however, purpose and meaning were expressed as a desire to parent differently from their own fathers. Importantly, though results are not generalizable, this study highlights the importance of postdeployment family education to reduce potential self-blame and self-doubt in male children of veterans exposed vicariously to the toxic masculinity of disengaged and brutal parenting styles following combat trauma. Second, this study reveals the importance of postdeployment reintegration training for restoration of moral integrity in life after the military. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Taylor & Francis

Article
REACH Publication

School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle, LM
School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle, MH
School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle, WD