Two studies assessed the nature of parental communication about the trauma of Indian Residential Schools (IRSs) in relation to the psychological distress of their adult offspring, and whether the link between parental communication and distress was mediated by offsprings’ greater awareness of collective discrimination or sense of pride in cultural identity. In Study 1, an online survey of Indigenous participants from across Canada ( N = 498) demonstrated a curvilinear relation between the extent to which parents talked about their negative IRS experiences and the severity of depressive symptoms among offspring, among whom symptoms were particularly pronounced with more frequent communication. This relation was mediated by greater perceived discrimination. A similar, but inverse, association was found when parental communications conveyed positive construals of their IRS experiences. Study 2 ( N = 134) further demonstrated an association between direct communications from IRS survivors and offspring wellbeing in that, either the absence of, or especially frequent communications were related to more severe depressive symptoms among offspring. However, hearing about parental IRS experiences from someone other than the parent was not related to offsprings’ depressive symptoms. Qualitative analyses indicated that direct communications from parents tended to provide excessive detail, whereas parental silence was associated with speculation and feelings of isolation or resentment among offspring of IRS survivors. Taken together, the results suggest that either insufficient or excessive parental communication about trauma might undermine offspring wellbeing, whereas moderate levels of communication that provide positive meaning and promote cultural pride or diminish perceptions of personal discrimination could be beneficial.

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Cognitive flexibility plays an important role in an individual's ability to adapt to a continuously changing environment and is considered central to goal-oriented behavior. Accordingly, increasing attention has been devoted to understanding the factors, including genetic and early life experiences, which might contribute to individual differences in this ability. In the present investigation, we examined the contribution of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism to cognitive flexibility, as assessed by set-shifting ability on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST), and whether this polymorphism moderated the relation between trauma experiences (including type and timing of trauma occurrence) and cognitive flexibility. Among undergraduate students (N = 239), greater frequency of total traumas experienced prior to the age 5 was associated with greater difficulties in set-shifting (as indexed by more frequent perseverative errors on the WCST) among individuals carrying the Met allele of the BDNF polymorphism, but not those who were Val homozygotes. By contrast, total traumas experienced between the age of 6 to 12 and 13 to 18 were not related to set-shifting ability, and these relations were not moderated by BDNF genotype. Moreover, greater frequency of general traumas and emotional abuse was associated with set-shifting difficulties for both male and female Met allele carriers, but not Val homozygotes. In contrast, physical punishment was related to difficulties in set-shifting, but only among male Met carriers, an effect that was likely attributed to greater frequency of this form of trauma among males. The present findings suggest that the relationship between early life trauma and later-life cognitive flexibility might depend on the presence of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism as well as the development stage at which the trauma has occurred. Moreover, the present investigation provides further understanding into the factors (i.e., genetic and early life experiences) that might be associated with individual differences in cognitive functioning and goal-directed behaviors, such as problem-solving and decision-making.

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