“I wanted to act like my dad”: Redefining a future out of transgenerational trauma and juvenile custodial care

Purpose: Reportedly, up to 92% of young people in custody worldwide have experienced some form of abuse or other adverse childhood traumatic experiences. Despite these bleak findings, family and childhood traumatic experiences have been linked to individuals experiencing both positive as well as negative outcomes. Method: Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this idiographic study sought positive and negative interpretations from seven males aged 18 to 21 years currently serving a custodial order at a Youth Justice Centre in Australia, who grew up with family trauma. Results: One superordinate theme, Transgenerational trauma: a curse and a possibility for growth; overarched four subordinate themes. Interpretative themes evoked the tragedy of youth incarceration, often a consequence of daily lives of anticipatory trauma and betrayal trauma in childhood for these participants, where unsafety, fear, and neglect permeated transgenerational patterns of trauma. Adolescent disregard, anger, and resentment toward authority was protective against childhood fear, guilt, and shame associated with childhood trauma. Ironically, incarceration provided opportunities to reflect on new ways of being in the world facilitating transformation of self-regard. Engaging in therapeutic unravelling of patterns of transgenerational trauma, these participants mused on letting go of anger, a determination to be a better parent, and acknowledged a need to break family cycle, rejecting addiction, poor choices, and child abuse in the next generation. Conclusion: New insight into the formation of pathways that perpetuate transgenerational trauma provided these participants opportunities for personal reconciliation and posttraumatic growth. Future trials of posttraumatic growth strategies in juvenile rehabilitation programs is recommended.