As we continue to make advances in psychological research, the relationship between nature and nurture is becoming better understood. What might these findings indicate for those who are coming to terms with trauma?
In 1979, scientist Thomas J. Buchard initiated an 11-year study in which he and his team investigated the correspondences between monozygotic (identical) twins who were either raised together or raised apart. Each set of twins underwent roughly 50 hours of examination via questionnaires, interviews, and IQ tests to determine how each twin compared to the other. Since identical twins share all of their DNA – but those reared apart do not share an environment – the similarities and differences between twins who were raised apart are indicative of the relationship between heredity (genes) and environment in shaping one’s mind.
As cited by Arizona State University, the assessment scores of the twins raised separately had very similar correlation coefficients (a number from -1 to 1 that shows the relationship between two variables) to those raised in the same environment, indicating that there was little difference in the similarity between twins raised apart and twins raised together. These findings, published in 1990, suggest that heredity plays a much more substantial role in psychological development than environment.
When I first read about this study in my AP Psychology course, I thought I was going to break out in hives. My family history is rooted in addiction, mental illness, and abuse – a fate I always hoped that I could evade. I’d witnessed the cycle of trauma run its course through the generations – from my grandparents, to my parents, to me and my siblings – but I figured I’d learned enough to transcend it. However, when I find myself hurtling through unhinged mood swings or staving off harmful impulses, I cannot help but think back to the Minnesota Twin Study and wonder how inextricably bound we are by our own flesh and blood. It begs the question: how much free will do we truly have over our generational trauma?
“I would define generational trauma as a traumatic event or events that happen to a generation, but the echoes and effects of this trauma are felt even generations later,” says Miss Sarah Flaim, the AP Psychology instructor at Belleville High School. “It can get passed down from generation to generation via a combination of factors, depending on the source of the trauma. For example, it could stem from a lack of societal change, a struggle to break cycles, or genetics affecting mental health. If the proper treatment and management strategies are not sought out and utilized, it becomes difficult to break a cycle of behavior that is influenced by one’s genetics.”
What makes generational trauma such a complex issue is that it tends to be thoroughly embedded in both our heredity and environment. For many of us, the generations before us simply were not able to seek out the help that they needed, increasing the severity of their afflictions and the likelihood of it affecting their offspring. My understanding is that the continuation of such trauma is primarily thought to be epigenetic. The Harvard University Center on Child Development defines epigenetics as the study of how environmental circumstances and events can alter DNA regulation (whether or not a gene is expressed, or “turned on”). This occurs via chemical marks that accumulate on our DNA and control the extent to which our genes are expressed, without actually changing the sequences themselves. This accumulation of chemical marks is known as the epigenome. The arrangement of our epigenomes change over the course of our lives – especially during childhood – altering the expression of our genes.
For example, if a parent struggles with substance abuse, this may modify their epigenome in a manner that increases their child’s susceptibility to addiction. If the child is raised in a loving, attentive home in which they are provided with mental health services and healthy coping mechanisms, this may create an environment that could potentially subdue the expression of said genes. However, if addiction and familial dysfunction are still present throughout the child’s life, they remain at risk for developing an addiction and continuing the cycle. A child that was raised in a stable environment can experience an adverse event that triggers the gene expression; a child that was raised in turmoil can seek resources to manage their struggles. This is where it gets messy – our heredity and environment are so elaborately intertwined, that it seems impossible to truly assert the role of either one.
“I think through practicing skills of reflection, having a clear sense of goals, and keeping a good amount of perseverance a person can sometimes intentionally change or control aspects of themselves to which they are genetically predisposed.” Adds Miss Flaim “Environmental factors and lifestyle choices can absolutely affect how one’s genes present themselves.”
What all of this suggests to me is that change is possible. You cannot change what you were given by your parents, but you can create an environment for yourself that allows you to reinterpret them. We are not destined to the same fate as our family; with enough intention, we can create a better life for ourselves than we ever thought possible. This may seem like common sense to someone who hasn’t experienced familial trauma, but a trauma survivor often has to go to great lengths to make the world make sense again.
For me, this subject is not an academic or scientific pursuit. It is the pursuit of my entire life up to this point, and of the lives of those before me: fleeting, beautiful, and wretched. It is the pursuit of the face in the mirror that I scour for glimpses of my parents; I search for my mother’s or father’s eyes and for the harrowing world behind those eyes, in the midst of the fog through which I navigate my life. Slowly, I am fitting together the broken pieces of that mirror so that I can see my reflection again. The process is arduous and bloody, but I have no choice but to take myself back, to create me, the me that I did not know could ever exist.
One cannot deny the power that our genes have over us. I cannot deny the many vicious inclinations that I try to subdue daily, because I have witnessed them destroy the people around me. But each passing day that I get up for school, stay clean, do what I love, and go to bed alive is one more piece of glass to fit in the mirror. That is not to say that I have had some miracle epiphany that healed all of my trauma – far from it. The realization, however, that the environment I’ve built – therapy, social support, goals, and hobbies – is not futile, and can perhaps heal me on a fundamental level, is priceless to me. I am very fatigued from the path that I have had to take, but it is not going to last forever.
