The effects of genocide on youth include psychological and demographic effects that affect the transition into adulthood. These effects are also seen in future generations of youth.
Demographic effects involve the transfer of children during genocides. In cases of transfer, children are moved or displaced from their homes into boarding schools, adoptive families, or to new countries with or without their families. There are significant shifts in populations in the countries that experience these genocides. Often, children are then stripped of their cultural identity and assimilated into the culture that they have been placed into.
Unresolved trauma of genocide affects future generations of youth. Intergenerational effects help explain the background of these children and analyze how these experiences shape their futures. Effects include the atmosphere of the household they grew up in, pressures to succeed or act in specific ways, and how they view the world in which they live.
The passing down of narratives and stories form present day perceptions of the past. Narratives form future generations' ideas of the people who were either victimized in or carried out the genocide. As youth of future generations process the stories they hear, they create their own perception of it and begin to identify with a specific group in the story. Youth of future generations begin to form their identity through the narratives they hear as they begin to relate to it and see how the genocide affects them. As stories are passed down, children also begin to understand what their parents or grandparents went through. They use narratives as explanation of why their parents talk about it in the way they do or do not talk about it all.
Psychological effects of genocide are also relevant in youth. Youth who experience an extreme trauma at an early age are often incapable of fully understanding the event that took place. As this generation of children transition into adulthood, they sort out the event and recognize the psychological effects of the genocide. It is typical for these young survivors to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as other psychological disorders.
Transitioning out of youth and into adulthood is an important development marker in the lives of all people. Youth who transition into adulthood during a genocide have a different experience than those who do not transition during a genocide. Some youth transition earlier as means of survival. Others are unable to fully transition, remaining in a youth state longer.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States were subject to military and land-taking campaigns by U.S. government policies. Disease reduced the American Indian population by 95 percent between 1492 and 1900, marking the worst demographic collapse in human history. There were also frequent violent conflicts between Indians and settlers. Scholarly debates have not resolved whether specific conflicts during U.S. military expansion can be defined as genocide because of questions over the intent. Specific conflicts such as the Sand Creek massacre, the 1851 California Round Valley Wars, and Shoshoni massacres in the 1860s in Idaho have been described as genocidal. Cultural genocide included the intent to destroy cultural systems like collective land ownership and preventing children from learning about Native cultures through boarding schools.
Youth and children were included among non-combatants killed by military forces, vigilantes, or disease during U.S. colonization. Cases of girls being raped and children being cut into pieces were documented in the states of Arizona, Ohio, and Wyoming in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Children were taken prisoner after battles between whites and Native Americans.
Youth in boarding schools
From 1824 until the 1970s, approximately 100 boarding schools were operated by the United States federal government. Native families volunteered and were forced to send their children to attend Indian boarding schools. The intention behind this project was to prevent youth from learning and passing on Indigenous cultures. Brigadier-General Richard Henry Pratt, who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, pronounced that the goal of his institution was to "kill the Indian, save the man." Children at these sites experienced physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. However, oral histories also document that youth had good experiences of friendships, skills learned, and sporting events. As adults, they often struggled to raise their own children when returning to Indian cultural contexts.
Intergenerational effects Brave Heart and DeBruyn, psychologists treating American Indian youth, compare psychological trauma caused by massacres, land allotment, and boarding schools to the trauma experienced by the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Adults who experienced boarding schools as children seek treatment to be able to adequately bond with their children. American Indian groups have created treatment processes such as the Takini Network: Lakota Holocaust Survivors' Association to treat youth and adults through cultural competence, participation in traditional ceremonies, and grief management.
Armenian genocide, Turkey The Armenian genocide began in 1915 when the Turkish government planned to wipe out Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. About 2 million Armenians were killed, and many more were removed from the country by force. The Turkish government does not acknowledge the events of the Armenian genocide as genocide.
Demographic effects The biggest demographic shift is the number of children that were internally displaced within the Ottoman Empire. During the Armenian genocide, at least 60,000 youth were transferred to many different locations. Children were taken from their homes and transferred to poorly supplied camps where they would be sold. Some children were sold to central Anatolia to wealthy households for education and assimilation into the Turkish culture. Other children were sold to Muslim villagers, who would receive a stipend each month for raising them. In these instances, the displaced children had typically better lives than what they would have had with Armenian parents. Not all went to these types of homes. Some youth were sold for circumstances of exploitation and unpaid hard labor. Other youth were sent to homes in which they experienced physical and sexual abuse. Some young people were placed in homes of the people who were responsible for their parents' deaths. No matter what type of home they were sent to, the transfer of children involved the stripping of their culture and identity. Their Armenian culture was erased by being raised in non-Armenian households; in this way, the Turkish government was carrying out a cultural genocide.
Intergenerational effects Narratives of the stories of the genocide are passed down from generation to generation in order for the story to continue to live on. It allowed the children of future generations to find their sense of ethnic identity through it. There are many different aspects of life in which children begin to form their identity, and in the Armenian culture, an emphasis is placed on the children to identify with the Armenian culture. Though the events of the Armenian genocide are historical facts, the personal stories from witnesses are used as a cultural artifact in the lives of Armenian children. They grow up with this strong sense of belonging to this culture due to these stories of suffering and use them as a uniting force. Armenians are united in this ethnic community, known as the Armenian diaspora. Whether they are Russian or Armenian-Americans, they are part of the Armenian diaspora. The desire for future generations to actively be part of this Armenian diaspora stems from the primary generation and their experiences with the cultural genocide.
Future generations of genocide survivors recognize the shift in their geographical location due to the genocide. Future generations of Armenian-Americans have been told and retold the stories of how their ancestors came to America, and they recognize that if it had not been for the Armenian genocide, they might not be where they are today. They see the effect of the genocide in that they might still be in Armenia. Future generations of children that are born in Russia recognize that their geographical location within Russia was effected by the genocide. They feel at home in places such as Krasnodar, Russia because that is where their families have migrated to after the genocide. Although the future generations of Armenian genocide survivors have migrated all over the globe and made their homes in these places, their ancestors have instilled a love for Armenia, the historic homeland.
Cambodian genocide, Cambodia The Cambodian genocide began in 1975 when Pol Pot, a Khmer Rouge leader, attempted to build a Communist peasant farming society. About 1.5 million Cambodians died.
Demographic effects Many Cambodian youths were taken to Canada in the 1980s. Most came through private sponsorship programs or through the Canadian federal government as refugees. Many of these sponsorship programs were Christian organizations through the "Master Agreement" made with the Canadian government. Primarily, families became refugees in Montreal and Toronto. Other small groups of refugees went to Ottawa, Hamilton, London, and Vancouver. Most refugees were of the lowest economic class in Cambodia, and they had low levels of education. An emphasis was placed on getting the children refugees caught up academically with their peers of the same age by sending them to school. Cambodian Canadians preferred to stay in bigger cities such as Toronto because it allowed the children to attend school together. In these areas where the Cambodian population was higher, racism in schools against Cambodian refugees was less evident. Though they were placed in Canada, there was still a stress to maintain Khmer culture. Many parents continued to speak Khmer to their children, keeping the language alive. Khmer décor was hung in homes and Khmer traditions were carried out within the homes as a way to raise the children in Khmer culture.
Intergenerational effects Many second and third generation youth of survivors of the Cambodian genocide recognize the stories they are told as their primary source of information. The stories they hear discuss the Khmer Rouge in a negative way. Survivors' stories include harsh living and working conditions in which they were separated from their families, starved, tortured, and even killed. Other households avoid the subject all together. Some survivors do not want to relive the old traumas, so they keep silent. Other survivors cannot make sense of it and do not want to be subject to the questions of youth that they cannot answer.
Many youth in the generations following the genocide experience broken home life. They live in homes controlled by parents with PTSD. The youth experience their parents' hyperarousal, intrusive recollection, post-traumatic amnesia, and being easily frightened. Even if the parents do not have PTSD, they still often elicit behaviors of emotional unavailability, overprotectiveness, and poor parenting on their children. Some children of survivors experience violence in their home such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. Children in the following generations who have been raised in violent homes because of their parents' experiences have often elicited violent behaviors. School shootings, stabbings, and knife attacks have become more common among Cambodians following the genocide. Some youth believe that it is because of the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide that they suffer from economic hardships.