Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its association with attitudes toward reconciliation.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the link between mothers' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their adult offspring's attitudes toward reconciliation and psychopathology among survivors of the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. We also sought to examine whether parenting styles mediate the relationship between mothers' PTSD symptoms and their adult offspring's psychopathology, if any. METHOD: Mother-child dyads (N = 181) were recruited in Rwanda and completed measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, depression, attitudes toward reconciliation, and parenting styles. RESULTS: Adult offspring of mothers who suffered from more severe PTSD symptoms had less favorable attitudes toward reconciliation, even after controlling for their own PTSD symptoms. Mothers' PTSD symptoms were not associated with their adult offspring's PTSD or depression symptoms. In addition, mothers' PTSD symptoms did not predict their parenting styles. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the mental health of survivors of mass violence has repercussions on the intergroup attitudes of the following generation. This study has practical implications for sustainable peacebuilding in postconflict societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Clients' satisfaction of maternity care at a public referral teaching hospital, in Rwanda: case of University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB).

Introduction: maternal satisfaction is the key in health facilities utilization and so improving the birth outcome and reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this study was to assess women´s satisfaction with perinatal care provided in maternity at CHUB with its associated factors. Methods: a cross-sectional study was done at maternity of CHUB on clients´ satisfaction of maternity care. With a sample size of 422 mothers who were admitted for labor and delivery from July 1st to October 31st 2020. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and client's satisfaction (eight questions (CSQ-8). Every respondent had to answer all questions under guidance of a data collector. Excel, Stata and SPSS were used for data entry and data analysis. Chi-squared and multivariate regressions were used for analysis of the association. Results: eighty-nine point thirty four (89.34%) percent of our respondents reported that services they received helped them to deal more effectively with their problems; and they were most satisfied with a mean score of 3.9 (97.5%) and least satisfied with the fact that they were not allowed to decide themselves in their management, with a mean score of 3.1 (77.5%). The overall satisfaction of our respondent's equals to the mean score is 28.4/32= 88.75%. Factors found to affect mothers´ satisfaction were respecting mother´s privacy & values and allowing them to take decision and consenting before procedure. Conclusion: the majority of mothers were satisfied with received services. Respecting patients´ privacy and allowing them to participate in decision-making were two factors associated with high satisfaction.

The psychological correlates of transitional justice in Rwanda: A long-term assessment.

OBJECTIVE: We tested the psychological correlates of the Gacaca tribunals, a massive program of transitional justice put in place by the Rwandan government following the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi. METHOD: The sample consisted of 679 Rwandese participants, among which 373 (55%) were survivors of the genocide. We contrasted three groups of participants: (1) those who had never attended the Gacaca (N = 229), the control group, (2) those who had attended without testifying (N = 275), the attendance group, and (3) those who had attended and testified (N = 120), the testimony group. In the analyses, we controlled for the level of genocide-related negative consequences that participants reported. RESULTS: The attendance group presented lower levels of PTSD and depression symptoms than both the control and testimony groups. Both attendance and testimony groups had more positive opinions of the Gacaca and higher openness to reconciliation than the control group. CONCLUSIONS: contrary to what has been reported in two previous studies, participation in the Gacaca was not, in our data, negatively related to mental health or to social cohesion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Long-term cognitive correlates of exposure to trauma: Evidence from Rwanda.

Research increasingly shows links between trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and cognitive functioning. We know relatively little about the long-term cognitive correlates of exposure to trauma, especially in civilian populations exposed to war and political violence. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to examined short-term memory (STM) and executive function 20 years after the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. We hypothesized that performance on these tasks would be negatively related to trauma exposure and to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. METHOD: In two studies, 470 Rwandan participants answered questionnaires measuring the severity of experiences that occurred during the 1994 genocide and current levels of PTSD symptoms. In both studies, we tested STM using a forward digit span task. In the second study, we also measured executive function using a semantic fluency task. RESULTS: There were modest but significant negative links between the severity of experiences during the genocide and STM function more than 20 years after. Current levels of PTSD symptoms were also related to STM and executive function. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals the important link between exposure to highly emotional events and cognitive function and highlights the need to attend not only to the mental health but also to the cognitive health of populations exposed to political violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Twenty years later, the cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation in Rwanda.

With this work, we intended to draw a cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation. No study had yet examined the potential contribution of high-level cognitive functioning, in addition to psychological health, to explaining attitudes towards reconciliation in societies exposed to major trauma such as post-genocide Rwanda. We measured the contribution of general cognitive capacity, analytical thinking, and subjective judgements. Our results show that higher cognitive capacity is not associated with greater openness to reconciliation. On the other hand, proneness to think analytically about the genocide predicts more favorable attitudes towards reconciliation. The latter effect is associated with more tempered judgements about retrospective facts (e.g., number of genocide perpetrators) and prospective events (e.g., risk of genocide reoccurrence). This work establishes the importance of cognitive functioning in the aftermath of political violence: A better understanding of the influence of information processing on openness to reconciliation may help improve reconciliation policies and contribute to reducing risks of conflict reoccurrence.