Initially, what one individual calls it,"taumatic", another person could call it "a defult condition", although the parents & children commonly have more understanding of each other than outsiders. Secondly, There is a effect of generation-gap between parents and children, that enfluences on both side's judgement. In addition, level of communication, closeness and friendship of children with their parents varies greatly, based ontheir social class or, "persistancy & winner charateristic of one side versus lack of motivation & failing, of other side", could effect on the biasness of the report. Another perspective of looking at this planning is that mostly, children, regarless of being old or young, wouldn't be relax, or open about their parents' trauma and failing; the reason is that the parens' trauma could considered the child's root's- trauma, especially for a teen-ages. Also, there is a sense of denial, that comes as a psychological-healing in an extra-ordinary traumatic conditions, for both sidse; as aresult, their decorative, or bias report would n't be a valid structure for an study in a survey, unless the hypothesis is about biasness in generation-gap context.  

Hi Faranack, 

Many thanks for your reply, which certainly raises some interesting points. My specific interest is whether it is possible for present-day adults (the participant) to report on events that their parents experienced during the participants' childhood. For example: During your childhood, was your parent shot at (with any type of bullet)? I appreciate that this form of investigation cannot capture subjective experience (distress etc.); however, would it be viable to capture the existence of an event?  

Hi Tanisha, Many thanks for your reply - I agree with what you say.