Many ethnic minority groups experience higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to their European American counterparts. One explanation for this is the differential experience of racism, which can itself be traumatic. This article aims to provide a theoretical basis for the traumatizing nature of various forms of racism within the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ framework for PTSD. PTSD caused by racism, or racial trauma, is likely to be underrecognized due to a lack of awareness among clinicians, discomfort surrounding conversations about race in therapeutic settings, and a lack of validated measures for its assessment. We review the literature and existing measures for the assessment of racial trauma and introduce the UConn Racial/Ethnic Stress & Trauma Survey (UnRESTS), a clinician-administered interview. The UnRESTS is useful to clinicians as an aid to uncovering racial trauma, developing a culturally informed case conceptualization, and including experiences of racism in the diagnosis of PTSD when warranted. Three case examples that describe the impact of racial stress and trauma and the role of the UnRESTS in understanding the experiences of those impacted by racism are included.
Despite the proclamation of a “postracial” society, racism in the United States remains “alive and sick” (S. P. Harrell, 2000), negatively impacting the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of Black Americans. Moreover, the complex impact of racism throughout the life span is inadequately understood. Coping with the insidiousness of racism in its myriad forms requires recognizing how it expresses across development. In this developmental overview, we apply a life-course perspective (Gee, Walsemann, & Brondolo, 2012) to investigate racism-related stress and coping over time. Within each period of development, we first explore how racism-related stress may present for Black Americans and then document what coping from this stress looks like, highlighting extant strategies and interventions where they exist. This work concludes with a set of definitional, methodological, and clinical future directions and recommendations for improving the field’s ability to mitigate the deleterious impact of racism-related stress.
African American youth are more likely than their peers from other racial and ethnic groups to experience interpersonal traumas and traumatic racist and discriminatory encounters. Unfortunately, evidence-based trauma treatments have been less effective among these youth likely due to these treatments not being culturally tailored to address both interpersonal and racial trauma. In this article, we utilize the racial encounter coping appraisal and socialization theory to propose suggestions for adapting trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy—an evidence-based trauma treatment for children and adolescents—to include racial socialization or the process of transmitting culture, attitudes, and values to help youth overcome stressors associated with ethnic minority status. We conclude by discussing implications for the research and clinical community to best promote healing from both interpersonal and racial trauma for African American youth.
Purpose
The purpose of the present study was to investigate ethnic differences in trauma-related mental health symptoms among adolescents, and test the mediating and moderating effects of polyvictimization (i.e., number of types of traumas/victimizations experienced by an individual) and household income, respectively.
Methods
Data were drawn from the first wave of the National Survey of Adolescents replication study (NSA-R), which took place in the U.S. in 2005 and utilized random digit dialing to administer a telephone survey to adolescents ages 12-17. Participants included in the current analyses were the 3,312 adolescents (50.2% female; Mean age = 14.67 years) from the original sample of 3,614 who identified as non-Hispanic White (n = 2,346, 70.8%), non-Hispanic Black (n = 557, 16.8%), or Hispanic (n = 409, 12.3%). Structural equation modeling was utilized to test hypothesized models.
Results
Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic participants reported higher levels of polyvictimization and trauma-related mental health symptoms (symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression) compared to non-Hispanic Whites, though the effect sizes were small (γ ≤ .07). Polyvictimization fully accounted for the differences in mental health symptoms between non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites, and partially accounted for the differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. The relation between polyvictimization and trauma-related mental health symptoms was higher for low-income youth than for high-income youth.
Conclusions
Disparities in trauma exposure largely accounted for racial/ethnic disparities in trauma-related mental health. Children from low-income family environments appear to be at greater risk of negative mental health outcomes following trauma exposure compared to adolescents from high-income families.
Recently, research has reported that the rates of suicide among Black children between the ages of 5 to 12-years-old are increasing as they are now more likely to commit suicide than White children. Yet, there are very few, if any, frameworks being used by researchers to explain the risks of suicide among Black children. Suicide research has overwhelmingly been focused on White youth thus leaving a critical gap in suicide research. This conceptual paper provides an integrated framework using the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide and Intersectionality theory, as a guide for researchers, clinicians, and practitioners to incorporate culturally appropriate techniques in their work as a way to prevent suicide among Black children. This framework highlights racial discrimination, mental health, socioeconomic status, and sexual/gender minority status to be the most preeminent, yet understudied factors leading to suicide risk among Black children in the United States.
Existing parenting frameworks have suggested that fathers' developmental histories and social experiences are important determinants of their parenting practices. Few studies, however, have examined how the larger racial context is related to the parenting and socialization practices of African American fathers. Using a profile-oriented approach, this investigation examines how fathers' racial identity beliefs (racial centrality and regard) and discrimination experiences are associated with race-related socialization patterns identified by Cooper, Smalls, Neblett, and Banks (2014). Participants were 166 African American fathers (M = 32.20, SD = 8.24) of adolescents (M = 12.60, SD = 2.20). Latent profile analyses identified five distinct racial socialization patterns among fathers: (a) infrequent racial socializers, (b) negative racial socializers, (c) positive racial
This investigation utilized an integrative model of development for ethnic minority children and a process model of engagement to explore whether three dimensions of school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive) mediated relationships between school racial climate, academic performance, and educational aspirations. A total of 139 African American students were recruited from a high school in the southeastern United States. Findings revealed an indirect association between perceptions of racial fairness and academic achievement indicators through behavioral and cognitive engagement. Behavioral and cognitive engagement also mediated relationships between youths’ perceived peer discrimination and academic achievement indicators. No significant indirect associations between teacher discrimination and academic achievement through school engagement dimensions were found. Study limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.
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