Research – Acts of Resistance and Resilience

The Trinity Washington University Research Initiative on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma collaborates with the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health’s Center for Community Resilience (CCR). The CCR’s theoretical framework is grounded in the Building Community Resilience (BCR) Framework (Ellis & Dietz, 2017), which the Research Initiative has also adopted. This framework introduces the concept of the “pair of ACEs,” highlighting that adverse childhood experiences are often intertwined with adverse community experiences. Resilient communities are crucial for supporting individuals facing various challenges. Additionally, CCR’s Truth and Equity statement outlines important context regarding Washington, D.C., in the lead-up to the presidential election.

In the District of Columbia, structural racism describes the enduring scaffolding that upholds and systematically produces negative outcomes for the city’s communities of color. Close to 90% of children living in poverty are Black, and one in 10 Latino residents, lives below the poverty line. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated longstanding inequities by race. For instance, while DC’s Black residents make up 45% of the population, they accounted for more than half of COVID-19 cases and 75% of COVID-19 deaths. Most of the deaths (60%) occurred in Wards 7 and 8, the areas with the city’s highest concentration of poverty, violence, and Black residents—and the lowest vaccination rates.

Latinos account for the majority (51%) of newly food-insecure residents since March 2020. The exclusion of undocumented residents from federally funded cash assistance programs left the city’s immigrant population struggling to cover basic needs such as housing and transportation. DC’s lack of statehood is also a historical contributor to systemic oppression, disempowering the city’s residents from full representation and participation in the nation’s democratic process…

Marginalized communities in Washington, D.C., and across the country are currently experiencing negative impacts due to Executive Orders that perpetuate misleading narratives and demonize specific cultural groups. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities have been targeted. Narratives that dehumanize marginalized groups, including immigrants and LGBTQ+ individuals, have contributed to collective trauma. The “whitewashing” of American history, combined with the elimination of programs supporting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA), as well as the removal of critical research on the effects of racism, genderism, and other forms of discrimination from federal resources such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Census Bureau, has undermined the security and sense of belonging that every individual deserves. Research is a vital component of truth-telling and advocacy.

The BCR framework emphasizes the transition from adversity to resilience. A key strategy for achieving this shift is the development of agency. Psychologist Albert Bandura defined agency as “your very own power, your ability to affect the future.” When community members recognize how policy changes affect their mental and physical health, developing agency encourages them to resist. In this context, the Research Initiative on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma provides curated research as a form of resistance and a demonstration of resilience that can lead to advocacy.

Additionally, self-care is crucial to this resistance. It is essential for community members to understand their experiences and feelings, enabling them to seek support from the Trinity community and other support systems. To cultivate and demonstrate agency and resilience, community members need access to accurate terminology and research findings to challenge false narratives and articulate the long-term impacts of adversity on children and other vulnerable populations, especially during times of uncertainty, fear, and grief. Therefore, it is important to have informed and resilient adults in the community who can serve as supportive buffers.

Article: “Building Community” – Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy

Terminology and Definitions

The following definitions of the terminology listed are only broad definitions given to provide clarity when reviewing the research about the impact of ACEs and Trauma on well-being.

Adverse Childhood Experiences are stressful or traumatic events that occur before turning 18 years old. Prolonged exposure to physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, mental illness in a parent, divorce, neglect, domestic violence, and exposure to racism and community violence are some of the adversities that have been linked to risky health behavior, chronic health conditions, and early death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The question that should be asked is not “What is wrong with this child?” but rather “What happened to this child?”. According to Child Trends (2019), “ACEs is a subset of childhood adversities.” See the website Numberstory.org for the assessment tool and explanation.

Childhood Adversity (Child Trends, 2019) is a broad term that refers to a wide range of circumstances or events that pose a serious threat to a child’s physical or psychological well-being…the effects of childhood adversity can become biologically embedded during sensitive periods of development and lead to lifelong physical and mental health problems. However, adversity does not predestine children to poor outcomes, and most children can recover when they have the right supports-particularly the consistent presence of a warm, sensitive caregiver.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires a medical diagnosis. Some of the most common symptoms of PTSD include recurring memories or nightmares of the event, sleeplessness, loss of interest, feelings of numbness, anger or irritability, or being constantly on guard, but there are many ways PTSD can impact everyday life. Sometimes these symptoms do not surface for months or even years after the event occurred. The symptoms may also come and go. If these problems persist or they are disrupting daily life, the individual should seek the assistance of a medical healthcare provider (National Institute of Mental Health).

Resiliency “Children cannot make themselves resilient – resilience is nurtured through relationships and exposures to experiences and resources that promote it” (Hewel-Garris, N., Davis, M., Szilagi, M. & Kan, K. p.8). Stewards of Children Training: Childhood adversity and parent perceptions of child resilience.

The TEACHERWISE Workbook on Emotional Well-Being: Managing Emotions (2021) states that resilience is not just “bouncing back” to a pre-adversity state. Resilience is also not a program of self-improvement and is not a fixed trait. An important resilience skill is self-compassion, including some patience with ourselves and recognition that many wounds take time to heal.

Resilience is finding a way to get up, continue in the game of life, and learn from what has not worked well. It means trying to live the best life you can amidst the circumstances that you now find yourself in, whether they are of your own doing or foisted upon you unexpectedly. It does not mean a person goes it alone or just passively accepts difficult circumstances. Resilience often means acknowledging when you need help and asking for it from those in your support network. Resilience is not usually best developed in social isolation, so accepting helpful support is often vital to the process (p.71, TeacherWise Workbook).

Toxic stress is the “strong, frequent, or prolonged activation of the body’s stress response systems in the absence of the buffering protection of a supportive, adult relationship” (Shonkoff et al., 2012). It can lead to functional changes in several regions of the brain that are involved in learning and behavior, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex (Johnson, Riis, & Noble, 2016).

Trauma is the severe and prolonged distress response that originates from exposure to adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress. The distress response can manifest physically, mentally, emotionally, and/or behaviorally across an individual’s lifespan. According to Menakem (2017), trauma is not a flaw or a weakness; it is a highly effective tool of safety and survival. Trauma is the body’s protective response to an event or a series of events that is perceived as potentially dangerous. Trauma can “get stuck in the body” until the trauma is addressed. “Trauma always happens in the body”.

Types of Traumas:

There are types of traumas that affect children and adults:

Collective Trauma: A shared experience of helplessness, disorientation, and loss among a group of people. The threatening event gives rise to a shared identity despite the victimized individuals having different personalities and family backgrounds, different coping mechanisms, and capacities for resilience (Dr. Molly Castelloe)
Intergenerational Trauma: histories of victimization; abuse and/or neglect; poverty and growing inequality; male/patriarchal violence – the root cause of most family violence and sexual abuse; colonialism and impact on Indigenous peoples – “settler colonialism” has caused intergenerational traumas.
Racial Trauma: refers to the emotional impact of stress related to racism, racial discrimination, and race-related stressors. Racial trauma can refer to a specific incident of racial discrimination or the ongoing, harmful emotional impact of racial discrimination that builds up over time (National Institute of Mental Health)

Collective, intergenerational trauma and racial trauma refer to the psychological distress passed through generations because of historical events, including colonization, slavery, and other forms of oppression. Dr. Thema Bryant, President of the American Psychological Association (APA), states that many people cope with multiple forms of trauma at the same time.

Vicarious Trauma ▪ The emotional residue of exposure to traumatic stories and experiences of others through work; witnessing fear, pain, and terror that others have experienced; a pre-occupation with horrific stories told to the professional (American Counseling Association, 2016) ▪ Sometimes referred to as “secondary traumatization, secondary stress disorder, or insidious trauma” (ACA, 2016) ▪ Included in the DSM-5 as part of the cluster of “trauma and stressor-related disorders” ▪ Vicarious Trauma is not the same as “burnout.”
Compassion Fatigue ▪ Beyond empathy, it is also known as secondary traumatic stress (STS), a condition characterized by gradually lessening compassion over time. ▪ Can happen quite quickly (as opposed to vicarious trauma or burnout) and is responsive to evidence-based treatment interventions.

Historical contexts, definitions and explanations of Trauma:

Native Hope. (2021). How Trauma Gets Passes Down Through Generations. Retrieved from How Trauma Gets Passed Down Through Generations (nativehope.org)

Direct Traumatic Stressors

Direct traumatic stressors include all direct traumatic impacts of living within a society of structural racism or being on the receiving end of individual racist attacks. A person experiencing a direct traumatic stressor may be heavily policed, or they may face barriers to home ownership due to inequitable policies. Additionally, a person experiencing a direct traumatic stressor may be the victim of individual physical and verbal attacks or may face other microaggressions.

Vicarious Traumatic Stressors

Vicarious traumatic stressors are the indirect traumatic impacts of living with systemic racism and individual racist actions. Vicarious traumatic stressors can have an equally detrimental impact on BIPOC’s mental health as direct traumatic stressors.
For example, viewing videos of brutal police killings of Black people, such as the video associated with the murder of George Floyd, can cause traumatic stress reactions in the people who view them – especially in Black people [12].
Of Latino youth that immigrate to the U.S., two-thirds report experiencing one traumatic event, with the most common traumatic event reported during and post-migration being witnessing a violent event or physical assault [13].
Many Native American children are vicariously traumatized by the high rates of societal homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury experienced in these communities [14].

Examples Of Transmitted Stressors

Transmitted traumatic stressors refer to the traumatic stressors that are transferred from one generation to the next. These stressors can come from historically racist sources or maybe personal traumas passed down through families and communities.
The chattel enslavement of Africans in the U.S. and other countries continues to serve as a source of traumatic stress for Black people today [15]. In fact, this sustained collective trauma makes Black people highly vulnerable to developing mental health disorders [15].
The descendants of Holocaust survivors display an increased vulnerability to developing psychological disturbances in addition to stressors related to Holocaust loss [16]. This vulnerability is in direct relationship to the negative life experience of the previous generation [16].
Historical trauma shared by Native Americans including boarding schools, massacres and forced violent removal from their tribal lands represents a severe communal loss and source of traumatic stress. Native Americans today continue to experience symptoms of depression, substance dependence, diabetes, and unemployment due to the psychological impact of the trauma [17].

Trauma-Informed Care or Practice: A framework for how services are delivered. It is based on knowledge and understanding of how trauma can affect people’s lives. Trauma-informed care means that services are aware and sensitive to a person’s history of trauma and how this might affect their behavior and the services they need. Without this understanding, services can unintentionally re-traumatize their clients. Trauma-informed care should involve all staffing in an organization. All staff members are important to a person’s recovery process and need the skills and sensitivity to provide safety and support for those in the organization and the people being served.

Structural Violence: Refers to a form of violence where one or several social structures or institutions harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. The structures in question include social, economic, and political systems that create disadvantages and risks for certain populations. Examples of violence include racism and colorism, ableism, classism and income inequality, ageism, heteronormativity (including sexism, homophobia, and transphobia), fatphobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia.

Theoretical Framework: The Pair of ACEs

This framework states that childhood adversity or trauma, such as exposure to abuse and neglect, parental substance abuse, and incarceration, are often rooted in community environments lacking equity as measured by concentrated poverty, poor housing conditions, higher risk to violence and victimization, and homelessness. These are adverse childhood experiences occurring in the context of adverse community environments, as defined by the Center for Community Resilience as the “pair of ACEs” (Ellis &Dietz, 2017).

Weathering: A stress-related biological process that leaves identifiable groups of Americans vulnerable to dying or suffering chronic disease and disability long before they are chronologically old…weathering is a human process to any oppressed, marginalized, or exploited group (Geronimus, 2023).

Understanding Adversity and Trauma:

Racial and Ethnic Trauma:

Mental Health of Refugees/Immigrants:

Mental Health/Wellbeing – Immigration, Immigrants, and Refugees

Additional Websites and Links to Research:

How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation (cityline.tv), How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation, November 19, 2020

Racial trauma in the Black community could have generational effects | WITF, Racial Trauma in the Black Community Could Have Generational Effects, July 15, 2020

What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism? | The UpTake, What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism?, June 29, 2020

Firestone, L. (4 June 2020). The Trauma of Racism. Psychology Today, Retrieved from The Trauma of Racism | Psychology Today

Sources

[1] Helms, J. E., Nicolas, G., & Green, C. E. (2010). Racism and ethnoviolence as trauma: Enhancing professional training. Traumatology, 16(4), 53-62. doi:10.1177/1534765610389595

[2] Carter, R. T., Mazzula, S., Victoria, R., Vazquez, R., Hall, S., Smith, S., . . . Williams, B. (2013). Initial development of the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale: Assessing the emotional impact of racism. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 5(1), 1-9. doi:10.1037/a0025911

[3] Carter, R. T., Johnson, V. E., Roberson, K., Mazzula, S. L., Kirkinis, K., & Sant-Barket, S. (2017). Race-based traumatic stress, racial identity statuses, and psychological functioning: An exploratory investigation. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 48(1), 30-37. doi:10.1037/pro0000116

[4] Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (2020). In one month, STOP AAPI HATE Receives almost 1500 incident reports of verbal harassment, shunning and physical assaults. http://www.asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/Press_Release_4_23_20.pdf

[5] Lopez, M. H., Gonzalez-Barrera, A., & Krogstad, J. M. (2020, May 30). Latinos’ experiences with discrimination. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2018/10/25/latinos-and-discrimination/

[6] Quantifying Hate: A Year of Anti-Semitism on Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/quantifying-hate-a-year-of-anti-semitism-on-twitter#methodology

[7] F. (2019, September 22). Table 43. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-43

[8] Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, U.S. Census Data for Social, Economic, and Health Research, 2013-2017 American Community Survey: 5-year estimates (Minneapolis Minnesota Population Center, 2017), available at https://usa.ipums.org/usa/

[9] Runes, C. (2017, May 22). “Invisibility is an unnatural disaster”: Why funding the 2020 Census matters for Pacific Islanders. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/invisibility-unnatural-disaster-why-funding-2020-census-matters-pacific-islanders

[10] Tomaskovic-Devey, D., Zimmer, C., Stainback, K., Robinson, C., Taylor, T., & Mctague, T. (2006). Documenting Desegregation: Segregation in American Workplaces by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex, 1966–2003. American Sociological Review, 71(4), 565-588. doi:10.1177/000312240607100403

[11] Leavitt, R. A., Ertl, A., Sheats, K., Petrosky, E., Ivey-Stephenson, A., & Fowler, K. A. (2018). Suicides Among American Indian/Alaska Natives — National Violent Death Reporting System, 18 States, 2003–2014. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(8), 237-242. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6708a1

[12] Bernstein KT;Ahern J;Tracy M;Boscarino JA;Vlahov D;Galea S;. (n.d.). Television Watching and the Risk of Incident Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Prospective Evaluation. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17220738/

[13] Cleary, S. D., Snead, R., Dietz-Chavez, D., Rivera, I., & Edberg, M. C. (2017). Immigrant Trauma and Mental Health Outcomes Among Latino Youth. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 20(5), 1053-1059. doi:10.1007/s10903-017-0673-6

[14] Bigfoot, D. S., & Schmidt, S. R. (2011). Cultural Enhancement of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for American Indian and Alaska Native Children. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e675942011-001

[15] Office of the Surgeon General (US). (n.d.). Chapter 3 Mental Health Care for African Americans. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44251/

[16] Dashorst, P., Mooren, T. M., Kleber, R. J., De Jong, P. J., & Huntjens, R. J. (2019, August 30). Intergenerational consequences of the Holocaust on offspring mental health: A systematic review of associated factors and mechanisms. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720013/

[17] Designer, N. W. (2014, October 15). Examining the Theory of Historical Trauma Among Native Americans. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/examining-the-theory-of-historical-trauma-among-native-americans/

Resources:

From Civil Rights To Black Lives Matter: The Legacy Of Generational Trauma : NPR, Where We Come From Series: An Immigrant Family Moves Through Generational Trauma (Video), June 2021

How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation (cityline.tv), How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation, November 19, 2020

Racial trauma in the Black community could have generational effects | WITF, Racial Trauma in the Black Community Could Have Generational Effects, July 15, 2020

What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism? | The UpTake, What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism?, June 29, 2020

Firestone, L. (4 June 2020). The Trauma of Racism. Psychology Today, Retrieved from The Trauma of Racism | Psychology Today

What is racial trauma? How Black therapists are helping patients cope (today.com), What Is Racial Trauma? How Black Therapists Are Helping Patients Cope, May 25, 2021.

Generational, Transgenerational, Intergenerational, Historical, Racial, and Collective Trauma

Generational, transgenerational, intergenerational, historical, racial, and collective trauma are terms that have been consistently discussed in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and others.

Topic 1: The Legacy of Trauma: Generational, Transgenerational, Intergenerational, and Historical Trauma

The trauma that Black people have and still endure in America is often referred to as intergenerational trauma or racial trauma. Intergenerational trauma (also referred to as transgenerational trauma and multigenerational trauma) refers to past trauma(s) that are passed down from generation to generation and exist across generations. The transmission of intergenerational trauma is often found in families who have experienced severe trauma (e.g., slavery, discrimination, sexual abuse, incest, concentration camps, etc.). Intergenerational trauma also has potential biological effects and various mental health effects. Research has shown that trauma may be passed down genetically, resulting in health issues in later generations.

For example, living under oppressive circumstances such as slavery and racism can lead to parents creating fear-based survival techniques that they pass on to their children, grandchildren, and future generations. Parents may have had to protect their children by instilling this fear about the world they lived in for family cohesion. However, the child does not understand why their parent acted in this way until later in their life. And in the meantime, their mental health and self-esteem may suffer. While these techniques may have helped people survive in the past, today, they are unhelpful and harmful.

Resources:

How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation (cityline.tv), How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation, November 19, 2020

Racial trauma in the Black community could have generational effects | WITF, Racial Trauma in the Black Community Could Have Generational Effects, July 15, 2020

What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism? | The UpTake, What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism?, June 29, 2020

Firestone, L. (4 June 2020). The Trauma of Racism. Psychology Today, Retrieved from The Trauma of Racism | Psychology Today

Native Hope. (2021). How Trauma Gets Passed Down Through Generations. Retrieved from How Trauma Gets Passed Down Through Generations (nativehope.org)

Topic 2: What is racial trauma?

Racial trauma is a form of race-based stress and the experience of repeated exposure to racism that has caused a person to develop negative mental health and physical health issues. Racial trauma refers to People of Color’s reactions to real and perceived experiences of racial discrimination and dangerous events. Although racial trauma is similar to PTSD, racial trauma is unique because it involves ongoing individual and collective injuries and exposure to trauma on personal and systematic levels.

Some factors that can cause racial trauma include:

Racism
Harassment
Profiling
Stereotyping
Microaggressions
Violence in the media
Discrimination
Intergenerational trauma

The effects of racial trauma are similar to the symptoms of PTSD and include:

Hypervigilance to threat
Flashbacks
Nightmares
Avoidance
Suspiciousness
Headaches
Heart palpitations

Racial Trauma

Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes [1]. Any individual who has experienced an emotionally painful, sudden, and uncontrollable racist encounter is at risk of suffering from a race-based traumatic stress injury [2]. In the U.S., Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) are most vulnerable due to living under a system of white supremacy.

Experiences of race-based discrimination can have detrimental psychological impacts on individuals and their wider communities. In some individuals, prolonged incidents of racism can lead to symptoms like those experienced with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2]. The symptoms can look like depression, anger, recurring thoughts of the event, physical reactions (e.g. headaches, chest pains, insomnia), hypervigilance, low-self-esteem, and mentally distancing from the traumatic events [3]. Some or all of these symptoms may be present in someone with RBTS and symptoms can look different across different cultural groups. It is important to note that unlike PTSD, RBTS is not considered a mental health disorder. RBTS is a mental injury that can occur as the result of living within a racist system or experiencing events of racism [3].

Where Does It Come From?

Racialized trauma can come directly from other people or can be experienced within a wider system. It can come as the result of a direct experience where racism is enacted, vicariously – such as when a person views videos of other people facing racism – and/or transmitted intergenerationally [1]. Trigger Warning: The following includes discussions of abuse, assault, and violence.

Examples Of Individual Racism

Following the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., there were nearly 1,500 reported incidents of anti-Asian racism in just one month. Reports included incidents of physical and verbal attacks as well as reports of anti-Asian discrimination in private businesses [4].
In 2018, 38 percent of Latinx people were verbally attacked for speaking Spanish, were told to “go back to their countries,” called a racial slur, and/or treated unfairly by others [5].
Over the course of one year, Twitter saw 4.2 million anti-Semitic tweets in just the English language alone. These tweets included anti-Semitic stereotypes, promotion of anti-Semitic personality or media, symbols, slurs, or anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial [6].

Examples Of Systemic Racism

Black people make up 12 percent of the country’s population but makeup around 33 percent of the total prison population [7]. This overrepresentation reflects racist arrests and policing as well as racist sentencing practices in the criminal justice system.
Previous and current policies of racial displacement, exclusion, and segregation have left all BIPOC less likely than whites to own their homes regardless of level of education, income, location, marital status, and age [8].
The erasure of Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs) in the “Asian or Pacific Islander” category by U.S. Census data severely restricts access to opportunities in these communities by concealing the unique barriers faced by APIs that are not faced by East or South Asian communities [9].
Historical occupation segregation has made Black people less likely than Whites to hold jobs that offer retirement savings which are prioritized by the U.S. tax code [10]. This helps create a persistent wealth gap between White and Black communities where the median savings of blacks are on average just 21.4 percent of the median savings of whites [10].
Lack of cultural competency in therapy training, financial incentives, and geographical isolation have created barriers in providing appropriate mental health resources in Native American communities. Rates of suicide in these communities is 3.5x higher than racial/ethnic groups with the lowest rates of suicide [11].

Direct Traumatic Stressors

Direct traumatic stressors include all direct traumatic impacts of living within a society of structural racism or being on the receiving end of individual racist attacks. A person experiencing a direct traumatic stressor may be heavily policed, or they may face barriers to home ownership due to inequitable policies. Additionally, a person experiencing a direct traumatic stressor may be the victim of individual physical and verbal attacks or may face other microaggressions.

Vicarious Traumatic Stressors

Vicarious traumatic stressors are the indirect traumatic impacts of living with systemic racism and individual racist actions. Vicarious traumatic stressors can have an equally detrimental impact on BIPOC’s mental health as direct traumatic stressors.
For example, viewing videos of brutal police killings of Black people, such as the video associated with the murder of George Floyd, can cause traumatic stress reactions in the people who view them – especially in Black people [12].
Of Latinx youth that immigrate to the U.S., two-thirds report experiencing one traumatic event with the most common traumatic event reported during and post migration being witnessing a violent event or physical assault [13].
Many Native American children are vicariously traumatized by the high rates of societal homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury experienced in these communities [14].

Examples Of Transmitted Stressors

Transmitted traumatic stressors refer to the traumatic stressors that are transferred from one generation to the next. These stressors can come from historically racist sources or may be personal traumas passed down through families and communities.
The chattel enslavement of Africans in the U.S. and other countries continues to serve as a source of traumatic stress for Black people today [15]. In fact, this sustained collective trauma makes Black people highly vulnerable to developing mental health disorders [15].
The descendants of Holocaust survivors display an increased vulnerability to developing psychological disturbances in addition to stressors related to Holocaust loss [16]. This vulnerability is in direct relationship to the negative life experience of the previous generation [16].
Historical trauma shared by Native Americans, including boarding schools, massacres, and forced violent removal from their tribal lands, represents a severe communal loss and source of traumatic stress. Native Americans today continue to experience symptoms of depression, substance dependence, diabetes, and unemployment due to the psychological impact of the trauma [17].

Sources

[1] Helms, J. E., Nicolas, G., & Green, C. E. (2010). Racism and ethnoviolence as trauma: Enhancing professional training. Traumatology, 16(4), 53-62. doi:10.1177/1534765610389595

[6] Quantifying Hate: A Year of Anti-Semitism on Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/quantifying-hate-a-year-of-anti-semitism-on-twitter#methodology

[7] F. (2019, September 22). Table 43. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-43

[15] Office of the Surgeon General (US). (n.d.). Chapter 3 Mental Health Care for African Americans. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44251/

Resources:

From Civil Rights To Black Lives Matter: The Legacy Of Generational Trauma : NPR, Where We Come From Series: An Immigrant Family Moves Through Generational Trauma (Video), June 2021

How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation (cityline.tv), How Trauma Is Passed Down From Generation To Generation, November 19, 2020

Racial trauma in the Black community could have generational effects | WITF, Racial Trauma in the Black Community Could Have Generational Effects, July 15, 2020

What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism? | The UpTake, What Is Intergenerational Trauma, and What Does It Have to Do with Racism?, June 29, 2020

Firestone, L. (4 June 2020). The Trauma of Racism. Psychology Today, Retrieved from The Trauma of Racism | Psychology Today

Native Hope. (2021). How Trauma Get Passes Down Through Generations. Retrieved from How Trauma Gets Passed Down Through Generations (nativehope.org)

What is racial trauma? How Black therapists are helping patients cope (today.com), What Is Racial Trauma? How Black Therapists Are Helping Patients Cope, May 25, 2021.

Topic 3: Collective Trauma

Collective trauma refers to the impact of a traumatic experience that affects and involves entire groups of people, communities, or societies. Collective trauma is extraordinary in that not only can it bring distress and negative consequences to individuals but in that it can also change the entire fabric of a community (Erikson, 1976). In fact, collective trauma can impact relationships, alter policies and governmental processes, alter the way the society functions, and even change its social norms (Chang, 2017; Hirschberger, 2018; Saul, 2014).

References:

Chang, K. (2017). Living with vulnerability and resiliency: The psychological experience of collective trauma. Acta Psychopathology, 3(53). doi: 10.4172/2469-6676.100125

Erikson, K. (1976). Everything in its path. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.

Hirschberger, G. (2018). Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9 (1441). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01441

Saul, J. (2014). Collective trauma, collective healing: Promoting resilience in the aftermath of disaster. New York, NY: Routledge.

Resources:

Moulite, J. (13 May 2020). Experiencing Trauma Secondhand: You Don’t Have to Know Somebody to Grieve Them – How Black People Can Process Collective Trauma. Retrieved from How Black People Can Process Their Trauma and Grief After Ahmaud Arbery (theroot.com)

Website links to mental health and educational resources for equity and social justice:

Mental Health and Wellbeing:

Trinity Washington University Health and Wellness Center: healthcenter@trinitydc.educ 202 884 9615
Numberstory.org – Self-Directed ACEs assessment for adults
TherapyForBlackGirls.com
TheTrevorProject.org – suicide prevention – LGBTQ+

Educational resources supporting Equity and Social Justice:

The author of this poem, Martin Niemoller was a German Lutheran Pastor who wrote the poem about the silent complicity following the Nazis’ rise to power. This poem can be seen as relevant based on the current political events in the United States

First They Came

By Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me