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Racist Incident–Based Trauma
Abstract
Racist incidents are potentially traumatizing forms of victimization that may lead to increased psychiatric and psychophysiological symptoms in targets. The magnitude of the problem of racist incidents in the United States is difficult to estimate; however, data from several sources permit the inference that the prevalence of racist incidents, particularly among people of color, is high. This article (a) distinguishes traumatic stress from nontraumatic stress and (b) draws parallels between experiences of racist incidents and experiences that are acknowledged to be traumatic, such as rape or domestic violence. Conceptualizing the symptoms of some survivors of racist incidents as trauma responses may help inform treatment when these individuals are clients in psychotherapy.
... According to The International Association of Chiefs of Police Law Enforcement Policy Center (2019), the primary role of police officers when dealing with the public is to treat individuals with courtesy, respect, and dignity; not employ an attitude or use language that might belittle, ridicule, or intimidate individuals; perform their duties equitably in both the enforcement of laws and the delivery of law enforcement services within the community; and strive to maintain public trust by conducting all law enforcement business in an unbiased, fair, and impartial manner. When police disproportionately engage in violence toward certain groups (i.e., Black emerging adults), some members of that group can perceive the actions of police as racism-based and experience negative mental health outcomes (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carll, 2007;Carter, 2007;Carter & Pieterse, 2020;Clark et al., 1999;Polanco-Roman et al., 2016;Utsey et al., 2002;Williams, 2018). Research suggests that an individual's subjective experience can lead to mental health issues if they perceive an event as being racist, even if it cannot be objectively proven (Carll, 2007;Clark et al., 1999). ...
... Exposure to racism-based police violence (RPV) has significant implications for the mental health of Black emerging adults, potentially resulting in trauma-related stress symptoms. Research has shown that individuals who experience or witness police violence can develop symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal, and avoidance behaviors Motley & Baidoo, 2023;Motley et al., 2020Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carll, 2007;Carter & Pieterse, 2020). These trauma-related stress symptoms can be exacerbated when the violence is perceived as racially motivated, as the experience becomes not only a personal trauma but also a reminder of the systemic racism that affects the individual's community (Alang et al., 2017;Clark et al., 1999;Polanco-Roman et al., 2016;Utsey et al., 2002;Williams, 2018). ...
... These trauma-related stress symptoms can be exacerbated when the violence is perceived as racially motivated, as the experience becomes not only a personal trauma but also a reminder of the systemic racism that affects the individual's community (Alang et al., 2017;Clark et al., 1999;Polanco-Roman et al., 2016;Utsey et al., 2002;Williams, 2018). Moreover, these traumatic stress symptoms can contribute to long-term negative outcomes, such as chronic mental health conditions, substance abuse, and difficulty in personal and professional relationships (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carll, 2007;Carter, 2007;Carter & Pieterse, 2020;Clark et al., 1999;Polanco-Roman et al., 2016;Utsey et al., 2002;Williams, 2018). As such, it is crucial to consider the prevalence and profound impact of RPV exposure on the mental health of Black emerging adults when studying this population. ...
This study characterizes the profile of Black emerging adults aged 18-29 generated from sociodemographic characteristics and indicators of police contact and exposure to racism-based police violence (RPV), and the relationship between profiles and traumatic stress symptoms. A purposive sample of 300 Black emerging adults was recruited for this exploratory study. Cluster analysis (CA) was performed to generate profiles of this sample. Two distinct profiles emerged from the CA. Cluster 1 is characterized by participants with low rates of police contacts and direct RPV exposure, whereas Cluster 2 consists of participants with higher rates of police contacts and direct RPV exposure. Regression analysis revealed that being in Cluster 2, as opposed to Cluster 1, was associated with increased scores for depression, avoidance, and intrusion symptoms. Findings provide guidance for mental health intervention strategies to combat the psychological impact of RPV exposure for Black emerging adults.
... Racism is interpersonal, cultural, environmental, and systemic discrimination and aggression against an oppressed racial group by a privileged racial group within a society [3]. Due to the history of racism in the USA, Black people are often inundated with vicarious, perceived, and experienced anti-Black racism (ABR) and have been found to have the highest reported incidences of experiencing racism and discrimination in the USA [4,5]. BIPOC individual and communal experiences of racism can lead to racial trauma or race-based traumatic stress. ...
... BIPOC individual and communal experiences of racism can lead to racial trauma or race-based traumatic stress. Racial trauma describes the psychological injury of members of a racial group due to perceived, vicarious, and experienced racism [4,6,7]. Symptoms of racial trauma can include nightmares, headaches, flashbacks, avoidance, and hypervigilance. ...
... Symptoms of racial trauma can include nightmares, headaches, flashbacks, avoidance, and hypervigilance. Researchers have found that these symptoms can lead to health complications such as increased risk of diabetes and hypertension [4]. Despite research on the harmful effects of racial trauma including the similarities in symptoms to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), racial trauma is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5) and is not recognized as an official mental health diagnosis [8]. ...
Purpose
This article provides mental health professionals with information about the impact of racism and racial trauma on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Mental health professionals are poised to be sources of support and healing for BIPOC that are impacted by racism and racial trauma. However, to best support survivors of racial trauma, mental health professionals must confront the racist roots of their fields and develop their own critical consciousness of racism in their personal and professional lives.
Recent Findings
Racial trauma can have significant impacts on BIPOC, individually and collectively, including individuals experiencing symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. To understand racism and racial trauma, critical consciousness describes the development of a critical understanding of systems, especially the systems that contribute to the marginalization and oppression of people and communities as well as the fight against oppressive systems. Researchers have found that radical healing is a culturally mindful approach to wellness that centers the knowledge and experiences of BIPOC.
Summary
The authors provide recommendations for mental health professionals working with survivors of racial trauma. The recommendations describe how clinicians can use critical consciousness development and radical healing to address the impact of racial trauma on BIPOC mental health.
... Given the links between racism, racial discrimination, and trauma, several scholars (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005a;Danzer, 2012) have argued that experiences of racism should be recognized as traumatic events and that the diagnosis of PTSD could be expanded to include race-based events that "violate one's existing way of making sense of self and the world, and create intense fear and destabilization" (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005a, p. 485). While diagnosis of traumatic stress hinges on events that represent or are perceived as a threat to life (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), Danzer argues that for people of color, racism, and discrimination should be viewed as traumatic as they pose a collective threat to a racial group. ...
... Carter (2007) suggests that not all racebased events result in traumatic reactions and that for a racist or discriminatory experience to produce trauma, it must be perceived as negative, sudden, and uncontrollable. Although racism may be anticipated by people of color, they are powerless to predict, avoid, or control the occurrence of racist events (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005a, 2005b. Using the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale (RBTSSS), Carter et al. (2013) have identified a number of reactions to race-based traumatic stress including anger, depression, hypervigilance, low self-esteem, physical symptoms, avoidance, and intrusion. ...
... These therapist variables are associated with improved client perceptions of therapist competence, stronger levels of the working alliance, and resolution of therapy ruptures (Chang et al., 2021). Relatedly, mental health practitioners have been implicated in the phenomenon of implicit racial bias (Boysen, 2009), those negative attitudes that exist outside of one's conscious awareness and have the potential for misunderstandings, microaggressions, and therapeutic ruptures. As such, we encourage the development of racial awareness as an active and ongoing process for all clinicians and suggest participation in targeted experiences (e.g., bias reduction groups), which could facilitate awareness of implicit bias and ameliorate the potential risk of harm (Collins & Pieterse, 2007;Stevens & Abernethy, 2018). ...
As the experience of racism has been found to be associated with a plethora of adverse mental health outcomes across racial groups, it is imperative for clinicians to consider the role of racism-related stress and racial trauma when working with clients of color. As such, the current article provides a review of racial trauma and presents clinical guidelines for health service psychologists with a focus on intervention and prevention. We identify these essential elements as including facilitative knowledge, facilitative process, and facilitative techniques associated with assisting the healing process and establishing empowerment.
... While the focus of these studies may be driven by research showing a higher prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and other stress-related disorders in African Americans (Roberts et al., 2011), the primarily quantitative nature of the literature limits our understanding of the traumas that are experienced by Black and African American communities. Thus, little is known qualitatively about the intergenerational footprint within families of potentially traumatic exposures that are particularly salient and common in the lives of Black and African American people, such as racial trauma (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;Comas-Díaz & Jacobsen, 2001;Loo et al., 2001). ...
... Carter (2007) proposed a race-based traumatic stress model where he suggests that some racially and ethnically minoritized individuals experience racism or racial discrimination as potentially traumatic experiences. This connection between racism and trauma, also referred to as racial trauma (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Comas-Díaz & Jacobsen, 2001;Loo et al., 2001), centers the emotional pain experienced as the core stressor, asserting that due in part to their pervasive and chronic nature, racist encounters are often dehumanizing and strike the core of the victim's selfhood. It is this core emotional component that suggests racial trauma could also contribute to the presence of intergenerational trauma within Black families (Carter et al., 2020). ...
Objective: Despite growing attention to the intergenerational effects of trauma, including racial trauma, within Black communities, little empirical evidence exists. This qualitative study explored intergenerational trauma and storytelling within Black families in the United States, with two key aims: (1) explore if and how family members talk about their trauma experiences with one another, and (2) explore if and how sharing stories may impact family members’ mental health and well-being. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 adults across eight self-identifying Black families, examining the stories they share. Interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four primary themes were identified: (1) Sharing is Caring …, (2) Family Ties, (3) The Reality of Racism, and (4) Safety in Silence. These themes underscore the direct effects of the traumas on those who experience and talk about them, and the meaning and impact that these traumas and stories carry across generations. Conclusion: Parents who shared stories of their trauma with their adult children described that doing so had a positive impact on their well-being. Adult children endorsed feeling similarly in some instances. However, they also experienced an internal conflict, feeling connected to yet burdened by these stories. Silence and protection also played a significant role.
... It is important to know that culturally attuned assessment is a continual process which proceeds with the recognition that certain experiences, for example, typically not considered under the Criterion A umbrella for PTSD, can still lead to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Brown, 2003;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;. Here, I am referring to identity-based stress and trauma including ethnoracial or sexual orientation or gender microaggressions, racial trauma, outright racial or homophobic or transphobic violence, and various hate crimes (Brown, 2003;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;. ...
... It is important to know that culturally attuned assessment is a continual process which proceeds with the recognition that certain experiences, for example, typically not considered under the Criterion A umbrella for PTSD, can still lead to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Brown, 2003;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;. Here, I am referring to identity-based stress and trauma including ethnoracial or sexual orientation or gender microaggressions, racial trauma, outright racial or homophobic or transphobic violence, and various hate crimes (Brown, 2003;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;. Therefore, culturally attuned assessment likely requires as a starting point fundamental education about the reality and effects of intersectional minority stress . ...
Background: Systemic diversification of psychedelic research is needed, in light of interest in psychedelics for healing among Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color (BIPOC) and queer communities. Doing so also contributes to an inclusive evidence base, ethically meeting the anticipated demand for psychedelic treatments post-approval. Aims: Here, a primer for culturally attuned psychedelic research is presented. This primer covers common psychological and pragmatic barriers to diversity – as part of set and setting – in modern psychedelic research, as well as potential strategies for culturally attuned recruitment, assessment, and retention of diverse participants. Methods: This primer non-exhaustively synthesizes existing literature on barriers and potential strategies for culturally attuned psychedelic research. This primer focuses on classic psychedelics and other drugs with similar consciousness-altering effects, including 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and ketamine. This primer also limits ‘diversity’ to BIPOC and sexual- and gender-diverse populations, primarily in the United States. Results: Psychological and pragmatic barriers include drug and mental health stigma, medical mistrust, history of psychedelic-assisted conversion therapy, income disparities, schedule inflexibilities, and transportation inaccessibility. Culturally attuned recruitment, assessment, and retention strategies include queering and diversifying the study team, debinarizing the therapist dyad, developing culturally attuned flyers, investing in community outreach, using language in a culturally attuned way, improving access through transportation, diversifying the dosing room setup, and using culturally attuned instruments. Conclusions: Psychedelic research groups are encouraged to adapt and enact these recommendations as appropriate in their clinical trials, to improve accessibility to innovative mental health treatments for diverse populations.
... Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) notes examples of traumatic events that meet PTSD Criterion A, it does not include events driven by racial discrimination. That said, scholars suggest discriminatory experiences can be traumatic for individuals from marginalized groups because these negative events are often described as hostile, unexpected, and out of the person's control (Bryant-Davis, 2007, Bryant-Davis & Ocampo 2005, R. T. Carter 2007. In their model for racial trauma, which describes the relationship between racial discrimination and trauma/ PTSD, M. T. Williams and colleagues (2018) posit that historical and societal forms of oppression function to create a vulnerability that is exacerbated with ongoing experiences of racial maltreatment. ...
... The authors elaborate and state that upon experiencing an instance of racial discrimination, which may involve threats to safety, social exclusion, and/or invalidation, an individual may experience typical PTSD symptoms, including intrusions (e.g., upsetting memories, flashbacks, nightmares) related to the event, the avoidance of trauma reminders, worsening cognitions and mood, and increased arousal and hypervigilance. In fact, racial discrimination has been associated with stress responses such as hypervigilance, physiological arousal, and sleep disturbances (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;R. T. Carter, 2007). ...
Traumatic, life-threatening events are experienced commonly among the general U.S. population, yet Black individuals in the United States (i.e., Black Americans) exhibit higher prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more severe symptoms than other populations. Although empirical research has noted a range of symptom patterns that follow traumatic injury, minimal work has examined the role of racial discrimination in relation to PTSD symptom trajectories. The current study assessed racial discrimination and PTSD symptom trajectories at 6 months postinjury across two separate samples of traumatically injured Black Americans (i.e. emergency department (ED)-discharged and hospitalized). Identified PTSD symptom trajectories largely reflect those previously reported (i.e., ED: nonremitting, moderate, remitting, and resilient; hospitalized: nonremitting, delayed, and resilient), although the resilient trajectory was less represented than expected given past research (ED: 55.8%, n = 62; hospitalized: 46.9%, n = 38). Finally, higher racial discrimination was associated with nonremitting, ED: relative risk ratio (RR) = 1.32, hospitalized: RR = 1.23; moderate, ED: RR = 1.18; and delayed, hospitalized: RR = 1.26, PTSD symptom trajectories. Overall, the current findings not only emphasize the inimical effects of racial discrimination but also demonstrate the unique ways in which race-related negative events can impact PTSD symptom levels and recovery across time.
... What emerged in the context of PTSD's origins (and persists today in slightly updated variations) is that the definition of trauma in PTSD criteria leaves many people out (Briere & Scott, 2015). This leaving out ultimately means an inequity in terms of access to resources to help support trauma recovery and healing (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005). ...
... Second, the current study noted the contested terrain regarding how trauma is defined. Specifically, narrow definitions of trauma have created conditions that restrict access to resources (Briere & Scott, 2015;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005), and, in the case of research and assessment, can be imagined to restrict possibilities of capturing diverse voices in understanding experiences of trauma. Attention to who is left in and out by various definitions of trauma is an important consideration in student affairs assessment for inclusive design. ...
Student affairs practitioners are increasingly called upon to engage in their work through the lens of trauma-informed practice. There is simultaneously a need for data that grounds this work in evidence-based strategies specific to the experiences of college student survivors of trauma. Yet, there has been limited discussion in student affairs literature about the impacts of assessment or research of college student trauma on those engaging in the inquiry. The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to investigate the implications of a qualitative exploration of college student trauma for the researcher and contributes to a broadened understanding of the possible impacts for higher education researchers and assessment professionals engaged in understanding college student trauma.
... These growth mindsets (e.g. striving despite combatting adversity) appear ingrained in the Black psyche, and seem to be a strength-based method (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Brooks-Holiday et al., 2020;Burt, 2020). Thus, similar to how a precedent exists in counselling for flow state via Maslow, the concept also appears to share a connection to the lived experiences of Black people (e.g. ...
... To determine how a counsellor could use flow as a TOOLs in this situation, this section will take a more detailed look into the specifics of the vignette. First, the helper must understand microinvalidations such as inappropriate racial jokes present hardships for Black Americans (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Ivey et al., 2017;Ratts et al., 2016Ratts & Pedersen, 2014). The counsellor needs to be aware that when experienced over time, these instances accumulate and present adverse conditions that potentially impact self-efficacy and esteem (Brooks-Holliday et al., 2020;Goggins, 2018). ...
... But some scholars have argued for racism to "count" as Criterion A (e.g., Holmes et al., 2016), citing evidence that many instances of racialized traumas may not meet the current Criterion A threshold but lead to symptoms commonly seen in PTSD (Nadal, 2018). Others have highlighted the unique chronicity and ongoing perpetrations of racism as distinct from single-incident traumas upon which current conceptualizations of PTSD are predicated (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005). Thus, these traditionally Eurocentric conceptualizations are the basis for empirically supported PTSD treatments such as prolonged exposure (Foa & Rothbaum, 2001) and cognitive-processing therapy (Resick et al., 2016), which both involve repeated reference and exposure to singular traumatic event and are typically appropriate only once the trauma survivor has exited the traumatic situation. ...
... Negative physical-health consequences of racism and discrimination have been extensively researched, for example, in the literatures on allostatic load (Duru et al., 2012;Geronimus et al., 2006), health disparities (D. R. Williams, 1999), and social determinants of health (World Health Organization, 2008), among others. Furthermore, rich scholarship exists on race-based stress and trauma that describes the mental-health symptoms that can follow from chronic stress and retraumatization due to racism experienced by people of color (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carlson et al., 2018;R. T. Carter, 2007;M. ...
COVID-19 propelled anti-Asian racism around the world; although empirical research has yet to examine the phenomenology of racial trauma affecting Asian communities. In our mixed-methods study of 215 Asian participants of 15 ethnicities, we examined experiences of racism during COVID and resulting psychological sequelae. Through qualitative content analysis, themes emerged of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral changes resulting from these racialized perpetrations, including internalizing emotions of fear, sadness, and shame; negative alterations in cognitions, such as reduced trust and self-worth; and behavioral isolation, avoidance, and hypervigilance, in addition to positive coping actions of commitment to racial equity initiatives. We engaged in data triangulation with quantitative Mann-Whitney U tests and found that individuals who experienced COVID discrimination had significantly higher racial trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder scores compared with individuals who did not. Our convergent findings provide clinicians with novel ways to assess the ongoing impact of racial trauma and implement appropriate interventions for clients.
... Similarly, Chavez-Dueñas and colleagues (2019) found that racial trauma has increased psychological distress for Latinx immigrant communities because of anti-immigration policies, opposition to assimilation into the American culture, and fear of deportation. Furthermore, racial trauma can lead to psychological concerns such as anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal ideation (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2020;Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Comas-Díaz et al., 2019;French et al., 2020;Hemmings & Evans, 2018). Additionally, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (2020) found suicide rates for minoritized communities have increased. ...
... Specifically, counselor educators have reported a lack of knowledge and limited ability to teach CITs about racial trauma (VanAusdale & Swank, 2020), futher highlighting the need for trauma-informed curricula to be adopted in the counselor profession to best prepare counselors and educators to address the needs of those impacted by racial trauma. In addition, counselor educators' lack of knowledge in trauma-informed care and racial trauma does not help prepare future CITs to address this concern once they have graduated from their respective counselor education programs, consequently leading to racial trauma concerns going unaddressed and deepening the wounds of racial trauma for BIPOC (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Comas-Díaz, 2000;Helms, et al., 2010). ...
... According to the United States Department of Justice (2021), 31.1% of all racially motivated hate crimes were perpetrated against people who identify as Black or African American. Structural violence and daily discrimination continues to be perpetrated against Black people, with negative mental health consequences and barriers to resilience (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Woods-Jaeger et al., 2022) including evidence of prolonged PTSD according to Sibrava et al. (2019). Additionally, Liu et al. (2019) write of the racial acculturation many people of color undergo as part of their socialization to American life. ...
For Black people of the African diaspora, who have survived generational oppression including enslavement, and exist in persistently hostile environments in which anti-Black racism is structural and interpersonal, an expansive view of posttraumatic growth (PTG) is required to promote personal and collective healing. Using the intergenerational healing and well-being framework, the authors examine historical and contemporary examples of personal and collective healing among Black people to reimagine pathways to PTG. Implications for helping professions when rethinking PTG in the context of systemic anti-Black racism are presented.
... Expanding on these models, scholars suggest that for some individuals, experiences of racism may function as a traumatic stressor (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;Comas-Díaz et al., 2019). ...
Objective: Studies demonstrating associations between experiences of racism and traumatic stress symptoms have predominantly been conducted in adults, due in large part to the lack of available tools for assessing racism-based traumatic stress symptoms (RBTSS) in youth. The current study sought to address this gap by developing and validating the first measure of RBTSS for ethnoracially minoritized adolescents.Method: The Youth Racism-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale (YRaBTSSS) was developed by drawing on relevant literature. Following iterative refinement based on feedback obtained via focus groups with adolescents, it was tested in two U.S. samples of 12-17-year-old ethnoracially minoritized adolescents (Study 1: n = 401, 50.6% female; Study 2: n = 651; 48.08% female) recruited through CloudResearch. Participants completed a demographic survey, the YRaBTSSS, and measures of trauma, racial discrimination, and mental health.Results: An exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 indicated that the YRaBTSSS is comprised of a single factor representing RBTSS. The final RBTSS scale had excellent internal consistency (α=0.98) and significant factor loadings (0.72-0.87). The factor structure was replicated in Study 2. The YRaBTSSS demonstrated convergent validity through significant associations with related measures of PTSD symptoms (p < .001) and racial stress (p < .001). Finally, RBTSS were significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety (p < .01), depression (p < .01), and conduct problems (p < .05).Conclusions: Findings show preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the YRaBTSS. This measure presents new opportunities to investigate the effects of racism on ethnoracially minoritized youth from a traumatic stress perspective.
... It is pertinent to acknowledge the significance of traumainformed care, especially considering racism as a form of trauma that necessitates sensitive and specialized therapeutic approaches (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007). Practitioners must incorporate trauma-informed care and culturally sensitive therapeutic approaches when working with Black African immigrant adults with racism-based experiences. ...
Racism-based experiences among Black African immigrants in the United States are a growing concern due to the prevalence of these events and risk for negative health (mental, behavioral, and physical) outcomes. This integrative review appraised published studies (2012–2023) addressing the relationship between racism-based experiences and adverse health for Black African immigrants. Articles were identified using structured search terms in several databases (APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science), Google Scholar, and citation mining. A total of fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies found a significant positive association between racism-based experiences and adverse mental (n=9), behavioral (n=3), and physical (n=2) health outcomes. Racism-based experiences appear to have mental, behavioral, and physical health consequences for Black African immigrant adults. Given the growing population of Black African immigrants in the United States, more work is needed to elucidate the relationship between racism-based experiences and negative health outcomes.
... George Floyd's death, like other high-profile deaths of Black people at the hands of police, was video recorded and shared extensively via Television and social media outlets, causing strong public response -tens of thousands of demonstrations and protests across the United States from May 26 to August 22, 2020(ACLED, 2020. When police engage in gratuitous acts of violence toward Black individuals, some Black individuals can perceive the violence perpetrated by police as an act of racism-based police violence (Bryant- Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carll, 2007;Carter, 2007;Carter & Sant-Barket, 2015;Motley, Byansi, Siddiqi, Bills, & Salas-Wright, 2022;Polanco-Roman, Danies, & Anglin, 2016;Utsey, Chae, Brown, & Kelly, 2002). ...
A growing body of evidence makes plain that exposure to perceived racism-based events, particularly for Black emerging adults aged 18-29, represents a major public health concern in the United States given its widespread prevalence and documented association with adverse health outcomes. However, research on the prevalence and correlates of exposure to perceived racism-based police violence (RPV) for Black emerging adults is scant. The current study examines the prevalence and correlates of RPV exposure among a sample of 300 Black emerging adult college students, utilizing computer-assisted surveys. Univariate, bivariate, and multiple linear regression analyzes were conducted. We found moderately low rates for direct RPV exposure (M ean = 5.85) and moderately high rates (M ean = 10.4) for indirect exposure. Being younger and having incomes greater than $10,000 were significant predictors of direct RPV exposure, whereas being female and older were significant predictors of indirect RPV exposure. Our findings provide implications for future research and underscore the need for social work clinicians to include the RPV scales during their assessments for traumatic experiences.
... Experiences of psychological or emotional abuse, childhood neglect, sexual harassment, and other experiences not contained in Criterion A are consistently considered to be traumagenic among professionals across the literature (Clemmons et al., 2007;Herman, 1992;van der Kolk, 2003). In addition, there is an increasing call to formally recognize racism and ethnoviolence as traumatic stressors (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007) and to incorporate this conceptualization into teaching and professional training (Helms et al., 2012). Given the wellestablished cumulative effects of enduring discrimination and other significant stressors, it is important to attend to how intersectionality (i.e., having various marginalized identities that overlap and result in a unique experience of oppression) contributes to the experience and impact of trauma (Quiros & Berger, 2015). ...
Many college and university students live with the effects of trauma, and more research is needed around trauma-informed practices in higher education. It is important that this research represents the needs and interests of students and that it be conducted in a way that is appropriate and safe for trauma survivors. We describe the process of forming a vertically integrated, interdisciplinary Participatory Action Research (PAR) team of students and faculty dedicated to creating a trauma-informed learning environment on a university campus and argue that PAR and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) practices provide important and complementary frameworks for inclusive, just, and community-responsive research. We describe how this research team embodied core PAR values of collaboration, incorporation of local knowledge, eclecticism and diversity, case orientation, emergent process, and linking scientific understanding to social action, along with the TIC commitments of trauma awareness, safety, choice and empowerment, and strengths-based orientation. We describe lessons learned by the team and provide recommendations for researchers who seek to incorporate both PAR and TIC principles into their work on trauma and education. Central lessons learned from this process highlighted the importance of 1) establishing and maintaining psychological safety, 2) speaking openly about trauma, and 3) privileging responsiveness to the difficulty of working with trauma while living through ongoing global stressors. Specific recommendations include 1) lead with values, 2) acknowledge and attend to context, 3) recognize that defining trauma is controversial, 4) model courageous conversations, 5) emphasize responsiveness and care, and 6) teach strategies for managing painful emotions.
... physical trauma). They note that additional work is needed to better highlight racial incidents as trauma as opposed to mere stressors (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005). Some have sought to broaden the definition of trauma as a "deeper psychological harm arising from a wide array of events and experiences that interact with development over time and exist in a cultural context" (Danzer et al., 2016;Graves et al., 2010, p. 352). ...
Since its launch in a 1984 Special Issue of Child Development, significant contributions and insights have followed that have expanded our understanding of psychopathology and normal human growth and development. Despite these efforts, there are persistent and under-analyzed skewed patterns of vulnerability across and within groups. The persistence of a motivated forgetfulness to acknowledge citizens’ uneven access to resources and supports, or as stated elsewhere, “inequality presence denial,” is, at minimum, a policy, social and health practice problem. This article will examine some of these issues from the standpoint of a universal human vulnerability perspective. It also investigates sources of resistance to acknowledging and responding to the scholarship production problem of uneven representations of basic human development research versus psychopathology preoccupations by race. Collectively, findings suggest interesting “patchwork” patterns of particular cultural repertoires as ordinary social and scholarly traditions.
... Although the Diagnostic Features section of the PTSD entry leaves room for prolonged trauma (e.g., abuse over time), qualifying events (i.e., Criterion A) must still threaten bodily integrity in some fashion, which everyday discrimination events typically do not. This definition of Criterion A has been consistently debated (e.g., Brewin et al., 2009;McDonald et al., 2014;Weathers and Keane, 2007), with diversity researchers calling for it to be expanded to recognize minority stressors as a form of trauma (Allwood et al., 2022;Barr et al., 2021;Bryant-Davis and Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007). Yet, our study has demonstrated that PTSD symptoms, specifically post-traumatic cognitions, account for the relationship between everyday discrimination events and SI. ...
... Unter »race-based trauma« werden emotionale, kognitive und physiologische Stressreaktionen auf Diskriminierungserfahrungen verstanden, die physischen oder psychischen Schmerz auslösen (MontegreHemmings, 2016, S. 5 f.). Doch die existierenden diagnostischen Kriterien für die F43-Störungen erschweren es im klinischen Alltag, Rassismus als einen auslösenden Faktor (als »race-based traumatic stress«) für diese Störungen zu kodieren(Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;Montegre Hemmings, 2016;Nadal, 2018). Vermutlich sind es nicht nur diagnostische Schwierigkeiten und die Unkenntnis des Forschungsstands zu den psychischen Folgen von Rassismus, die dazu führen, dass von Rassismus Betroffene auch im Kontext von Psychotherapie und Beratung rassistische Mikroaggressionen erfahren. ...
Alltagsrassistische Erfahrungen, die konzeptionell auch als rassistische Mikroaggressionen gefasst werden, prägen die Lebensrealität von rassifizierten Menschen in Deutschland und können für die Betroffenen massive Beeinträchtigungen ihrer psychischen Gesundheit zur Folge haben, die einer psychotherapeutischen Behandlung bedürfen. Doch rassistische Mikroaggressionen, die auch im Kontext von Psychotherapie und Beratung stattfinden, verhindern eine adäquate Behandlung. Der Beitrag beleuchtet zunächst das Vorkommen von Rassismus in Deutschland, auch in seinen subtilen, alltäglichen Formen und im Kontext von Psychotherapie. Im Anschluss werden Bedingungen und Notwendigkeiten auf der Ebene von Fachgesellschaften, in der Aus- und Weiterbildung von Psychotherapeut:innen und Berater:innen, in der (Psychotherapie-)Forschung und für das psychotherapeutische bzw. beraterische Vorgehen formuliert, die eine rassismussensible und rassismuskritische Psychotherapie und Beratung ermöglichen sollen.
Experiences of everyday racism, conceptualized also as racial microaggressions, are shaping the reality of racialized persons in Germany and can have severe negative impacts on their mental health, which require psychotherapeutic treatment. However, racial microaggressions, even occurring in the context of psychotherapy and counseling, impede an adequate treatment. The paper first considers the occurrence of racism in Germany, also in its subtle, everyday manifestations and in the context of psychotherapy. Subsequently the conditions and requirements (on the level of expert associations, in the training of psychotherapists and counselors, in (psychotherapeutic) research and for psychotherapeutic approaches) are specified, which shall enable anti-racist and racial sensitive psychotherapy and counseling.
... The relationship between discrimination and PTSS Clark, 2000). Some scholars (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005) have drawn parallels between racist attacks and other events acknowledged as traumatic such as rape and domestic violence. Instances of non-Criterion A discrimination are often more indirect and subtle; yet, these forms of discrimination may increase one's vulnerability to PTSS by serving as a stressor that depletes psychological resources, in line with the weathering hypothesis (Carter, 2007;Geronimus, 1992), or exacerbate existing PTSD, perhaps by perpetuating trauma-related cognitions. ...
Racial discrimination is an unfortunately common experience for Black Americans with detrimental physical and mental health consequences. Prior research has established an association between discrimination and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS); yet, trauma-related cognitions have not been studied. The majority of the existing empirical work in this area has not examined specific forms of discrimination experiences, despite potential key differences in these adversities. Relatedly, some forms of discrimination constitute “traumatic” events as defined by Criterion A for PTSD in the DSM-5 while others do not, and these distinctions have also been overlooked. Thus, the present study aimed to (a) examine discrimination, including specific types, in relation to PTSS and posttraumatic cognitions and (b) investigate whether Criterion A and non-Criterion A discrimination experiences were tied to PTSS and trauma-related thoughts. Participants were 172 undergraduate students who identified as Black or African American ( M age = 25.11, SD = 8.25, range = 18–56; 84.9% female). Results indicated that while cumulative trauma was unrelated to PTSS, discrimination experiences were linked with higher PTSS and negative posttraumatic cognitions. Specifically, avoidance discrimination experiences were associated with both outcomes. Criterion A discrimination events were not tied to PTSS. These findings support previous research showing a link between racial discrimination and trauma-related outcomes. In addition, the results suggest that avoidance discrimination, while not classified as “traumatic,” may have an important contribution to PTSS and posttraumatic cognitions among Black individuals. The study underscores the need to address racial discrimination experiences, including microaggressions, within a traumatic stress context.
... In addition, Criterion A events that cause severe clinically significant distress but do not result in a person meeting other PTSD diagnostic criteria also would require a diagnosis of adjustment disorder or other specified trauma-and stressor-related disorder. A detailed discussion of the possible need for a unique diagnosis for racism-related stressors as others have suggested (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007;Holmes et al., 2016;Spanierman & Poteat, 2005), is beyond the scope of this paper, but it is a relevant and very important question to consider. ...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Criterion A, also known as the “stressor criterion,” has been a major source of debate ever since PTSD was added to the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders ( DSM ) in 1980. Since then, the traumatic stress field has held an ongoing debate about how to best define Criterion A and the events that it covers. Because of the COVID‐19 pandemic and recent race‐based incidents, the Criterion A debate has been reinvigorated. In this paper, we review briefly the history of Criterion A and changes in its language across different editions of the DSM . We then describe the four main positions held by scholars involved in the Criterion A debate and carefully examine the support for those positions. We conclude by offering recommendations for moving forward.
... Psychological research advanced the notion of psychological distress as a response to racism, as outlined in the biopsychosocial model of perceived racism (Clark et al., 1999) and the model of racism-related stress and well-being (Harrell, 2000). However, early theories of traumatic stress did not articulate Bryant-Davis and Ocampo (2005) perspective on how traumatic stress infringes on one's sense of self. Their theoretical framework of racist incident-based trauma outlined racist incidents as facilitators of PTSD symptoms, while accounting for the dehumanizing quality of racist incidents lacking from existing definitions of trauma. ...
... When police act as a mechanism to distribute use-of-force disproportionately to certain ethnic minority groups (e.g., Black adults), some members of that group can perceive the force used by police as an act of racism (Bryant- Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carll, 2007;Carter & Pieterse, 2020;Polanco-Roman et al., 2016;Utsey et al., 2002;Williams, 2018). Perceived racism-based police violence (RPV) refers to exposure to actual or threatened violence (e.g., physical, psychological, and verbal assaults) perpetrated by law enforcement officer(s) that is perceived as an act of racism by an individual(s) who is directly (victim or witnessing in person) or indirectly (seen in media) exposed to the event (Carter, 2007;Clark et al., 1999;Motley, Joe, et al., 2022;Williams, 2018 Research makes clear that the determining factor for whether an event is traumatic or not is based on the subjective experience of the individual (Allen, 1995;Carll, 2007;Giller, 1999). ...
Racism is a public health concern for Black adults in the United States given its prevalence and association with adverse health outcomes for this population. The frequency of high-profile cases involving police use of gratuitous violence against Black adults has raised concerns regarding racially discriminatory law enforcement practices. In this article, racism is defined and a discussion is offered on its impact on the health and well-being of Black adults in the United States; the intersection of racism and policing; contemporary racialized policing practices; emerging evidence on prevalence rates for exposure (direct and indirect) to perceived racism-based police violence and associated mental and behavioral health outcomes; and police accountability through executive, legislative, legal, and other remedies.
... Racial stress manifests as anxiety and depression and these mental health challenges reduce a person's psychological resources for coping with stress (Perry et al., 2013;Soto et al., 2011). Indeed, racial stress can be so severe and pervasive that some scholars coined the term "racial trauma" to capture its extreme version and are advocating that this concept be accepted as a formal, non-pathological mental health assessment category (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005;Carter, 2007). Academics have demonstrated that persons experiencing racial trauma, like those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), report intrusive mental health symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, and avoidance, as well as somatic reactions like headaches and heart palpitations (Comas-Dias et al., 2019). ...
Significant socio‐economic, health, and mental health disparities due to highly entrenched and systemic anti‐Black racism in Canadian institutions, policies, and practices are now well documented in research and policy reports. Yet, few in‐depth studies have addressed the mental health impacts of anti‐Black racism on Canadian populations. This article is rooted in a community‐based, qualitative research project with young first and second‐generation Black Caribbean‐Canadian mothers and is informed by Black Feminist epistemologies and intersectional theories and methodologies. Our research demonstrates how participants’ childhood experiences with xenophobic and racist immigration policies and educational, child welfare, and childcare systems caused their future mental health challenges as young Black mothers, and how these struggles were exacerbated by their encounters with the racist, ageist, xenophobic medical, social, and mental health services they had to access as young mothers. Based on these findings, we recommend enhancements to current social policies to minimize the differential mental health impacts on young Black Canadian mothers.
... Insidious trauma encompasses trauma caused by systemic inequalities and is used by researchers in critical trauma studies. Researchers have been aiming to understand the psychological consequences of racism in recent work [16,17,20,21,27,36]. This definition captures experiences in the student population that many students endure and, importantly, captures traumas that schools and teachers within the system cause. ...
Background
Over the last decade, the prevalence of childhood and adolescent trauma has continued to gain public notice, forcing educational systems to explore the impact of these traumas on students, teachers, and schools. Some have implemented trauma-informed practices that are purported to be effective for supporting students in classrooms. Researchers have explored the possibility of its adverse effect on teachers as secondary traumatic stress. This study aimed to explore Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) in classroom teachers in one small urban school district. STS is said to capture how professionals working closely with traumatized populations are impacted by witnessing their clients' experiences. This phenomenon has adversely affected attrition in other helping professions yet is only recently the focus of educational research.
Methods
The author administered an attitudinal survey to measure levels of STS in one small, urban school district in the U.S. The population sample in this study mirrored that of the district's population and that of national demographics of teachers in the U.S. Descriptive statistics were used to run regression analysis against the STS data.
Results
The findings showed that most teachers experience STS levels within the normal range. White, working-class elementary school teachers experienced higher levels of STS than their K-12 classroom teacher peers.
Implications
The results support a need to continue research on the impact of STS on teachers. Further investigations could inform teacher preparation programs and professional development to identify practices that can help mitigate STS in teachers.
Similar to their monoracial counterparts, Black–White biracial individuals experience negative psychological and social responses to discrimination and racial stigma, including experiencing fears of future discrimination (anticipated discrimination). Extending minority stress theory (MST) to the stigma-related experiences of Christians, a unique subgroup of the biracial population, this study assessed responses to future expectations of multiracial discrimination (FEMD; discrimination based upon biracial status) among a community sample of 199 Black–White biracial Christians. We hypothesized that various religious/spiritual experiences might moderate the association between FEMD and distress. Several moderation analyses were conducted evaluating the role of God-centered self-esteem, communion with God, and church support in moderating the association between FEMD and depression, anxiety, and stress. Church support moderated the association between FEMD and depression and stress in an unexpected direction. As participants’ FEMD increased, they reported more depression and stress symptoms, with more depressive and stress symptoms endorsed at medium and high levels of church support but not at low levels of church support. Furthermore, despite the lack of a moderating role in the association between FEMD and distress variables, communion with God demonstrated a negative association (a small effect) with depression, and God-centered self-esteem showed a negative association with depression (a medium effect) and anxiety (a small effect). Clinical implications and directions for future research are presented.
In the context of the legacy of deficit‐focused research and application of theoretical models in research on minoritized groups that are underrepresented in the literature, we explored the strengths‐based literature among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people of color to develop a more inclusive and relevant understanding of how posttraumatic growth (PTG) occurs in this population. Our intersectional PTG model is tailored to the experiences of LGBTQ+ people of color that builds upon previous models of PTG, intersectionality theory, and empirical findings of trauma and PTG among LGBTQ+ people of color. Our intersectional PTG model incorporates the unique intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural factors that are unique to this population and contribute to PTG. We challenge the limited scope of Criterion A traumatic events and emphasize empirical findings that support that LGBTQ+ people of color often experience posttraumatic stress after oppression and discrimination. Our model also recognizes the impact of intersecting risk factors, such as gendered racism, that may occur on various levels. Our model acknowledges that LGBTQ+ people of color have often demonstrated PTG in the face of adversity. Intrapersonal factors such as cognitive flexibility, interpersonal factors such as social support, and institutional and cultural factors such as identity‐related activism are identified as key contributors to resilience. We discuss practice implications, highlighting that clinicians should recognize limitations of traditional trauma frameworks and adopt culturally sensitive approaches when working with LGBTQ+ people of color. Overall, our model provides a foundation for strengths‐based interventions and research, emphasizing resiliency and potential for PTG in this population.
Black babies and their mothers are dying at disproportionately high rates. Also, Black women are experiencing higher rates of racial discrimination than other racial-ethnic groups are facing in the United States. An intervention promoting the health of Black women and their unborn babies requires addressing the disproportionate level of racial stress that Black women experience. In this article, the creation of such a program is discussed. To consider individual, community, and systemic factors, three theoretical models were utilized: (a) Race-based traumatic stress injury, (b) stress-health model, and (c) racial identity model. This intervention was co-developed with community stakeholders by using community-based participatory research principles. This process resulted in the development of the Afya Black Women Wellness program, a multidimensional and strength-based intervention grounded in the experiences of Black women. Afya focuses on promoting holistic health through psychoeducation, skills building, and social support. The program is constructed to be implemented twice-a-week for 12 weeks. This will allow pregnant Black women to receive the maximum benefit from the program, improving the quality of life for themselves and their unborn children. Ameliorating health disparities in Black maternal health requires addressing the disproportionate amount of racial stress that Black women experience. Afya is a model intervention that provides practical strategies for addressing racial health inequities in Black maternal health. It does so by promoting the health of Black women at the individual and community levels.
The chapter reflects on the tension that the author, Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, felt when other scholars identified her too closely with her study participants, who like her are Black South Africans. Their shared background seemed to taint or decrease her scholarly credibility, she writes. While this perspective of being a young African woman studying other young African women gives her some insider status, it also shapes how other academics see her, how study participants see her, and how she has come to see herself. Mnisi Weeks is a scholar of gender, Indigenous rights, and constitutionalism in South Africa, as well as race in the United States. However, her marginalized identity in the law sapped her authority in the centers of patriarchal power where the law resides – both in the communities she has studied and in the academy “whose default representative is a white, middle-aged, European and/or American male locked in a single discipline.”
The current study examined how interpersonal racial discrimination experiences operate together with other forms of interpersonal violence to contribute to mental health symptoms among justice-involved adolescents of color. Participants were 118 justice-involved adolescents of color aged 14 to 17 ( M = 15.77, SD = 1.08; 52.5% male; 77.1% Black/African American) and their mothers. At baseline, adolescents reported on experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination, harsh parenting, teen dating violence, and exposure to interparental physical intimate partner violence. At baseline and the 3-month follow-up assessment, adolescents reported on trauma symptoms, and adolescents and their mothers reported on the adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Multivariate multilevel modeling results indicated that interpersonal racial discrimination experiences contributed additively to adolescent mental health symptoms at both the baseline and 3-month follow-up assessments, after accounting for exposure to other forms of interpersonal violence. The current findings highlight the importance of considering adolescents’ experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination, together with other forms of interpersonal violence, in work focused on understanding the mental health symptoms of justice-involved adolescents of color.
Die negativen Auswirkungen von Rassismus auf die psychische Gesundheit der Betroffenen sind mittlerweile evident. Da viele der Symptome rassismusbedingter Beschwerdebilder Übereinstimmungen mit der Symptomatik der PTSD aufweisen und gleichzeitig eine Spezifität bezüglich der Auslöser vorliegt, wird derzeit von Expert*innen diskutiert, wie diese diagnostisch erfasst und eingeordnet werden können. Neben der Darstellung dieser Überlegungen stellt der Beitrag einen kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutischen Ansatz zur Behandlung rassismusbedingter Stress- und Traumareaktionen, das „Healing Racial Trauma protocol“ dar, der orientiert an der Behandlung anderer Traumafolgestörungen, die spezifische Charakteristik von Rassismus als Auslöser berücksichtigt.
Throughout time, ethnoracial groups have endured a range of traumatic experiences as historically marginalized members of the United States. The consequences of these experiences have been referred to as historical trauma (HT): a collective trauma, inflicted on a group of people who share a specific identity, that has psychological, physical, and social impacts on succeeding generations. In this review, we examine the literature on HT in relation to US ethnoracial groups by defining HT, providing a background for its development, and describing critiques of the concept. We then review the literature on HT in relation to Indigenous Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. For each group, we address the nature of HT, the transmission of HT and its impacts, and healing strategies. We conclude with a summary of the benefits, limitations, and complexities of HT research as well as recommendations for future work in this area.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Volume 20 is May 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The year 2020 was a challenging and traumatic year for Americans, especially Black Americans. Many Black people quickly succumbed to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19). This paper describes systemic trauma as a lens to conceptualize the effects of COVID‐19, racial stress and trauma, and grief. A recount of the events during the year 2020 is reviewed. Racism towards Black people was at an all‐time high. Complicated and collective grief was ever‐present. As a by‐product of COVID‐19, economic and health disparities resurfaced to further complicate Black people's well‐being. Systemic trauma is described as a comprehensive and inclusive framework that captures the intensity and depth of the trauma Black Americans experienced. We argue that culturally appropriate interventions are needed to help Black people continue to heal from the distress of 2020. Race‐informed trauma treatment is a culturally appropriate intervention that facilitates healing, improves the quality of life, and fosters posttraumatic growth for Black Americans. We offer race‐informed treatment as a theoretical orientation that can facilitate healing and posttraumatic growth for Black people.
Youth of color continue to experience challenges in having, accessing, and utilizing quality mental health services, especially because of inequitable physical and mental health outcomes related to COVID-19. Although several strategies may be waged to improve therapeutic uptake and quality of services, recent research has shown that both parents and clinicians can benefit from advanced socialization competency that decreases their stress in delivering racially focused content. In turn, more positive mental health outcomes for youth of color are produced. Thus, two strategies are proposed herewith to improve the outcomes of youth, namely: (1) reinforcing culturally specific strategies likely undertaken by families (e.g., racial socialization), and (2) improving clinical training to better equip clinicians with racial socialization competency. We describe how racial socialization generally mitigates the effects of racism-related stressors on youths’ mental health. Further, we explain the importance of dismantling structural drivers of racial inequities by engaging mental health trainees to better assess and address racially specific psychological and therapeutic concerns. Recommendations are made at the training, practitioner, and organizational level and specifically focus on racial socialization competence alongside cultural humility.
Research suggests when confronted with hardship, Black women in the United States seek help less than other. This finding may be explained by the cultural stereotype of the Strong Black Woman (SBW). SBW consists of three factors: Mask of Strength, Self-Reliance/Strength, and Caretaking. The current study examined the connection between self-endorsement of SBW and help-seeking behavior and intention, following a traumatic event for Black college women. The SBW full scale was not significantly related to actual help-seeking or intention to seek help. However, post-hoc analyses indicated the three SBW subscales had both positive and negative effects. Greater endorsement of the Caretaking and Self-Reliance subscales positively predicted actual help-seeking and formal actual help-seeking, respectively. However, greater endorsement of the Mask of Strength subscale predicted less help-seeking and fewer intentions to seek help. The findings indicated a more nuanced approach may be needed when studying SBW or working in clinical settings. It may be helpful to bolster aspects of the stereotype, such as the desire to be a good caretaker, while redefining other aspects, such as emotional invulnerability.
Children’s lives today are much different than they have been in the past (Beck 2019; Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs 2020). Their composition, lifestyle, and experiences are markedly different from those of their parents, and certainly much different from people only two or three generations ago. To assume that their needs and desires are the same as they were even a decade or two ago is to make a faulty assumption about reality.
Exposure to potentially traumatic events and posttraumatic stress are known risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB). Research suggests that sexual minorities are disproportionately exposed to traumatic events and experience greater STB than their heterosexual peers, although few studies have explored connections between these parallel disparities. Further, existing literature may implicate complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) as a potential mechanism in the trauma-suicide connection among sexual minorities. This study uses a sample from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC-III; n = 1351) to test structural equation models for associations between trauma exposure, heterosexist discrimination, and CPTSD with suicide attempt status. We found CPTSD mediated associations between exposure to traumatic events and presence of a lifetime suicide attempt among sexual minority male and female samples. Discrimination demonstrated a synergistic effect on the association between trauma exposure and CPTSD, but, among males, CPTSD did not fully explain associations between discrimination and suicide attempts. Our findings suggest that CPTSD should be considered an important mechanism in the trauma-suicide connection for sexual minorities and may be a potentially important target for suicide prevention and that interventions should address the influence of discrimination on traumatic stress in this high-risk population.
Historically, prevention in psychology has never been outright objectionable for mental health professionals. However, despite its acceptance, not enough practitioners engage in prevention and wellness promotion in their daily activities. The Oxford Handbook of Prevention in Counseling Psychology offers the foundational knowledge necessary to engage in successful prevention and wellness promotion with clients across the lifespan. Written from a counseling psychology perspective, this book presents an approach to prevention that emphasizes strengths of individuals and communities, integrates multicultural and social justice perspectives, and includes best practices in the prevention of a variety of psychological problems in particular populations. Assembling articles into four comprehensive sections, this book provides expert coverage on the following: fundamental aspects of prevention research and practice (i.e. the history of prevention, best practice guidelines, ethics, and evaluation); relevant topics such as bullying, substance abuse, suicide, school dropout, disordered eating, and intimate partner violence; the promotion of wellness and adaptation in specific populations and environments, providing findings on increasing college retention rates, fostering healthy identity development, promoting wellness in returning veterans, and eliminating heterosexism and racism; and the future of prevention, training, the intersection of critical psychology and prevention, and the importance of advocacy.
In contrast with studies examining the incarceration experience in civil prisons, there is a lack of literature and theory focusing on the military prison incarceration experience. The present retrospective qualitative study explored the experience of 27 Ethiopian-Israelis, an overrepresented population in Israeli military prison, incarcerated during their military service due to desertion offenses. Two main themes developed from the interviews: (a) the military prison as a tool to achieve personal goals and (b) Self-perception as victims of the system. Findings suggest that military prison incarceration may be a different experience to that of civilian incarceration, at times lacking the negative psychological described in literature on civil incarceration. On a theoretical level, results suggest that the incarceration experience may not be universal but, rather, dependent on the social and cultural context and meaning of the incarceration for the individual involved.
The authors examined the nature and correlates of ethnic harassment experiences in 4 predominantly Hispanic samples of working men and women (N = 575) using a newly developed scale. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 2-factor structure for the Ethnic Harassment Experiences scale (i.e., verbal ethnic harassment and exclusion due to ethnicity). Most experiences of ethnic harassment in the workplace during the previous 24 months included verbal ethnic harassment (i.e., ethnic slurs, derogatory ethnic comments, or ethnic jokes). It was also found that participants who experienced verbal ethnic harassment and exclusion reported negative correlates that could not be attributed to affective disposition. For some correlates, those who experienced low levels of verbal harassment and high levels of exclusion were more negatively affected than others, perhaps as a result of the attributional ambiguity of the situation.
Although many researchers have suggested that racial discrimination has a negative impact on Black mental health, there are few empirical investigations of that possibility. The authors examined the relative contributions of racial discrimination, status variables, and ordinary stressors to symptoms among 520 Black adults. Results revealed that racial discrimination contributed significantly to symptoms and accounted for 15% of the variance in total symptoms.
Subcultural differences of 69 women and 122 men (M age = 20 years old) were examined on self-reports of shame, guilt, fear of intimacy, self-deprecation, and perceptions of inauthenticity. Subcultural group differences emerged for shame-proneness but not guilt-proneness, with Asian Americans claiming to be more susceptible to shame than European, African, or Latin Americans. Separate part-correlation analyses for each cultural grouping indicated a positive relationship between shame-proneness, self-deprecation, and inauthenticity for Asian-, European-, and Latin Americans. Among African-Americans shame-proneness was directly related to a fear of intimacy and self-deprecation. Guilt-proneness was not significantly related to any self-report variable across cultural groups. Multiple regression analyses indicated that self-deprecation for Asian and European Americans, inauthenticity for Latin Americans, and a fear of intimacy for African Americans were the best predictors of shame-proneness.
This research responded to researchers' calls for investigation of potential moderators of the link between perceptions of racist discrimination and mental health. In a sample of 119 African American young adults, the authors investigated the extent to which 4 theoretically relevant variables moderated the perceived racism–mental health relation. Consistent with predictions, results revealed that greater experience with racial socialization messages attenuated the link between reports of racist events and poorer mental health. Self-esteem also moderated the relation, but in a direction opposite that predicted. Neither racial socialization beliefs nor African American social networks moderated the relation. Overall, results indicated that individual differences shape the extent to which African Americans' mental health is related to perceptions of racist discrimination.
Empirical and clinical data indicate that Black rape survivors are blamed more and are less likely to disclose their assaults than other women. We propose that these differences are, in large part, due to how Black women are perceived and evaluated. Specifically, we link two historical images of Black women, Jezebel and Matriarch, to the contemporary experience of Black rape survivors. The paradoxical and destructive implications of these images on Black rape survivors' decisions to disclose and report their rapes are discussed. Racially sensitive intervention strategies are also provided.
Clearly, this was a community under considerable stress. African Americans felt a mixture of rage and fear. Whites tended to experience a mixture of shame and anxiety that there might be retaliation. Volkan argues that stressful events foster a shift from the position of an individualized psychology, where the broader social/cultural milieu remains largely implicit, to one in which group or collective identities become foregrounded. While Volkan's language might suggest a greater dichotomy between the individual and the collective than is justified, his theorizing helps us understand the mobilization of group feeling, including ethnic and national identifications, in the context of collective stress. When there's shared anxiety and regression, members become preoccupied with reparative psychological processes aimed at shoring up the collective identity. These efforts often involve a reinforcement of the group identity, and a sharpened delineation of the psychological boundaries between "us" and "them." These reparative efforts readily become part of the centrifugal processes in that the reinforcement of group boundaries and group identity facilitates the objectification of the "other" and the kinds of group splitting that fuel collective violence. It is these processes that lead to what Kai Erikson refers to as the breakdown of the "tissue of a community" (303).
Ainslie, Ricardo C. No Dancin' in Anson: An American Story of Race and Social Change. 1995. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson; New York: Other P, 2002.
In this article, the authors present an interdisciplinary discussion of the multiple dimensions of racism and formulate conceptions of its impact on the formation of healthy personalities. They describe how racism has both ideological and structural components and perpetuates itself recursively at the macro-(e.g., group, institution) and microlevels (e.g., interpersonal). As one consequence of its embedded, cyclical nature, efforts to treat client problems that involve issues of race and racism will necessarily entail piercing distortions in reality, encouraging self-moral development, and eliciting risk-taking behaviors. To take part in transforming current structures of racism, counseling psychologists are urged to extend these strategies beyond the therapeutic milieu. Implications for practice, training, and research are presented.
This article presents a cross-validation study of the Schedule of Racist Events (SRE), a brief inventory that assesses the frequency of various types of racist dis-crimination in Blacks’lives. A new, larger, more representative sample of 520 Af-rican Americans residing in 10 randomly-selected southern California census tracts completed the SRE and a measure of psychiatric symptoms. Results re-vealed that 96% of Blacks reported experiencing some type of racist discrimina-tion in the past year, 98% reported experiencing racism at some point in their lives, and 95% found racism to be stressful. Factor analyses revealed that all items in the SRE subscales load on a single factor, and reliability and validity co-efficients were high and were similar to those previously reported. Participants’ reports of the frequency of racism in their lives were unrelated to participants’ age, social class, and education, but were related to gender, with men reporting more frequent racism than women. Experiencing racism was strongly related to total psychiatric symptoms. This cross-validation study provides further evi-dence on the reliability and validity of the SRE.
Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Benokraitis & J. R. Feagin, 1986). Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and discrimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form of sexism. Support was found for a distinction between old-fashioned and modern beliefs about women similar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988). The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment of women and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modern sexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education and work). Research that compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racism and that validates our modern sexism scale is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The processes involved in well-being maintenance among African Americans who differed in their attributions to prejudice were examined. A rejection–identification model was proposed where stable attributions to prejudice represent rejection by the dominant group. This results in a direct and negative effect on well-being. The model also predicts a positive effect on well-being that is mediated by minority group identification. In other words, the generally negative consequences of perceiving oneself as a victim of racial prejudice can be somewhat alleviated by identification with the minority group. Structural equation analyses provided support for the model and ruled out alternative theoretical possibilities. Perceiving prejudice as pervasive produces effects on well-being that are fundamentally different from those that may arise from an unstable attribution to prejudice for a single negative outcome.
This article analyzes the scientific legitimacy of using expert testimony relating to psychological sequelae of rape victimization in the courtroom and attempts to determine boundaries within which such testimony should remain to respect the limitations of current knowledge. Descriptions of the rape-related diagnoses currently used in expert testimony are followed by a discussion of the problematic issues associated with using rape trauma syndrome in the courtroom and a review of the validity and reliability issues associated with diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder in forensic settings. The authors consider the scientific appropriateness of admitting different levels of rape expert testimony on the basis of the limitations of the scientific knowledge discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) provides a common language for diagnoses and assessment of trauma victims, including Holocaust survivors. Many of these survivors established post-war families and it is here that we began to witness the possibility of trauma transmission. Parental communication regarding the Holocaust, often characterized by obsessive re-telling or all-consuming silence, and strong family ties are implicated in the theoretical literature on trauma transmission. Terms such as vicarious, empathic, and secondary traumatization have been used to describe intergenerational trauma transmission. The crucial emergent question is whether a secondary PTSD syndrome, reflected in the current PTSD symptomology, is being transmitted from one generation to the next. There is evidence in the literature to support this hypothesis and a call is made for rigorous empirical studies as the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It was almost two decades ago that the authors became aware of the concept of a “soul wound,” although knowledge of what is characterized as the “soul wound” had been an integral part of indigenous knowledge ever since Columbus landed in this hemisphere and Cortez arrived in Vera Cruz, Mexico. Native people who were asked about problems in the contemporary Native community explained that present problems had their etiology in the traumatic events known as the “soul wound” Knowledge of the soul wound has been present in Indian country for many generations. Current synonymous terms include historical trauma (Brave Heart, in press a), historical legacy, American Indian holocaust, and intergenerational posttraumatic stress disorder (Brave Heart & De Brun, in press). In addition, there has been academic literature documenting the American Indian holocaust, thus bringing some validation to the feelings of a community that has not had the world acknowledge the systematic genocide perpetrated on it (Brave Heart-Jordan & DeBruyn, 1995; Brown, 1971; Legters, 1988; Stannard, 1992; Thornton, 1987).
This article describes sexual abuse as well as several other dimensions of victimization, such as institutional racism, that American ethnic minority children are likely to encounter. Some of these other forms of victimization parallel the dynamics of child sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder. The Four Traumagenic Dynamics model, which examines the dynamics of the effects of child sexual abuse, is applied to the experiences of ethnic minority children. The importance of assessing a variety of victimization experiences in this population is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although many researchers have suggested that racial discrimination has a negative impact on Black mental health, there are few empirical investigations of that possibility. The authors examined the relative contributions of racial discrimination, status variables, and ordinal stressors to symptoms among 520 Black adults (aged 18–79 yrs). Ss completed the Schedule of Racist Events, the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview Life Events Scale, the Symptom Checklist-58, and a demographic questionnaire. Results reveal that racial discrimination contributed significantly to symptoms and accounted for 15% of the variance in total symptoms.
This article reports the results of a study that examined the coping strategies used by African Americans in managing the stressful effects of racism. A total of 213 participants (Women, n = 137; men, n = 76) completed the Index of Race-Related Sress (S. O. Utsey & J. G. Ponterotto, 1996), the Coping Strategy Indicator (J. H. Amirkhan, 1990), the Satisfact,on With UfeScale E. Diene R.£ Emrnons R J. Larsen, &S. Griffin, 1985), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (M. Rosenberg, 1965). Results indicated that women preferred avoidance coping for racism experienced on a persona, level. For African Americans in general, seeking social support and racism condition were the best predictors of racism-related stress. Life satisfaction and self-esteem were best predated by avoidance coping. Implications for the provision of counseling services to African Americans are dtscussed.
Guilt regarding combat experiences is often considered an associated symptom of PTSD in military veterans. Little is known, however, about the role combat guilt plays in the development and maintenance of PTSD. Inadequate measurement of combat-related guilt may be one reason for this deficiency in the literature. In the present study, 40 veterans with PTSD completed a novel measure of combat guilt. Items on the scale assessed various types of guilt and shame concerning combat experiences (i.e., survival guilt, guilt over acts of omission and acts of commission, guilt about thoughts/feelings). Guilt was quite prevalent within this sample, and severity of guilt regarding combat was positively correlated with the reexperiencing and avoidance symptoms of PTSD and a general measure of PTSD severity. Implications of these findings and recommendations for the development of measures for combat-related guilt are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 53: 801–808, 1997
Studying the Holocaust teaches moral and behavioral lessons and helps social workers understand and respond to the special needs of Holocaust survivors and their children. This activity has implications for working with the victims of other human catastrophes of our time.
Studying the Holocaust teaches moral and behavioral lessons and helps social workers understand and respond to the special needs of Holocaust survivors and their children. This activity has implications for working with the victims of other human catastrophes of our time.
This article analyzes the scientific legitimacy of using expert testimony relating to psychological sequelae of rape victimization in the courtroom and attempts to determine boundaries within which such testimony should remain to respect the limitations of current knowledge. Descriptions of the rape-related diagnoses currently used in expert testimony are followed by a discussion of the problematic issues associated with using rape trauma syndrome in the courtroom and a review of the validity and reliability issues associated with diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder in forensic settings. The authors consider the scientific appropriateness of admitting different levels of rape expert testimony on the basis of the limitations of the scientific knowledge discussed.
Various authors have noted that interethnic group and intraethnic group racism are significant stressors for many African Americans. As such, intergroup and intragroup racism may play a role in the high rates of morbidity and mortality in this population. Yet, although scientific examinations of the effects of stress have proliferated, few researchers have explored the psychological, social, and physiological effects of perceived racism among African Americans. The purpose of this article was to outline a biopsychosocial model for perceived racism as a guide for future research. The first section of this article provides a brief overview of how racism has been conceptualized in the scientific literature. The second section reviews research exploring the existence of intergroup and intragroup racism. A contextual model for systematic studies of the biopsychosocial effects of perceived racism is then presented, along with recommendations for future research.
The processes involved in well-being maintenance among African Americans who differed in their attributions to prejudice were examined. A rejection-identification model was proposed where stable attributions to prejudice represent rejection by the dominant group. This results in a direct and negative effect on well-being. The model also predicts a positive effect on well-being that is mediated by minority group identification. In other words, the generally negative consequences of perceiving oneself as a victim of racial prejudice can be somewhat alleviated by identification with the minority group. Structural equation analyses provided support for the model and ruled out alternative theoretical possibilities. Perceiving prejudice as pervasive produces effects on well-being that are fundamentally different from those that may arise from an unstable attribution to prejudice for a single negative outcome.
Applying a self-psychological perspective, this paper explores the effects of cultural racism on a person's sense of self. Racism assaults victims with experiences of being perceived as less-than-human by the social milieu. Such experiences can utterly erode self-esteem and ambition and cause a “depression of disenfranchisement” whereby one feels abjectly ungrandiose. The paper utilizes a literary example and one from clinical experience to illustrate how chronic experiences of antipathy—derived from cultural racism—can erode a person's sense of self by virtue of the disenfranchisement of grandiosity.
The psychological effects of living in a racially hostile context are multiple. African American adolescents who respond to racial intolerance with anger and depression are silenced and vulnerable to misinterpretation and misdiagnosis. Adolescents who believe the African American family has the responsibility of raising children to be aware of societal hostilities and cultural strengths are the focus of this article. Gender differences were found, and results suggest that beliefs in various types of racial socialization differentially contribute to positive psychological outcomes for adolescents. A cultural ecological framework is used to discuss the resilience and risk of anger expression.
Since the early 1980s, researchers have attempted to unravel the sources of a tendency for minority group members to report higher levels of discrimination directed at their group than at them selves personally. The favored explanation for this personal/group discrimination discrepancy has been denial of personal discrimi nation. However, subsequent research has revealed that this discrep ancy is not specific to the domain of discrimination, or to negative events, or even to minoritygroup members. Rather, it is a generalized personal/group discrepancy, perhaps explained by a culture-based heuristic that leads people to calculate the magnitude of the effect of an event to be proportional to the size of the social unit being affected. Thusgroups are affected more than individual persons and the size of the effect increases with the size of the group.
Much literature on contemporary U.S. racial relations tends to view black middle-class life as substantially free of traditional discrimination. Drawing primarily on 37 in-depth interviews with black middle-class respondents in several cities, I analyze public accommodations and other public-place discrimination. I focus on three aspects: (1) the sites of discrimination, (2) the character of discriminatory actions; and (3) the range of coping responses by blacks to discrimination. Documenting substantial barriers facing middle-class black Americans today, I suggest the importance of the individual's and the group's accumulated discriminatory experiences for understanding the character and impact of modern racial discrimination.
An unexpected finding that has surfaced in research on discrimination is that respondents perceive a higher level of discrimination directed at their group as a whole than at themselves as individual members of that group. The present study directly tested this personal/group discrepancy by focusing on two groups of Canadian immigrants who have been the targets of much discrimination, Haitian and South Asian women. Respondents were questioned about their personal and group discrimination on four separate dimensions: race, culture, status as newcomers to Canada, and gender Strong support was found for the generality of the personal/group discrimination discrepancy. Three possible explanations for the discrepancy point to possible avenues for future research: the denial of personal discrimination, the exaggeration of group discrimination, and information-processing biases.
This study examined correlates of past-year chronic medical conditions and lifetime contact with health care professionals for mental health and substance abuse problems in women with differing histories of sexual victimization (N = 627) identified from the National Comorbidity Survey (e.g., assault in childhood, adulthood, or both life phases). Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stressful life events were associated with greater odds of chronic medical conditions among women sexually assaulted in childhood only. Additional traumatic events were associated with greater odds of chronic medical conditions among victims of adult sexual assault. Older age and being married were associated with greater odds of lifetime health care professional contact for mental health/substance abuse issues among certain victim subgroups. Stressful life events were related to greater help-seeking for child victims, and traumatic events were related to greater help-seeking in adult victims. Alcohol dependence symptoms and PTSD were each associated with greater odds of lifetime health care professional contact among women victimized in both life phases, whereas depression was related to greater odds of help-seeking for women victimized in one life phase only. Psychosocial factors may play unique roles in health outcomes for women with different sexual assault histories.
Slavery included sexual trauma that has been institutionalized and, thus, continues to injure African American women. The trauma is dealt with in the African and African-American spiritual tradition of testifying to, and witnessing of, our history and experience. Though continuing to struggle with the psychological consequences of racism, the collective testimony and witness combined with social action is self-affirming and the beginning of the healing.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attribution of blame and recovery from childhood sexual abuse. Specifically, blaming self, fate, or both self and fate were associated with higher levels of symptomatology, while blaming the perpetrator was associated with the lowest level of symptomatology. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
This study examined the coping behaviors employed by African Americans in their encounters with racism and discrimination. Initially, a total of 281 participants were administered the Index of Race-Related Stress (Utsey & Ponterotto, 1996) the Coping Strategy Indicator (Amirkhan, 1990), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The final sample consisted of 214 participants. Several research questions were posed for this study: (a) Which coping strategies (i.e., problem solving, seeking social support, or avoidance) are better predictors of race-related stress for which types of racism (i.e., cultural racism, institutional racism, or individual racism)? (b) In confronting racism, would some coping strategies be better predictors than others of self-esteem and life satisfaction? (c) Are different types of coping strategies employed in confronting different types of racism? (d) Are there significant gender differences in the types of coping strategies employed during encounters with racism? (e) Are there significant differences across socioeconomic status for the types of coping strategies employed during encounters with racism? The study's findings indicated that problem solving coping was the best predictor of institutional racism and that seeking social support coping was the best predictor of individual racism. Avoidance and seeking social support coping were predictors of both self-esteem and life satisfaction. In addition, avoidance coping was used significantly more than other coping strategies during encounters with individual racism. Moreover, women relied on seeking social support coping significantly more than men. No differences were found between socioeconomic status and coping strategies. ^
Exposure to race-related experiences, such as race-hate, assault and discrimination, are not routinely and systematically addressed in assessment and treatment interventions or in social work practice formulations.
A psychodynamic, ethnocultural, and strengths-oriented conceptual framework is presented to describe exposure to stressful, traumatic, and positive race-related experiences (the latter -- positive race-related aspects -- are sorely ignored or downplayed in most other race-related research).
Criteria are identified for conducting an inquiry about race-related experiences to help assess possible environmental stressors related to presenting symptoms of Adjustment, Acute Stress or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders.
Also, there is an identification of obstacles and factors to consider when interviewing about exposure to race-related experiences, and a specific interview format to guide systematic inquiry about such exposure. Finally, salient implications for assessment, treatment and research are described.
In the past decade, research into the etiology of rape has increasingly focused on cognitive variables. The studies reviewed in the present article provide evidence that men with a high proclivity to rape have more rape supportive attitudes, are more likely to consider victims to be responsible for rape, and are less knowledgeable about the negative impact of rape on the victims. These men tend to misperceive cues emitted by women in heterosocial interactions; fail to generate inhibitory self-verbalizations to suppress association of sex and aggression; and have more coercive, sexual fantasies. Furthermore, a high proclivity to rape is associated with a semantic network in which concepts of sex and power are closely linked in such a way that power cues are necessary precursors of sexual feelings. Multivariate studies suggest that rape-supportive attitudes interact with noncognitive factors in the etiology of rape. Implications for rape prevention and treatment of rapists are considered. Finally, methodological issues are discussed, and recommendations for future research are given.
Moral agency has dual aspects manifested in both the power to refrain from behaving inhumanely and the proactive power to behave humanely. Moral agency is embedded in a broader socio-cognitive self-theory encompassing affective self-regulatory mechanisms rooted in personal standards linked to self-sanctions. Moral functioning is thus governed by self-reactive selfhood rather than by dispassionate abstract reasoning. The self-regulatory mechanisms governing moral conduct do not come into play unless they are activated and there are many psychosocial mechanisms by which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged from inhumane conduct. The moral disengagement may centre on the cognitive restructuring of inhumane conduct into a benign or worthy one by moral justification, sanitising language and exonerative social comparison; disavowal of personal agency in the harm one causes by diffusion or displacement of responsibility; disregarding or minimising the injurious effects of one's actions; and attribution of blame to, and dehumanisation of, those who are victimised. Social cognitive theory adopts an interactionist perspective to morality in which moral actions are the products of the reciprocal interplay of personal and social influences. Given the many mechanisms for disengaging moral control at both the individual and collective level, civilised life requires, in addition to humane personal standards, safeguards built into social systems that uphold compassionate behaviour and renounce cruelty.
This chapter focuses on understanding racism as a reality-based and repetitive trauma in the lives of African American women. By concentrating on African American women's memories of racial trauma, this chapter explores the following issues: the usefulness of feminist-psychodynamic practice and theory for Black women; racial silence in psychotherapy; distorted images of African American women as a form of trauma; and specific traumatic racial memories. Finally, the notion of "legend ladies" is introduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this book, Walker posits that the use of traditional psychotherapies for trauma victims has not produced the type of treatment that abused women have found to be truly helpful and that modifications in traditional practice are necessary in order for clinicians to work effectively with abuse victims. These modifications must take into account the impact of the specific form of trauma involved as well as the individual's unique psychological response to the world and the impact of traditional socialization of women and men.
The author claims that abuse is widespread and that violence against women occurs in all demographic groups. Her approach is strongly informed by a feminist, participatory perspective that emphasizes reempowerment and the client's role in helping to determine the course of therapy. She examines the effects of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and sexual orientation as part of the larger context surrounding the reality of violence against women in society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This
Handbook is divided into two volumes: one that focused on critical and core concepts and research findings (see record
2008-08155-000) and one devoted to practice and training in racial-cultural counseling and psychology. The chapters of this volume provide a way to grasp, understand, and use the complexity of racial-cultural psychology in mental health training and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article advances the perspective that racism is a significant source of emotional abusiveness and trauma for people of color. Although traditional conceptions of posttraumattic stress disorder (PTSD) have been enlarged, this area needs to be further broadened to encompass the trauma of racism. In addition, all diagnostic categories should become more inclusive by incorporating racism as a psychosocial stressor. A careful critique of racism as trauma is conducted to identify how this type of PTSD both fits and challenges current trauma categories, and case vignettes are provided to illustrate how racism can function as a source of trauma and emotional abusiveness. An enhanced understanding of the effects of racism is necessary in order to prevent and mediate psychological and physical distress for ethnic minorities as well as the less visible negative consequences to majority members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Developed an inventory designed to measure cultural mistrust among Blacks in the domains of Education and Training, Interpersonal Relations, Business and Work, and Politics and Law. The initial 72-item Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI) was administered to 172 Black male undergraduates by a Black male examiner. Psychometric strategies were used to examine the internal construction of the CMI and to eliminate items of low discriminatory value or those that significantly correlated with the Social Desirability Scale. In an examination of external validity, it was found that Ss with a high exposure to racial discrimination had higher mistrust scores than those with lower exposure to racial discrimination. A 2-wk test–retest revealed adequate temporal stability. A copy of the final 48-item CMI is appended. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Anger management has been overlooked as a vital component of cultural competency training. Clinical and teaching examples demonstrate the effective use of anger in facilitating therapy and training.
Although the concept of justification has played a significant role in many social psychological theories, its presence in recent examinations of stereotyping has been minimal. We describe and evaluate previous notions of stereotyping as ego-justification and group-justification and propose an additional account, that of system-justification, which refers to psychological processes contributing to the preservation of existing social arrangements even at the expense of personal and group interest. It is argued that the notion of system-justification is necessary to account for previously unexplained phenomena, most notably the participation by disadvantaged individuals and groups in negative stereotypes of themselves, and the consensual nature of stereotypic beliefs despite differences in social relations within and between social groups. We offer a selective review of existing research that demonstrates the role of stereotypes in the production of false consciousness and develop the implications of a system-justification approach.
[T]he rationalizing and justifying function of a stereotype exceeds its function as a reflector of group attributes—G. W. Allport (1958, p. 192).
Men with high belief in a just world evaluated a videotaped rape victim more negatively than did men with low belief in a just world. Women with high belief in a just world were less negative toward the rape victim than women with low belief in a just world. Participants with low belief in a just world recommended significantly longer prison sentences for the rapist. Evaluations of the rapist and rape victim were not influenced by information about the outcome of the case (the rapist was never caught, the rapist was caught and sentenced to either 1 or 15 years in prison). Implications for just-world beliefs of jurors in rape trials were discussed.
This study, including female (n = 355) and male (n = 179) college students, investigated the role of gender, gender role identity, rape myth acceptance, and time of initial resistance in assigning blame to the victim, perpetrator, situation and chance following an acquaintance rape, and perceived degree of avoidability of the assault. Approximately 94% of the participants were White. Men and women low in rape myth acceptance attributed significantly less blame to the victim and situation, more blame to the perpetrator, and were less likely to believe the assault could have been avoided. When time of initial resistance occurred early in the encounter, men and women attributed significantly less blame to the victim and situation, more blame to the perpetrator, and were less likely to believe the sexual assault could have been avoided.
A growing body of literature exists on the prevalence and psychological sequelae of sexual abuse and its treatment. However, less attention has been focused on the experience of clinicians who treat these clients. This article uses the concept of vicarious traumatization (McCann and Pearlman, 1990a) to describe the impact this work may have on the social work clinician. The issues addressed include the impact of the work on the clinician's world-view and the possibility that there is a grief process as clinicians come to terms with their exposure to traumatic material. Implications of this reaction and suggestions to alleviate the detrimental effects arc addressed.
The impact of racism on African American personality, behavior, and health has been debated in the psychological literature.
There has been little research however, on racism as a stressful life event. The goal of this study was to learn whether perceived
racism produces symptoms of subjective distress noted in relationship to other stressful life events. In addition, this study
sought to find whether racial identification mediated the psychological impact of perceived experiences of racism. Two hundred
African American adults were surveyed. Participants completed a 30 item racial identification measure, a questionnaire that
requested information on the experience of racism, and the Impact of Events scale. The results showed that one third of the
participants reported a perceived experience of racism within six months of the interview. Mean scores for intrusion symptoms
were higher as the seriousness of the reported event increased. While participants reported avoidance symptoms, there were
no differences based on the seriousness of the racial incident. Racial identification did not mediate the impact of the experience
of racism.
In this article, I argue that sexual offenders' cognitive distortions emerge from underlying causal theories about the nature of their victims. These implicit theories function like scientific theories and are used to explain empirical regularities (e.g., other people's actions) and to make predictions about the world. They are relatively coherent and constituted by a number of interlocking ideas and their component concepts and categories. Following a review of research from other areas in psychology on implicit theories, I consider the implications of this perspective for understanding cognitive distortions in sexual offenders. Finally, I discuss the research and clinical implications of viewing cognitive distortions in offenders as implicit theories.