For members of any of these communities, daily reminders of racial discrimination can exacerbate individual responses to trauma. From her work with tribal communities, clinician and researcher Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart describes historical trauma as the “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experience.” Similarly, African Americans experienced generations of slavery, segregation, and institutionalized racism that has contributed to physical, psychological, and spiritual trauma (DeGruy, 2005). Considerable work has also been done with communities of Native Americans, who experienced repeated massacres and the forced removal of children to federal and mission boarding and day schools (Brave Heart, 2003). The children and grandchildren of survivors commonly experience attachment issues and isolation by their parents (Danieli, 1980). Compounding this familial or intergenerational trauma, historical trauma often involves the additional challenge of a damaged cultural identity (Sotero, 2006).Ĭlinical social workers first described historical trauma among descendants of the Holocaust and the children of Japanese Americans interned during World War II (Barocas and Barocas, 1979, Nagata et al 1999). Parents’ experience of trauma may disrupt typical parenting skills and contribute to behavior problems in children. Acute problems of domestic violence or alcohol misuse that are not directly linked to historical trauma may be exacerbated by living in a community with unaddressed grief and behavioral health needs. While many in such a group will experience no effects of the historical trauma, others may experience poor overall physical and behavioral health, including low self-esteem, depression, self-destructive behavior, marked propensity for violent or aggressive behavior, substance misuse and addiction, and high rates of suicide and cardiovascular disease. It is related to major events that oppressed a particular group of people because of their status as oppressed, such as slavery, the Holocaust, forced migration, and the violent colonization of Native Americans. Historical trauma is multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural, racial or ethnic group. Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS).Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP).Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (OPRE).Office of Legislative Affairs and Budget (OLAB).Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR).Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS).Office of Child Support Services (OCSS).Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB).Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF).Administration for Native Americans (ANA).

Intergenerational racial trauma