The racial trauma task force: Clinical-community psychology approaches to healing racial trauma during COVID-19.

The frequent police killings during the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.

In the United States, Black women face racial stressors that significantly undermine their well-being and contribute to poor mental health outcomes. The current study examines how racial stressors (i.e., racial violence exposure through social media, vicarious racism, and interpersonal racism) are associated with racial trauma and dysphoria (i.e., depression, anxiety, and hostility) and the moderating role of emotion-focused coping self-efficacy (e.g., suppression of unpleasant thoughts and emotions) among Black women (Mage = 35, N = 283). The study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional, analytical design. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to Black women aged 18 and over in the Northeast US between March and July 2024. Participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds were recruited. Data were collected via Qualtrics and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 29.0. A hierarchical regression analysis assessed the association between racial stressors (social media violence, interpersonal racism, and vicarious racism), racial trauma, and dysphoria, with emotion-focused coping self-efficacy as a moderator. Greater exposure to racial stressors and the suppression of unpleasant thoughts and emotions were associated with higher dysphoria. Interpersonal racism was positively linked to racial trauma, while social media exposure to racial violence was associated with lower trauma. Interaction effects showed that Black women who reported high social media violence exposure and suppressed unpleasant thoughts experienced less trauma. Similarly, those who reported higher vicarious racism and felt confident in suppressing unpleasant thoughts also experienced less trauma. Conversely, those who felt less efficacious in suppressing unpleasant thoughts were more likely to endorse racial trauma symptoms. Black women's racial stressors, dysphoria, and racial trauma are linked. However, the psychological effects of racial violence exposure through social media depend on available coping resources. Suppressing unpleasant thoughts and emotions is a conditional coping strategy that may mitigate racial trauma when accompanied by high coping self-efficacy, especially in situations involving vicarious racism and social media-based racial violence exposure. Conversely, low confidence in suppressing distress is associated with heightened racial trauma, highlighting the importance of emotion-focused coping self-efficacy in shaping psychological vulnerability.

It is important to consider racialized experiences and proximal indicators of academic success for Black youth when understanding the achievement gap. Acknowledging that racial discrimination is detrimental for the academic success of Black youth, this study extended previous research by examining the influence of racial discrimination stress. Using hierarchical regression analysis and a moderated moderation model, this study examined racial discrimination stress and school belonging as predictors of academic attitudes and beliefs among 344 Black youth (M age = 15.6). Additionally, we examined the interactive effects of school belonging as a buffer for racial discrimination stress, with particular focus on majority White schools. Analyses revealed that school belonging was linked with academic competence, academic efficacy, and academic skepticism. Furthermore, school belonging buffered the impact of racial discrimination stress on academic efficacy among Black youth in majority White schools. These findings highlight the co-occurrence of risk and protective factors among Black youth and demonstrate the additive influence of school racial composition on academic attitudes and beliefs. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings demonstrate the crucial role of school context in understanding risk and protective factors for the academic attitudes and beliefs of Black youth.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ProfessionalFull AccessTrauma of Racism Has Long-Term Impact on HealthTerri D'ArrigoTerri D'ArrigoSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Oct 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.10b14AbstractBoth overt forms of racism and microaggressions contribute to a constant state of stress in Black people, say experts.iStock/FG TradeThe long history of racism in the United States and the day-to-day traumas of racial tension, discrimination, and microaggressions have a lasting impact on the physical and mental health of Black people, said mental health experts and physicians in an August webinar. The webinar was hosted by PsychU, a community and online resource library for mental health sponsored by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization Inc.Napoleon Higgins, M.D., a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist in Houston, began the discussion with a historical perspective on racism and how the mistreatment of Black people for generations has destroyed their trust in the American health care system. He is the owner of the Bay Pointe Behavioral Health Services and the Southeast Houston Research Group, and CEO of Global Health Psychiatry LLC.“Because of the history of [racism in] America, we don’t trust America. We question everything we hear,” Higgins said. He added that this played out in a study that found that Black patients who saw a Black physician were nearly 20% more likely to follow the physician’s recommendations than if they had seen a non-Black doctor.“That’s a disparity right there … where Black people have issues being able to trust their doctors. Then from the doctor’s point of view, the Black patient is less likely to follow recommendations. The mistrust goes all around between both parties,” Higgins said. The mistrust contributes to higher rates of death by natural causes among Black people when they don’t get appropriate care, he said.Kimone James, M.D., discussed how microaggressions often go unrecognized as a form of racism. She is the medical director at two Fresenius Kidney Care sites and instructs internal medicine residents at Wellstar Health Systems in Marietta, Ga.“Some people may say, ‘I’m not a racist, I don’t do racist things,’ but as a Black woman, I know that in the workplace alone, microaggressions are prominent, even if it’s someone imitating the way they think Black women swivel their necks,” James said. “That’s the problem with racism. People often think that racism is the Ku Klux Klan, swinging a Confederate flag, or [using] slurs, but sometimes racism is a very simple thing like microaggression.”Higgins described how repeated exposure to racism in all its forms can take a toll on the body.“If you stress a person out enough, you’re going to see physical changes. It [involves] learning and memory, where you see instances of racism, and then you see it again, and it all stacks up,” Higgins said. “It increases cortisol, which increases your heart rate and increases your blood pressure because your body is always geared up.”James said that this stress response contributes to the impact of COVID-19 on the Black community.“When people ask me why more Black people are dying of coronavirus, I think, ‘Well, look at our poor bodies right now,’” she said. “We have increased stress from racial tension, increased lack of medical resources, and more untreated diseases, and you throw on top of it poor air quality [in Black neighborhoods] … and jobs where you’re exposed to toxins because you’re doing factory work. Are those bodies suitable [for defending against] any disease, not to mention coronavirus?”Betsy Bennett, Ph.D., addressed white people and what they can do to combat racism as individuals. She is a clinical health psychologist at Clarity Consulting, a consultant on cultural competency, and adjunct faculty at the Adams School of Dentistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.“The number one thing you can do is be curious, be open-minded, and learn as much as you can. Try not to be embarrassed about what you don’t know because all that does is get in the way of you learning more,” Bennett said. ■“Impact & Trauma of Racism” is posted here. ISSUES NewArchived

Despite growing recognition of racism as a public health crisis, racial trauma remains inconsistently defined and under researched. This scoping review investigates how racial trauma is conceptualized in empirical literature, focusing on its manifestations and long-term health impacts among Black individuals and communities in the United States and Canada. Guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for conducting scoping reviews, we systematically searched ten multidisciplinary databases and identified 29 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025. Most included studies were conducted in the United States of America, with only two studies that included Canadian participants. We find that racial trauma is described using varied terminology, such as race-based traumatic stress or race-related stress and arises from both direct and indirect exposure to racism. While some manifestations resemble post-traumatic stress disorder, racial trauma is a distinct trauma phenomenon shaped by chronic, cumulative, and systemic racism. It causes multidimensional harm, is experienced both individually and collectively, and may be transmitted intergenerationally even to neonates. This review identifies psychological, physiological, social and community-level impacts. These findings underscore the need for a unified conceptual framework, formal recognition of racial trauma in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) and increased empirical research across contexts including in Canada. These findings have important implications for mental health policy and clinical practice, highlighting the need for culturally responsive frameworks that address the unique experiences of racial trauma among Black communities.

Racial discrimination is a ubiquitous experience for Black adolescents; it has been linked to poorer psychological outcomes including higher depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem. However, the mechanisms through which racial discrimination is associated with psychological well-being are still not well understood, particularly among Black early adolescents. The current study investigated two dimensions of racial discrimination: racial discrimination frequency (RDfreq) and racial discrimination stress (RDstress). Specifically, we explored the prevalence of RDfreq and RDstress among Black youth and whether RDstress mediated the association between RDfreq and psychological well-being. Seventy-four Black middle school students (68.1% female; mean age = 12.1) completed self-report questionnaires assessing RDfreq, RDstress, depression, and self-esteem; 72 were included in the final analyses. Mediation analyses were conducted using bootstrapping. Ninety percent of the sample reported experiencing some type of racial discrimination and 99% reported that these experiences bothered them. Controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity, RDstress partially mediated the relationship between RDfreq and depression. Study findings elucidate one pathway in which racial discrimination influences psychological well-being.

2020 Rise to the challenge

This chapter explores the various direct and systemic racial stressors that Black students experience daily. It focuses on how direct stressors such as bullying, adverse police contact, and community violence impact the mental health of Black students. Additionally, systemic racial stressors including school discipline, the juvenile justice system, and the child welfare system are explored as contributing factors to racial trauma in Black students. The impact of intergenerational trauma on parenting practices in the Black community is also highlighted. The chapter also examines the effects of racial trauma on Black students, along with signs a student may be experiencing racial trauma. Suggestions on clinical assessments to screen for racial stressors in Black students are highlighted as well.

<p dir="ltr"><i>We Were Not Built to Break: Racially Affirming Care for Black Children, Families, and Communities</i> offers social service and education providers who work with Black children, youth, and families a critical understanding of the ways in which race and racism influence the experiences and outcomes of Black children, youth, and families. This book addresses the documented disproportionate representation of Black families in child welfare systems, where they often face excessive surveillance, family separations, and systemic pathologization. This project seeks to disrupt these problematic narratives by intentionally focusing on the strengths, capacities, and capabilities of Black communities, which have been foundational to their survival for generations.</p><p dir="ltr">Most workers who are involved in the lives of Black children—ECEs, CYCs, social workers, teachers, or healthcare providers—are seldom members of Black communities and are trained using perspectives and curriculum that remain culturally and racially irrelevant. Recognizing these challenges, this book seeks to provide current and future practitioners with concise, easily accessible, detailed information that can enhance their engagement with Black families. Dr. Daniel explores the role of ‘race’ as a socially constructed marker in Canada, examines the impact of racism on Black communities, and introduces alternative frameworks that highlight resilience, cultural identity, and community strengths.</p><p dir="ltr"><i>We Were Not Built to Break </i>is intended for Child and Youth Care, Social Work, ECE, Teacher Education, and Psychology programs within universities and colleges in Canada.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Features</b></p><ul><li>Pedagogical features include key terms, case studies, and recommended readings</li><li>Provides students with information about various African-centered theories and practices for assessing, intervening, and supporting Black children, youth, and families</li></ul><p></p>

<p dir="ltr"><i>We Were Not Built to Break: Racially Affirming Care for Black Children, Families, and Communities</i> offers social service and education providers who work with Black children, youth, and families a critical understanding of the ways in which race and racism influence the experiences and outcomes of Black children, youth, and families. This book addresses the documented disproportionate representation of Black families in child welfare systems, where they often face excessive surveillance, family separations, and systemic pathologization. This project seeks to disrupt these problematic narratives by intentionally focusing on the strengths, capacities, and capabilities of Black communities, which have been foundational to their survival for generations.</p><p dir="ltr">Most workers who are involved in the lives of Black children—ECEs, CYCs, social workers, teachers, or healthcare providers—are seldom members of Black communities and are trained using perspectives and curriculum that remain culturally and racially irrelevant. Recognizing these challenges, this book seeks to provide current and future practitioners with concise, easily accessible, detailed information that can enhance their engagement with Black families. Dr. Daniel explores the role of ‘race’ as a socially constructed marker in Canada, examines the impact of racism on Black communities, and introduces alternative frameworks that highlight resilience, cultural identity, and community strengths.</p><p dir="ltr"><i>We Were Not Built to Break </i>is intended for Child and Youth Care, Social Work, ECE, Teacher Education, and Psychology programs within universities and colleges in Canada.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Features</b></p><ul><li>Pedagogical features include key terms, case studies, and recommended readings</li><li>Provides students with information about various African-centered theories and practices for assessing, intervening, and supporting Black children, youth, and families</li></ul><p></p>

Systemic racism and structural oppression are key drivers of health inequities, shaping substance use patterns and contributing to disproportionate harms among Black communities. While racial discrimination has been recognized as a chronic psychosocial stressor, its impact on substance use has rarely been examined through the lens of racial trauma – a critical psychological embodiment of structural oppression. This study investigates whether racial trauma symptoms mediate the relationship between racial discrimination and substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis) among Black adults. A sample of 183 Black/African American adults completed an online survey assessing experiences of racial discrimination, racial trauma symptoms, and substance use frequency. Mediation analyses using the PROCESS macro tested the direct and indirect effects of racial discrimination on substance use. Results showed that racial discrimination was significantly associated with greater alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use. Racial trauma symptoms fully mediated the relationship between discrimination and alcohol use and partially mediated the relationships with tobacco and cannabis use. These findings highlight racial trauma symptoms as a key psychological mechanism through which systemic racism influences substance use behaviors. Integrating trauma-informed, culturally responsive prevention and treatment strategies is critical for reducing substance use disparities and advancing health equity for Black communities.

Racial trauma-the stressful impact or emotional pain that comes from experiencing racism-is associated with risk of anxiety, depression, general psychological distress, and suicidal ideation among Black youth. We adapted and piloted an evidence-based intervention for traumatic stress to address racial trauma among Black youth ages 12-17. Following the Assessment, Decision, Adaptation, Production, Topical Experts- Integration, Training, & Testing framework, we conducted focus groups, a survey, pretesting of intervention components, and engaged in consultation with topical experts to develop our adapted intervention, Healing through Education Affirmation and Rising Together (HEART). We then evaluated HEART through a mixed-method pilot study with Black youth ages 12-17 (n = 25). Our pilot study suggested HEART holds promise in reducing discrimination distress, improving racial identity, and improving hope for the future among Black youth. We also observed a nonsignificant trend toward reduced depressive symptoms for HEART participants, suggesting potential benefit worth further study. Findings indicate that HEART is culturally relevant to Black youth and feasible to implement using a task-sharing approach. As research consistently documents the harm from racial trauma and limited access to mental health supports for Black youth, it is imperative to develop and implement accessible and relevant interventions. This study addressed a gap in existing interventions with an iterative process that centers the experiences of Black youth exposed to racial trauma. The response to the adapted intervention indicates HEART is a promising approach to reduce mental health inequities associated with racial trauma among Black youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The negative impacts of racism, including experiences of racial trauma, are well documented (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2006; Carter, 2007). Because of the deleterious effects of racial trauma on Black people, interventions that facilitate the resistance and prevention of anti-Black racism are needed. Critical consciousness is one such intervention, as it is often seen as a prerequisite of resistance and liberation (Prilleltensky, 2003, 2008). To understand how individuals advance from being aware of anti-Black racism to engaging in actions to prevent and resist racial trauma, nonconfidential interviews with 12 Black Lives Matter activists were conducted. Using constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) under critical-ideological and Black feminist-womanist lenses, a model of Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism (CCABR) was co-constructed. The 3 processes involved in developing CCABR include: witnessing anti-Black racism, processing anti-Black racism, and acting critically against anti-Black racism. This model, including each of the categories and subcategories, are detailed herein and supported with quotations. The findings and discussion provide context-rich and practical approaches to help Black people, and counseling psychologists who serve them, prevent and resist racial trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose: The current study examined relations among racial discrimination (RD), depression/suicidality, substance use, and school connectedness among Black youth who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, some other way, or not sure (LGBQ) and heterosexual youth. Methods: Data were obtained from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during January-June 2021. ABES was a one-time, online survey given to a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students. Data for the current study included 1189 Black 9th-12th graders (50.0% female and 18.8% LGBQ). Measures included self-reports of depression/suicidality during the past year, substance use in the past 30 days, current feelings of school connectedness, RD in school across the lifespan, and sexual identity. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine study aims. Results: Black LGBQ youth reported higher levels of RD, depression/suicidality, and substance use but lower school connectedness compared with heterosexual Black youth. RD was positively associated with depression/suicidality (b = 0.876, standard error = 0.197, p < 0.001) but not with substance use (p = 0.366). Sexual identity and school connectedness did not moderate the relationships between RD and depression/suicidality or RD and substance use. Conclusion: RD's positive association with depression/suicidality and lack of association with substance use was similar for Black heterosexual and LGBQ youth. Future research should expand on the role of intersectionality with other identity groups and protective factors for school-based RD experiences. Educators should explore interventions beyond only school connectedness for reducing school-based RD for Black youth.

Holding intersecting marginalized identities in the United States (U.S.)—gender, ethnicity, and perceived weight status (PWS)—may increase Latina and Hispanic women’s risk for depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between racial discrimination stress, PWS, and depressive symptoms in Latina and Hispanic women. PWS was also examined as a potential moderator. Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 467 Latina and Hispanic women ( M age = 40.79 ± 14.98 years) living in the U.S. After adjusting for age, ethnicity, health insurance status, acculturation, education, income, and body mass index (BMI), racial discrimination stress was positively associated with depressive symptoms ( p &lt; .001). PWS did not moderate this association. However, PWS was significantly associated with depressive symptoms; perceiving oneself as “overweight” was associated with more severe depressive symptoms ( p &lt; .05) compared to perceiving oneself as “skinny” ( p &lt; .05), “average weight” ( p &lt; .05), or “slightly overweight” ( p &lt; .05). These data underscore the influence of both racial discrimination and body size perception, regardless of BMI, on Latina and Hispanic women’s psychological health. Health promotion efforts for Latina and Hispanic women in the U.S. may consider targeting the perpetration of racial and weight-based discrimination, as well as addressing self-perceptions and accompanying beliefs surrounding race and body size.