We’ve all seen the news stories about racism, police brutality against people of color, and Black Lives Matter protests happening across the U.S. But what gets less coverage in the media is how repeated trauma experienced by African-Americans impedes the black community’s ability to raise healthy, happy, and stable children.
At the Exchange Family Center, we want to be seen as allies to those experiencing the physical, psychological, and economic fallout resulting from racist policies. Our focus is on how we as an agency and as individuals can support families and children in our community.
One aspect of this work is educational. This blog article aims to educate about how the ongoing trauma of racism impacts black communities and children born into toxic stress environments.
Trauma and Toxic Stress
The quick and easy definition of trauma is a deep emotional wound. Stress that naturally results as a response to frightening or threatening traumatic events can become toxic. And toxic stress can lead to changes in behavior, emotional health, and cognitive capacity.
However, children who experience these types of traumatic events within an environment of emotional support (i.e., “protective factors”) are better able to buffer themselves from the impacts of stress. When the adults in a child’s life focus on providing strong emotional support, even children facing serious trauma perform better. But the stress can become toxic when trauma is repeated and when protective factors are insufficient to mitigate the stress.
The African American community experiences a particular type of trauma: historical trauma. Historical trauma is caused by events that target a specific group of people, e.g., Slavery, Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration. It’s also intergenerational. Thus, even family members who have not experienced the trauma directly can feel the effects of the event generations later. These emotional wounds get passed down generation-by-generation through toxic stress and its effects.
Protective Factors
Psychologists and other childhood development experts refer to traumatic events experienced by children as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). We know that exposure to trauma and toxic stress as children can lead to a cascade of negative experiences later in life. Without the proper emotional support, ACEs lead to:
Disrupted Brain Development
Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Impairment
Adoption of High-Risk Behaviors
Disease Disability and Social Problems
Early Death
This is where protective factors, which we’ve discussed previously on the blog, come into play. Exposure to trauma need not result in toxic stress. African American children’s susceptibility to stress can be reduced by community efforts to increase protective factors including in neighborhoods, families, and schools. As a community, we can help children develop effective stress regulation techniques that will break the chains of negativity.
Neighborhoods
Living in a neighborhood that residents experience as “orderly” can be protective for children. By contrast, living in a neighborhood experienced as “disorderly”—with, for instance, excessive litter, vandalism, overcrowded housing, noise, public drug and alcohol use, and conflict—can increase children’s toxic stress response and impede parents’ ability to protect their children from this biological response.
When neighborhoods are perceived as orderly, it’s more likely that parents have a safe place to congregate and feel more socially connected to their neighbors. Such neighborhoods also support families’ overall sense of collective efficacy. When residents feel empowered and take ownership of the community where they live, they are better able to help their children cope with any frightening or threatening events.
In addition, high concentrations of parental incarceration in a particular neighborhood can diminish the protective capacity of affected families and the neighborhood as a whole. Parental incarceration, which is concentrated in segregated, low-income African American neighborhoods contributes to the disruption of family support systems.
Family
Having a network of stable, responsive relationships and caregivers with financial, psychological, and social resources to nurture them, equips children with the ability to cope with stress. When children feel supported and protected, their stress hormones return to normal making them better able to self-regulate their emotional responses.
Family and household stability is a protective factor. Living in an uncrowded home, or minimizing life transitions like moving or having family members move away, can protect children from developing toxic stress responses. The effect of such events and circumstances add up. When kids experience more family stability, they are better able to adjust to any big changes.
Parental emotional stability is another protective factor. When parents demonstrate emotional stability, children also learn to deal with their emotions in healthier ways. Parents who are less stressed are better able to listen, problem-solve, give and receive affection, and provide children with the stimulation their young brains need to develop well. Warm and responsive parenting can provide a buffer against Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
What social and economic factors influence a parent’s ability to demonstrate emotional stability?
Economic Security
Employment Opportunities and Stability
A Reduction of Racial Discrimination
School
A school’s environment can also contribute to protection against the toxic stress response to trauma. When teachers are emotionally supportive and responsive to all students and have positive relationships with students, they are better able to develop emotional and cognitive agency. Intentional district-wide and school-wide strategies designed to foster a positive school environment can contribute to kids’ social-emotional learning and reduction of stress.
For more information about trauma, toxic stress, and their effects on people of color, especially African Americans, check out this in-depth article.
Where do we go from here?
While many of these protective factors are missing from poor communities everywhere, they disproportionately affect majority African American communities and families. Clearly, the most effective way to reduce the likelihood of toxic stress in children is by enacting policy changes to eliminate the discrimination, poverty, and socioeconmic isolation that lead to neighborhood violence, unstable housing, economic insecurity, and excessive incarceration.
We need to come together as a community to protect our children and show lawmakers that we believe black children’s lives matter.
In light of recent and ongoing racism and violence against people of color, we want you to know that EFC sees you. We honor your experiences as unacceptable, horrific, and outrageous. We actively stand with African Americans against racism and police brutality. We value you and your families and we are here for you.
Please reach out and let us know what you need so we can be as responsive and supportive as possible. Our organization exists to support you, your families, and our whole community. Stay safe and well during these difficult times!