Echoes of the past : race-based generational trauma and resilience in Black emerging adulthood
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Current research indicates that trauma, when unresolved, can be passed down through fourteen generations within a family's lineage. Considering Black people and the traumatic experiences they have faced throughout American history, the consequences of historical traumas dating back to the 1600s can be felt in younger generations of Black people today. These consequences take on many forms such as alterations in one's perception of self and the world around them and a felt need to work harder than White peers. Since emerging adulthood is a time when people begin to understand who they are and what they want in life, this is a prime time to resolve inherited trauma, or race-based generational trauma. Addressing race-based generational trauma keeps current generations of Black people from passing trauma responses down to future generations. However, research on race-based generational trauma and Black emerging adulthood is absent in the existing literature. The current study used a phenomenological approach to understand the ways in which Black emerging adults experience and cope with race-based generational trauma. Data from interviews with Black emerging adults about their experiences of race-based generational trauma and their ways of coping were analyzed using inductive analysis. The results from this study can be used to inform the development of interventions focused on resolving race-based generational trauma.
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Ph. D.