“These experiences kill you emotionally”: Examining how Black Emerging Adults Construct Meaning of Race-Based Traumatic Stress

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 15: Race, Environment, Ecologies

Abstract

Race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) refers to the emotional and/or physiological response associated with experiences of racism, where an individual views an encounter or set of experiences as traumatic, injurious, and/or emotionally painful. Cumulative experiences of RBTS are predictive of adverse mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and psychological distress, however, less is known about how Black emerging adults experience and manage experiences of RBTS. RBTS poses a significant threat to the mental health of Black emerging adults, as they are less likely than White and other young adults of color, to utilize professional mental health services. We conducted 30 in-depth, individual interviews with a community sample of Black emerging adults living in St. Louis, Missouri. Reflexive thematic analysis, undergirded by the Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress (MEES) model, guided the analysis of the interview data. Three broad themes emerged from the participants’ lived experiences: (1) experiences of mundane and extreme everyday racism (2) hypervigilance as a coping response, and (3) the mental and physical injury of RBTS. Study findings illustrate how the mundane, uncontrollable, and unpredictable experiences Black emerging adults encounter operate on an individual and structural level to lead to manifestations of race-based traumatic stress. Study findings illustrate how the social forces, ideologies, and processes embedded within the participant’s environment led to and reinforced the deleterious mental and physical health outcomes they experience.

Author

• Kaleea Regina Lewis, University of Missouri