Trauma, Discrimination and their relationship to Discussing Political Events with Parents.

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

In a recent edition of Monographs of the Society for Research In Child Development, Patterson and colleagues (2019) place a call for research that explores youth political development as a critical aspect of the developing person. Family discussion is one tool through which individuals understand political events, political identity and racism (Laszloffy & Hardy, 2000). Given that current political events involve events related to trauma and discrimination (e.g. separation of children on the border), these factors likely will influence how parents discuss events with their emerging adults. In this study, we explored whether both trauma history and recent discrimination experiences increase or decrease the likelihood that college students will discuss different types of political events with their parents – those that do or do not involve some aspect of discrimination against marginalized groups. We expected that, given past evidence of dissociation and avoidance in trauma victims (Hopper et al., 2007), those with more severe trauma histories would be less likely to discuss political current events with their parents. We also explored whether exposure to discrimination would have a similar effect on current event discussion.

Method

We recruited 203 participants (81% Caucasian, 76.4% female) from a Northeastern public university. In an online survey, participants completed the Trauma History Questionnaire, the Everyday Discrimination Scale (short version) and questions on whether they discussed political events with their parents. Participants were also asked about the content of the discussion and for reasons for not discussing these events with their parents. These responses will be examined in a qualitative follow up analysis.

We found that 68.9% of our sample reported at least one traumatic event from the THQ questionnaire. We also found that 89.8 % of the sample reported experiencing at least one discrimination event (ex: You are called names or insulted). The vast majority of the participants (96.3%) discussed at least one discrimination event (current events related to police brutality against Black youth, immigrant family separation at the border, transgender rights, and white supremacism); as well as discussing non-discrimination related global and political events (current events related to climate change, impeachment, and mass shootings; 95.7%).

Results

Three linear regressions were run in SPSS looking at trauma and discrimination predicting the number of events that youth discussed with their parents as follows: (a) all types of political events, (b) discrimination events only, and (c) non-discrimination events only. For all events combined, trauma significantly predicted fewer events discussed but discrimination significantly predicted more events discussed. For discrimination events only, trauma marginally predicted less discussion and discrimination significantly predicted more discussion. For non-discrimination events only, trauma marginally predicted less discussion, but discrimination was no longer significant.

Discussion

These findings suggest that previous trauma and recent experiences of discrimination affect familial discussions about political events. Trauma and discrimination had opposing effects on event discussion, particularly for discrimination related events. Understanding factors hindering families from possibly triggering discussions provides insight as to future solutions to foster reduction of bias against marginalized groups and open political discussion in familial contexts.

Authors

• Aya Cheaito, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author

• Jamie L Abaied, University of Vermont
  Non-Presenting Author