Emancipating the Social Ecology of Early Childhood Development: Racism, Structural Adversity, and Transformational Communities

• In Event: Trauma Among Individuals, Families, and Communities: Situating Adversity in Context

Abstract

Adverse, protective, and positive childhood experiences are often examined independent of the broader social ecology. Yet social context and structural conditions profoundly shape the distribution of risk and protective factors for child development. Moreover, adverse social environments and robust neighborhood opportunity structures influence social development and mobility. Growing research has established the impact of racism, a system of advantage where opportunity and value are assigned based on socially constructed categories, on the developing child. Theoretical frameworks and empirical approaches to measure the impact of structural racism and race-based trauma on developmental trajectory, as well as, the community-level attributes that promote resilience, healing, and flourishing, can be extended to include an intersectional lens to account for interconnections between co-occurring social categories such as race, class, and gender and systems that maintain them.

Author

• Renee Danielle Boynton-Jarrett, Boston Medical Center
  Presenting Author