Investigating the impact of inequity and intergenerational effects of childhood adversity among racial and ethnic minorities
Click the Poster to View Full Screen, Right click to save image
Grant: Students Partnering with Faculty (SpF)
Alyssa Ferrette
College:
College of Liberal Arts
Major:
Psychology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Fei Shen
Abstract:
Research has suggested profound impacts of childhood adversity on children and adolescents’ developmental outcomes, including self-harm, suicidality, internalizing problems, delinquency, poor school performance, and compromised functioning and overall mental health and wellbeing. When childhood maltreatment survivors become parents, they will likely pass down their difficulties in emotion regulation to their children through emotion socialization, which in turn compromise their children’s developmental outcomes. It has been well established that maladaptive emotion regulation strategies are associated with mental health issues and psychopathology. However, childhood adversity among different races and ethnicities is under-investigated. Emerging research studies have shed light on the inequity among trauma survivors, but they have largely discounted interconnections between race, gender, SES, and trauma experiences. The present study provides evidence of disparities in accessibility to health services, social support and family cohesion among racial/ethnic minority groups. The findings also offer insights into the importance for trauma-informed care, especially for the racial/ethnic minority group. Systemic collaboration among community members is urgently needed to reveal hidden racism, reduce barriers to access health and social care, and extend social support.