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Historical Trauma and Epigenetics

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 11:38:31 GMT

How Trauma impacts our DNA

In conjunction with historical trauma, there are current understandings of intergenerational trauma and epigenetics guides current research on how trauma impacts family patterns and biology. According to Parish (2021), intergenerational trauma has less to do with the traumatic event itself, but more of a family’s inability to break familial patterns and habits that may as a result, re-traumatize the individuals in the family. Additionally, the ability for each member of the family to cope with the traumatic patterns accumulated create an intergenerational traumatic cycle. Family mythology has to do with stories that are circulated across multiple generations to justify unhealthy, toxic or traumatic patterns. These myths drive the individual’s ability or inability to relate to their family members and individuals outside of their family. A family’s rules, motto and even worldview shape the script that intergenerational trauma survivors recite when confronted with conflict, questions or challenging the intergenerational traumatic patterns in their family.

Biologically speaking, according to Jiang et.al (2019) epigenetics refers to a shift in the sequence of DNA as a result of trauma. “Stressful or traumatic events experienced in childhood or adolescence can be driven by a broad range of life events, including but not limited to physical injury, natural disaster, bullying, and childhood maltreatment” (Horner, 2015). According to this research, individuals who have experiences an Adverse Childhood Experience (A.C.E.) are more likely to experience mental and/or physical health complications as well as early life mortality. The reason childhood trauma has such a significant impact on adult health outcomes is because childhood trauma induces toxic stress. While stress can be categorized into many different categories, the type of stress that is as a result of childhood trauma causes long-term stressors on the body and physiological health of the individual. (Baram, 2009).It is important to recognize that toxic stress can be passed down generationally especially when considering intergenerational trauma patterns and epigenetics.

Adultification of Black Girls

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 11:37:25 GMT

Discipline in Schools

Morris (2018) discusses education from the perspective of considering the framework of oppression. While it is important to examine how trauma impacts female sexual trauma survivors in school, it is necessary to recognize that the issue of sexual trauma and schools cannot be addressed without addressing intersectionality, and how the intersections of race, trauma and socioeconomic status interact to inform how educators respond to girls who have been sexually traumatized. Morris (2018) discusses the necessity to examine oppression in school in contrast with systems of white supremacy and how schools wither uphold white supremacist ideals or disrupt them. Perry & Morris (2018) reveal the fact that while there is a plethora of academic research on racism, gender, and sexual assault, there continues to be a lack of research and resources for research around how racism, gender, and trauma impact black girls--particularly darker skinned black girls. In learning about the school experiences of girls who are sexual trauma survivors it is imperative to examine the histories of their girls themselves and their cultures of origin to understand the roots and foundational aspects of the traumas that they hold and have in their personal perspectives in addition to the results of sexual trauma.

Morris (2018) submits that the root cause of more harsh discipline practices among black girls is the adultification of black girls. The Annie E. Case Foundation and the Georgetown Law Center on Law on Poverty and Inequality (2017) conducted a study entitled “The adultification of black girls.” The findings were that black girls were perceived as more developed and independent than white girls. The perception of black girls is that they are less innocent than their white peers. Young black girls were seen as less vulnerable. And according to the study, black girls have less need of comfort, nurturing and protection.

Academic Decline as a Result of Trauma

sites@tailorbrands.com — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:41:17 GMT

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Tinto (1993)’s theory states that each individual possesses pre-college characteristics that have to do with socioeconomic background and personal educational experiences which predict whether or not they will complete and be successful in college. Joran et al. (2014) found that not enough research has been conducted on the direct correlation between sexual assault and academic performance. Despite this, the research is clear that girls of color are more likely to experience sexual trauma, in conjunction with being more likely to come from poorer families. Because of this, there is a clear need for research that examines the academic impact on girls who have experienced sexual trauma.

Low GPA, low reading levels, high dropout rates are all associated with exposure to trauma (Ngo, Langley, Kataoka, Nadeem & Escudero, 2013). Ziegler found that “…for the traumatized child, success in school carries more weight than for other students” (Ziegler, 2014). In addition, according to the National Child Trauma Stress Network, “Not all children exhibit noticeable signs of abuse” (NCTSN, 2003). Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski, advocate that “It’s worth noting that not all kids will act out. However, for those who do, once you recognize the trigger, kindly and compassionately reflect back to the child” (Dorado, 2013; Zakrzewski, 2013). Cole et al. (2005) emphasizes the lasting impact of trauma on the learner. Cole et al. (2005) state: “Poverty, chronic stress, domestic violence, natural disasters, and other high-risk contexts for child development may have lasting effects when they damage or impair these (three) crucial adaptive systems” (p. 43).

Intersectionality Theory

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:40:28 GMT

Identity and Power

Intersectionality Theory (Crenshaw, 1989; Walby et al., 2012) is an area of literature that was examined in this study because of the multi-layered experiences and impacts it has on the individual. It is defined as multiple inequalities manifested in multiple identities in one individual or group of individuals. This theory has historically been focused on the stories of black women and how the rise of criticism on racial and gender intolerance has grown into the need to examine the multi-faceted meaning of being a woman, a woman of color, as well as a variety of identifiers that may or may not be tolerated. Crenshaw (1989) and Hill Collins (2000) introduced the term “intersectionality.” It is the idea that multiple aspects of oppression (e.g. race, gender, economic status) cannot be seen as separate issues because the oppression itself comes from an intersection of prejudicial ideas that affect multiple aspects of the histories of women of color. Hill Collins stated that “cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society, such as race, gender, class, and ethnicity…it is interlocking oppression” (2000, p. 42).

Sinanan (2011) sought to identify what family risk factors (i.e. domestic violence, inadequate housing, financial problems, or substance abuse) correlated to physical abuse reporting by educational personnel. By focusing on relationships in the child’s environment, Sinanan found that: (a) younger children and children with prior abuse history were likely to be impacted; (b) there was a significant difference in reporting based on race: African American and Hispanic children have more reports than white children; (c) a correlation existed between risk factors and higher rates of reports; and (d) the failure to report affects the child’s abuse reporting system and society’s ability to help the child.

The goal in incorporating intersectionality in the study was to use multiple lenses to investigate the perspectives of the survivors of trauma who participated in the study. increased ‘allostatic load’ Although I anticipated participation in this study from a variety of racial groups, the experience of sexual trauma was an additional form of identity for all participants regardless of race. It was with insights from these fields of study that I intended to orient my study.

The Task Force on Children Out of School (TFCOS) recognized the need for trauma-informed education in the 1960s and 1970s. The collaborative suggests that there are systems in American schools that prevent the success of a student who has a trauma history. In The Way We Go to School: The Exclusion of Children in Boston, the task force discusses the “emergency” that came out of the realization that children across the state of Massachusetts were excluded from access to quality care and quality education. Not only is the need for quality education necessary in the state of Massachusetts, but across the United States, there has been attention drawn to the large numbers of vulnerable female students. Girls who are the most vulnerable are likely to have less access to their school programs. The lack of engagement in school often leads to involvement in human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.