Utilizing the Complex Racial Trauma Framework to Understand Trauma Symptoms in Racially Minoritized Youth

Abstract

Traumatic experiences related to one's racial identity, common among Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the United States and other countries, have not been well conceptualized in relation to psychiatric disorders. In recent years, the definition of trauma exposure has evolved to go beyond a single exposure and to incorporate complex traumatic experiences into the conceptualization and treatment of mental illness. This change is reflected in the creation of clinical diagnoses such as complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and the proposed developmental trauma disorder (DTD). This letter makes the argument that the complex racial trauma (CoRT) theoretical framework proposed by Cénat¹ provides solutions for expanding the conceptualization by marrying the notions of racial traumatic experiences and complex traumatic experiences. The CoRT framework offers a model that incorporates the effects of traumatic exposure on critical periods of psychosocial development and their accumulation throughout a lifetime, while also appreciating the social and cultural contexts that are crucial for understanding the experiences of BIPOC pediatric patients. This approach provides a novel structure to help minoritized youth counteract the mental health effects of systems of oppression by improving identification and treatment of mental health disorders and facilitating engagement from minoritized children and adolescents in mental health interventions.