Understanding Intergenerational Trauma
Intergenerational trauma is defined as the inheritance of trauma from one generation to another. Beginning in the 1960’s, scientists began to investigate how the children of Holocaust survivors were impacted by the experiences of their parents. Since then, a robust literature has been produced applying some of the same investigative variables to other types of trauma, from systematic racism, misogyny, surviving national disasters, and even at the most internal level – Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Research and Lasting Impacts
Writer Caitlin Greg, in her 2025 article for Medical News Today, “Examples and Effects Of Intergenerational Trauma”, writes, “traumatic events can influence a person’s beliefs, behaviors, and mental health, which can all have knock-on effects through the generations… research has examined why and how the effects of traumatic events may span generations, focusing on events that affect whole groups of people as well as events that affect specific individuals or families.”
The Lingering Trauma in African American Families
No matter how big or small, trauma can have life altering impacts on a person and the effects can reverberate throughout the entire family unit. Despite conversations about mental health becoming more mainstream, there is still a very large stigma surrounding having conversations about effects of trauma within African American families. Historically, African Americans were not seen as human beings but property to be owned so it was unthinkable from the perspectives of White people that the systematic enslavement and disenfranchisement would have perpetual effects. As a result, African Americans have also been systematically denied access to proper mental health care which has continued to perpetuate the effects of trauma.
Tradition, Secrets, and Emotional Silence
Tradition and trauma can sometimes be two sides of the same coin. Often tradition and trauma are bound in secret, producing a myriad of things that are not to be discussed at any point. Family secrets prevent any relief from the impacts of intergenerational trauma because most families fail to recognize the connections between ongoing bouts of depression, anxiety, and loneliness and refusal to acknowledge emotion due to never learning how to in the first place.
The Unknown Future, Cultural Shifts, and Hope
There is no doubt the effects of the traumatic events of the last five to ten years will have a detrimental impact on the children of today and tomorrow. Will systematic racism, mass incarceration, or gender-based racial violence ever truly go away? That is unknown. But certainly, through cultural shifts and widening discourse surrounding intergenerational trauma, awareness will continue to grow.
