HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND INTERSECTIONAL EXPERIENCES

Question 1

EPIGENETICS

Answer 1

Epigenetics: how your genes are turned on and off - studies focus on families with grandparents, great grandparents in the holocaust - studies still need to be done on other populations affected by historical trauma

Interesting: children of parents whose parents experienced the holocaust experience the same rates of ptsd as their parents (who experienced trauma first hand)

Neuroendocrine differences among children of holocaust survivors and “non exposed” jews

Idea is:
Trauma influences epigenome of germ cells (sperm/egg) - if during pregnancy and baby is a girl, will also influence baby’s own germ cells
Leads to genes in an offspring being turned on off

Question 2

impact of historical trauma beyond epigenetics

Answer 2

Survivors passing down narratives of their experiences:
→ Parallels between past events and present
→ Memory lives on as a representation of group lived trauma

Cycle of intergenerational transmission
- Model from heard-garris et al, 2018
- Racism impacts parental mental health, parents practices
^ related to youth mental and physical health

Question 3

KIRKINIS ET AL, 2021 – SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND TRAUMA LITERATURE

Answer 3

• Moderate to strong positive correlations between racial discrimination and trauma symptoms
  
  • Found across traditional ptsd measures and race based traumatic stress symptom scale

Looked across:
28 studies (all in US)
50% came out since 2011
93% cross sectional, 7% longitudinal

Question 4

carter el al, 2013: