A Psychometric Investigation of Racial Trauma Symptoms Using a Semi-Structured Clinical Interview With a Trauma Checklist (UnRESTS)

Abstract

The term racial trauma is used to describe the cumulative distressing and traumatizing effects of racism in all of its forms, and it closely resembles the construct of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This investigation aims to increase our understanding of racial trauma by comparing the characteristics of those with a clinically-relevant diagnosis of racial trauma to those without, based on the findings of a clinical semi-structured interview and symptom checklist for assessing racial trauma, the University of Connecticut Racial Ethnic Stress and Trauma Survey (UnRESTS), administered to a diverse group of adults (N = 97). This paper extends prior work on racial trauma by examining the correlations between racial trauma and validated self-report measures of discriminatory distress, controlling for racialization. We examine the correlation between a clinically-relevant diagnosis of racial trauma and racial/ethnic identity. We also compare racism-related PTSD symptoms in those with and without racial trauma to inform clinical assessment. Finally, we examine the factor structure of racial trauma symptoms using the 24 items from the UnRESTS PTSD symptom checklist and compare these to current DSM-5 models. The structure of racial trauma symptoms differed from the DSM-5 4-factor model, as do other PTSD models in the research literature. Clinical and research implications are discussed.