Understanding the Link Between Racial Discrimination and Traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Black Youth

The Role of Co-Rumination and Racism-Related Vigilance

Bernard, Donte L.
Galán, Chardée A.

Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri Columbia
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University

Rachel Wamser served as action editor.

The authors report there are no competing interests or conflicts of interest to declare. Preparation of this article was supported by National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Grant K23MD016168 (principal investigator: Donte L. Bernard). All views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agencies or respective institutions.

Donte L. Bernard played a lead role in data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing and an equal role in conceptualization. Chardée A. Galán played a supporting role in writing–original draft and writing–review and editing and an equal role in conceptualization.

Donte L. Bernard, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri Columbia, 204D McAlester Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, United States [email protected]

Received December 20, 2024

revised May 28, 2025

Accepted July 12, 2025

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy Publish Ahead of Print, August 28, 2025. | DOI: 10.1037/tra0002026

Objective: Racial discrimination represents a pernicious source of trauma for Black youth that can critically hinder mental health. This cross-sectional study examined whether racism-related co-rumination and racism-related vigilance function as distinct and sequential pathways linking racial discrimination to traumatic stress symptoms (TSS) among a sample of Black adolescents. Method: Data were drawn from a national sample of 195 Black adolescents (M_age = 14.52; 49% female) who completed questionnaires assessing racial discrimination, racism-related co-rumination, racism-related vigilance, and TSS. Results: Path analyses assessed direct and indirect associations between discrimination and TSS via racism-related co-rumination and vigilance. Racial discrimination was positively associated with TSS when indirect effects were not considered. Examinations of indirect effects illustrated that discrimination was not associated with TSS through racism-related co-rumination but was via the vigilance path. Serial mediation analysis showed that racism-related co-rumination and, in turn, racism-related vigilance partially explained the link between racial discrimination and TSS. Conclusions: Findings highlight the significance of discrimination-related coping responses and underscore the need for culturally informed interventions that augment how Black youth navigate racism-related stressors.