Transgenerational Trauma: How Caregiver Trauma Predicts Trauma of the Child Within the University of Chicago's REACT Clinic Patient Population

Community violence is a pervasive problem that disproportionately affects low-income families of color. Chronic exposure to violence impacts a person's social, emotional, and physical health and is often passed down through generations. The present study aimed to explore the ways in which the caregiver's trauma subsequently impacts their offspring's trauma history. Medical charts of 118 patients seen at the University of Chicago Medicine's Recovery & Empowerment After Community Trauma (REACT) Clinic were utilized to determine the trauma histories of youth and their caregivers. The results indicated that the trauma histories of mothers are associated with the trauma histories of their offspring and that certain psychiatric diagnostic categories children are placed into are correlated to the mother's trauma as well. Future research to create a more thorough understanding of the phenomenon of transgenerational trauma in underserved communities and populations is needed to best inform the clinical approaches of assisting patients with deep-rooted histories of trauma.