News coverage, social media, and the endless notifications, emails, pings, etc. that we receive each day can significantly impact our mental health. The disproportionate representation of negative events is part of a cycle that is feeding our innate self-protective nature and thus contributing to our heightened level of stress and anxiety. Such a chronic state of hyper-vigilance may contribute to mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, as individuals grapple with the emotional toll of witnessing discrimination, injustice, and brutality. Families, especially children, are not immune to the effects of this collective trauma, which tends to hit minority communities the hardest as our negative bias, hyper-vigilance, and hard wiring will easily generalize the acts of an individual to an entire community or system—in essence, seeing any stick in our path as a snake.

So what do we do with these complex feelings of fear, helplessness, frustration, and anger that impact our self-esteem and mental well-being? And how do we safely navigate our families through this collective trauma, which can have intergenerational effects?

Foster Open Communication: It is important to foster open communication in our families, with close attention to providing age-appropriate information. Consider a child’s ability for abstract reasoning, which fully develops between the ages of 11 and 17+, and how information and guidance must be more simple and concrete the younger they are.
Encouragement: Parents should encourage questions, validate feelings, and express empathy without oversharing or implicitly expecting a child to care for their sadness, pain, or other difficult emotions. Remember to use curiosity and investigate to gauge your child’s understanding, ensuring you meet them at their level.
Positivity: Keep things positive, and highlight efforts for peace and resolution. Discuss coping mechanisms and the role of family and community or other supports during these difficult and confusing times. Inspire agency and responsibility.
Diverse Perspectives and Responsible Use of Technology: Education is critical in combating stereotypes and prejudice. Take time to consider where you get your information, and do your best to minimize your own bias, which may be based on misinformation. Keep an open mind with a call to action fostering inclusivity and diversity.
Service and Kindness to Others: Foster a philosophy based on the search for humanity in others. We must grow our relationships based on attraction and not fear. Be of service, and continue to be curious (teach and learn) so that we find ways to move us all forward together.

References

Hirschberger G. (2018). Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1441. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01441

Simran Jeet Singh (2022). The Light We Give. Penguin.