Historical Trauma as Public Narrative: A Conceptual Review of How History Impacts Present-Day Health
Open accessAbstract
Theories of historical trauma increasingly appear in the literature on individual and community health, especially in relation to racial and ethnic minority populations and groups that experience significant health disparities. As a consequence of this rapid growth, the literature on historical trauma comprises disparate terminology and research approaches. This critical review integrates this literature in order to specify theoretical mechanisms that explain how historical trauma influences the health of individuals and communities. We argue that historical trauma functions as a public narrative for particular groups or communities that connects present-day experiences and circumstances to the trauma so as to influence health. Treating historical trauma as a public narrative shifts the research discourse away from an exclusive search for past causal variables that influence health to identifying how present-day experiences, their corresponding narratives, and their health impacts are connected to public narratives of historical trauma for a particular group or community. We discuss how the connection between historical trauma and present-day experiences, related narratives, and health impacts may function as a source of present-day distress as well as resilience.
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Historical trauma has long been conceptually linked to poor health outcomes in AIANs.
“Historical trauma has long been conceptually linked to poor health outcomes in AIANs [20,21,22,23,24,25].”
From Substance and Behavioral Addictions among American Indian and Alaska Native Populations (2022) · cites this paper as [23]
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- Authors
- Mohatt, N. V., Thompson, A. B., Thai, N. D., & Tebes, J. K.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Central Connecticut State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mohatt, Nathaniel Vincent
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-04
- Volume
- 106
- Pages
- 128-136
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4001826
- OpenAlex
- W2060214383
- Cited by
- 447
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 91 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 1.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- SUNY Digital Repository Support (State University of New York System) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Yale Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Scholar program award (K12HD066065)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Memory, History, Trauma, Identity
- Keywords
- historical trauma, public narratives, health disparities, racial and ethnic minorities, community health, resilience, intergenerational trauma
- MeSH terms
- Health Status, Humans, Life Change Events, Models, Theoretical, Stress, Psychological, Narration, Empirical Research, Resilience, Psychological
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