Academic and public discourse continues to center discussions of structural racism, its effects, and policy remediation of its lasting impacts on the well-being of racial minorities over the life course. We contribute to this discourse through a research synthesis of scholarship on the health and well-being consequences of vicarious and environmental racism for Black youth. Utilizing a sociological perspective, we propose a model that 1) identifies the ways that racism vicariously impacts the health and well-being of Black children on the interpersonal level through discrimination, and 2) highlights how structural and environmental factors both exacerbate these experiences and impact health and well-being directly. The harmful effects of vicarious racism on Black children between birth and age 5 are well-documented. Given the lack of agency in early childhood, coupled with their caregivers’ heightened exposure to racialized adversity, we argue that Black youth are particularly vulnerable to racism's indirect impact on mental health and socioemotional development. Additionally, decades of research on environmental justice and environmental racism show yet another route through which structural racism shapes the health of racial minorities across the life course (e.g., toxic exposure, resource scarcity, urban heat). Despite this growing focus on how Black children's well-being is shaped through indirect experiences of racism, as well as the mental health impacts of personal and vicarious racism, few studies have coalesced these lines of research to better understand how to lessen and mitigate the impacts of these adverse exposures. As such, we emphasize strategies for psychological resilience and harm reduction.

中文翻译：

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有毒途径：探索替代和环境种族主义对儿童早期黑人青少年的影响


学术和公共话语继续围绕结构性种族主义、其影响以及对其对少数族裔生命历程福祉的持久影响的政策补救进行讨论。我们通过关于替代和环境种族主义对黑人青年的健康和福祉影响的学术研究综合为这一论述做出贡献。利用社会学的角度，我们提出了一个模型，该模型 1） 确定种族主义通过歧视在人际层面间接影响黑人儿童的健康和福祉的方式，以及 2） 强调结构和环境因素如何加剧这些经历并直接影响健康和福祉。替代种族主义对出生到 5 岁的黑人儿童的有害影响是有据可查的。鉴于儿童早期缺乏能动性，再加上他们的照顾者更多地暴露在种族化的逆境中，我们认为黑人青年特别容易受到种族主义对心理健康和社会情感发展的间接影响。此外，数十年来对环境正义和环境种族主义的研究显示了结构性种族主义影响少数族裔在整个生命历程中的健康的另一条途径（例如，有毒物质暴露、资源稀缺、城市炎热）。尽管人们越来越关注黑人儿童的福祉是如何通过间接的种族主义经历塑造的，以及个人和替代种族主义对心理健康的影响，但很少有研究将这些研究结合起来，以更好地了解如何减轻和减轻这些不良暴露的影响。因此，我们强调心理弹性和减少伤害的策略。