An Intersectional‐Contextual Approach to Racial Trauma Exposure Risk and Coping Among Black Youth

Black youth experience racial discrimination at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. To identify how racism can simultaneously serve as a risk factor for adverse childhood experience (ACE) exposure, a discrete type of ACE, and a post‐ACE mental health risk factor among Black youth, Bernard and colleagues (2021) proposed the culturally informed ACEs (C‐ACE) model. While an important addition to the literature, the C‐ACE model is framed around a single axis of race‐based oppression. This paper extends the model by incorporating an intersectional and ecodevelopmental lens that elucidates how gendered racism framed by historical trauma, as well as gender‐based socialization experiences, may have implications for negative mental health outcomes among Black youth. Clinical and research implications are discussed.