Campus Racial Climate, Psychological Well-being, and Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Monoracial Black and Biracial Black Students Following Heightened Exposure to Police Brutality

The spring of 2020 was characterized by highly visible acts of police brutality and a heightened attention to systemic racism that created a macro-stressor for Black-identifying individuals. The current study aimed to capture college students’ perceptions of campus racial climate, subjective well-being, and race-based trauma symptoms during this time. Results indicated that racial identity was associated with students’ mental well-being, perceptions of campus racial climate, and experiences of traumatic stress symptoms. Monoracial Black and biracial Black students differed from non-Black students in their perceptions of campus racial climate and their traumatic stress symptoms. Monoracial Black and biracial Black students differed from one another on reports of subjective well-being. A unique pattern of correlations among the study variables emerged for each group. Our findings document the race-based trauma symptoms experienced by monoracial Black and biracial Black students in the spring of 2020 and provide a foundation for future research to examine factors that uniquely contribute to the well-being of monoracial Black and biracial Black students.