Assessing exposure to racial discrimination in its full complexity also requires attention to capturing the effects of discrimination on others and the potential intergenerational effects of racism. Few measures of discrimination ask questions about experiences of discrimination that occurred in the lives of family members and close friends of the respondent (Kressin et al. 2008). In contrast, the stress literature has long noted that vicarious experiences of stress can also adversely affect the individual (Cohen et al. 1995). One recent study found that the father’s experience of workplace discrimination was positively associated with his depressive symptoms, as well as, those of his family members (Crouter et al. 2006). Recent research on the effects of historical trauma on the health of American Indians illustrates the importance of assessing this dimension of racism (Whitbeck et al. 2004; Brave Heart 2003; Brave Heart and DeBruyn 1998). The term historical trauma refers to the cumulative psychological wounding of an individual and his/her group due to the history of genocide and other atrocities that American Indians and other indigenous people experienced from European colonizers. The
