A dream deferred: How trauma impacts the academic achievement of African American youth

According to the American Psychiatric Association (2000), trauma is a “direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one’s physical integrity; or witnessing an event that involves death” (p. 463). Trauma impacts cognition, which influencesa student’s ability to retain and analyze information. Overstreet and Mathews (2011) assert that “exposure to specific types of trauma has been linked to an array of negative mental health and academic outcomes” (p. 738). It is important that practitioners understand that trauma is pervasive in communities with limited resources and high rates of violence. Aiding students who struggle to understand complex factors including family, community, and school violence is vital. Without this aid, student behaviors and school performance may suffer.