UC Riverside

With the continued racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric targeted at the Latinx population, there is a need to further explore the impact that racism has on Latino students' social-emotional health and academic performance. Ample scholarship highlights the ways in which racism in education manifests in the forms of racial microaggressions and toxic campus racial climate that affects students of color (Kohli & Solórzano, 2012; Pérez Huber & Solórzano, 2014; Yosso et al., 2009). However, few studies have examined the ways in which the experiences with racism can contribute to the development of racism-induced traumatic stress (i.e., hypervigilance, lack of sleep, and muscle tension; Akbar, 2017; Carter, 2007; Comas-Diaz, Hall, & Neville, 2019) among K-12 Latino students. This study builds on existing literature on racism-induced traumatic stress by studying the way in which six Latino high school students experienced racism at various levels ranging from structural, institutional, interpersonal, and internal. Interview data describes how frequent encounters with racism took a toll on the social-emotional wellbeing of these students and ultimately impeded their academic success. Lastly, the study results, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed.