A Multigenerational Model of Environmental Risk for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Children and Families.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, public discourse has increasingly brought institutional and structural racism to the foreground of discussion on the well-being of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. Environmental toxicity in combination with the social triggers of institutional and structural racism are among the factors that shape the short- and long-term health of BIPOC Americans across multiple lifespans.

Objectives: We outline a $2+$ Generation Model for examining the mechanisms through which institutional and structural racism promotes the intergenerational transmission of environmental health risk and family and interpersonal relationships across the life course and across multiple generations. We present the model's theoretical underpinnings and rationale, discuss model limitations and needed sources of data, and implications for research, policy, and intervention.

Discussion: Parents and children are not only biologically linked in terms of transmission of environmental toxicities, but they are also linked socially and intergenerationally. The $2+$ Generation Model foregrounds family and interpersonal relationships occurring within developmental contexts that are influenced by environmental toxicity as well as institutional and structural racism. In sum, the $2+$ Generation Model highlights the need for an equity-first interdisciplinary approach to environmental health and redirects the burden of risk reduction away from the individual and onto the institutions and structures that perpetuate the racial disparities in exposure. Doing so requires institutional investment in expanded, multigenerational, and multimethod datasets. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13110.