Compound Trauma: Exploring the Intersection of Spiritual Abuse and Racial Trauma on Mental Health in African American Muslim Communities

Abstract

Despite growing evidence that spiritual abuse and racial trauma independently contribute to psychological distress, their intersection within racially marginalized faith communities remains insufficiently understood. African American Muslims are notably underrepresented in research on religious harm and race-based stress, creating a critical gap in understanding how congregational power dynamics and anti-Blackness jointly produce psychospiritual injury. This study addresses this gap by examining the combined effects of spiritually abusive experiences and race-based stress on mental health, while exploring institutional mechanisms that translate congregational practices into individual harm. Grounded in an intersectionality-informed minority stress framework, it incorporates concepts of institutional betrayal and moral-epistemic injury to investigate multi-level sources of harm. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, the study integrates quantitative self-report surveys with in-depth qualitative interviews. Participants were African American Muslim adults with experience in congregational settings. Quantitative measures assessed spiritual abuse, race-based traumatic stress, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and moral-epistemic distress, with analyses examining associations and multivariate relationships. Qualitative interviews employed a phenomenological approach to explore lived experiences and identify themes related to organizational behavior and leadership practices. Findings revealed strong associations between spiritual abuse, racial trauma, and psychological distress, with evidence of overlapping and mutually reinforcing effects. Thematic analysis identified three institutional pathways of epistemic marginalization, doctrinal weaponization, and institutional betrayal through which harm is enacted. Overall, results highlight the synergistic nature of these stressors, framing spiritual abuse in marginalized religious contexts as an intersectional public health concern requiring culturally informed clinical and institutional responses.