American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research : the Journal of the National Center

This article discusses a community-based participatory research project with university researchers, an urban inter-tribal center, and other community partners to develop, administer, and deliver a community needs assessment of an urban American Indian (AI) community. In the development process, community focus groups identified major domains of inquiry for a needs assessment survey: mental health and substance abuse, medical care, and social services, including cultural programming. Results are presented and discussed in each domain...

Positive youth development approaches with American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth have been particularly successful and promising. Utilizing a survey with 3,736 AI/AN students, we investigated the associations between risk and protective factors and significant mental distress of AI/AN youth. The protective factors were studied within the positive youth development framework, which includes positive developmental assets reflecting aspects of the Circle of Courage, a prior framework embodying core indigenous values for youth development and education to support youth at risk...

In this study, positive aspects of self-compassion (i.e., self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness of one's thoughts and feelings) were explored in relation with suicide risk factors (i.e., perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness) in a community sample of 242 self-identified American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults. Participants completed a survey packet including a demographic form, the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire, and the Self-Compassion Scale at several Indian Health Service clinics and tribal centers in the Great Plains of the United States...

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) young adults are strong and resilient. Interventions designed to improve their mental health and help-seeking skills are especially needed, particularly those that include culturally relevant resources and relatable role models. This paper presents formative research from the BRAVE study, a five-year community based participatory research project led by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. Formative research included three phases and more than 38 AI/AN young adults and content experts from across the United States...

Historical trauma has contributed to the reality that addiction disproportionately affects tribal communities, including American Indian youth. We sought to understand American Indian youths' own experiences and perceptions of the environments to which they return after completing residential treatment for substance use disorder. We recruited three cohorts of American Indian residents of a substance use disorder treatment facility (N = 40). These residents completed a survey that measured risk and protective factors, as well as actual risk behaviors, including drug use, gambling, and violence...

Reservation communities are among emerging communities for gang activity, in which reports of a rise in youth and/or criminal gangs began occurring after the 1980s. Gang membership has been found to pose a public health risk, strain community resources, and risk a number of individual negative life outcomes. Perceived increases in reservation gang activity have been observed by law-enforcement and community stakeholders, but comparatively little empirical research has focused specifically on these communities...

Increasing rates of opioid-related deaths over the last twenty years have created a national public health crisis. However, minimal research investigates opioid use among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. This study examined non-medical prescription opioid prevalence rates and resiliency of urban and rural AI/AN and non-AI/AN students. The sample included eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students who participated in the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resilience Survey in 2013, 2015, and 2017 (n = 42,098)...

Resilience and stress are important factors in the caregiving experience, but research has yet to examine their association among American Indian (AI) caregivers. This study examines resilience and stress in a group of Hopi female caregivers. Data came from the Hopi Adult Caregiver Survey (2017), which conducted interviews with 44 Hopi women who were providing care without remuneration to an adult family member. Measures included the abbreviated Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and questions about caregiver characteristics, care recipient characteristics, social support/ community support, and cultural factors...

Mental health professionals that work with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations are often viewed as ineffective because their professional training is based on a Western model of service delivery that is an extension of Western colonization. Research on effective training approaches for AI/AN mental health providers or mental health professionals that work with AI/AN populations is limited. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences and impact of the Good Road of Life (GRL) training on mental health professionals that work with AI/AN populations...

This paper explores drug and alcohol policies at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). A research team conducted a needs assessment of Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) use and policies in 27 TCUs, surveying key informants on perceived AOD prevalence. Student body size did not affect levels of AOD training or treatment. Larger TCU size increased the likelihood of on-campus housing, which increased the prevalence of zerotolerance policies and greater access to AOD services. Reservation policies, local resources, and cultural practices did not appear to affect TCU AOD policies...

Previous research consistently concludes American Indians (AI) demonstrate higher levels of alcohol use than Caucasians (CA); however, recent research suggests AIs may be drinking at similar or lower rates than CAs. Little research has examined cultural identification as a contributing factor to alcohol use. This study sought to examine cultural identification and its relationship to alcohol use between AI and CA college students. Participants consisted of 56 AI and 87 CA college students who selfreported on past 6-month alcohol consumption and how they culturally identified per the Orthogonal Theory of Biculturalism...

While progress has been made in learning more about American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) who reside in Hawai'i, much more research is needed regarding adolescents' mental health and the major life events that they encounter. Utilizing a large cross-sequential epidemiologic design (N = 7,214; 1992-1996), this study found AI/AN-Hawaiian youth self-reported higher risk of predominantly negative major life events and mental health symptoms than for the non-Indigenous adolescent ethnic group, with the AI/AN and Native Hawaiian ethnic groups falling generally in between...

This paper reports Phase 4 of the Culture is Prevention Project where we validated the Cultural Connectedness Scale - California (CCS-CA) with a sample of 344 Indigenous adults in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. In Phase 3 of this project, the CCS-CA was modified from the original Canadian Cultural Connectedness Scale (CCS) developed by Dr. Angela Snowshoe and colleagues to be a better fit for the more multi-tribal communities in urban California. Both the CCS-CA and CCS consist of 29 items that measure culture on 3 sub-scales: identity, traditions, and spirituality...

This project gathered opinions, attitudes, and beliefs from American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people who inject drugs (PWID). The primary objective of this study was to build formative knowledge around AI/AN PWID to help define and develop health care services and strategies by better understanding existing services, barriers, and challenges to seeking care. A total of 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. AI/AN PWID reported a number of structural, social, and geographical barriers when trying to access health care...

Utilizing data collected by the Monitoring the Future project between 2005-2015, this study assesses the effect of risk and protective factors in shaping the graduation expectations of urban American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students as compared to their non-Hispanic White (NHW) peers. The responses of nearly 150,000 8th- and 10th-grade students reveal that single race and multi-race AI/AN students experienced 13 of 15 risk factors at higher proportions than NHW students, and 12 of 15 risk factors corresponded to single race AI/AN students and a third of risk factors corresponded to multi-race AI/AN students having higher odds of expecting not to graduate...

We report an evaluation of a combined individual- and community-level treatment and prevention effort to reduce underage drinking by American Indian (AI) youths on rural California Indian reservations. The interventions included: brief motivational interviewing and psychoeducation for Tribal youths, restricting alcohol sales to minors in alcohol sales outlets, and community mobilization and awareness activities. Surveys were collected from 120 adults and 74 teens to evaluate the awareness and effectiveness of the interventions...

Programs serving American Indian (AI) youth are an important component of maintaining cultural identity and healthy lifestyles. The current research took a community-engaged approach to evaluate an urban AI youth after-school program that has transitioned into a culturally grounded prevention program. Ways to create a successful research collaboration between AI communities and academics is discussed as well as implications for understanding the importance of culturally-grounded programs for AI youth who reside in urban areas...

The Culture is Prevention Project is a multi-phased communitybased participatory research project that was initiated by six urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health organizations in northern California. Issues driving the project were: i) concerns about the lack of culturally informed or Indigenous methods of evaluating the positive health outcomes of culture-based programs to improve mental health and well-being; and ii) providing an approach that demonstrates the relationship between AI/AN culture and health...

American Indians and Alaska Natives experience pervasive mental, behavioral, and physical health disparities, yet access to culturally relevant and evidenced-based programs (EBPs) are severely limited. The purpose of this research is to describe the process of conducting a rigorous and culturally sensitive research approach, which was used to inform the development of a family-based substance abuse and violence prevention program that promotes resilience. The focus of this article is on the process of this development, rather than the intervention itself...

American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) are subject to widespread cultural misrepresentations ranging from intrusive questions about ethnic identity to Native-themed sports team mascots. Racial microaggressions are linked to negative physical health, mental health, and academic consequences for AI/ANs. This study examines microaggressions experienced by AI/AN post-secondary students in New Mexico and Oklahoma. Microaggression prevalence ratings and associated distress were compared across region, gender, income, age, and cultural involvement...