Intersectionality of Resilience: A Strengths-Based Case Study Approach With Indigenous Youth in an Urban Canadian Context (original) (raw)
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A Systematic Review of Resilience Research among Indigenous Youth in Contemporary Canadian Contexts
The International Journal of Health, Wellness, and Society, 2017
The following article is a systematic review of health literature that considers processes of resilience among Indigenous youth in Canadian contexts. Through a systematic review of seventeen mixed-methods studies, this article briefly outlines the health disparities that exist among this population, while at the same time examining how resilience processes can inform strength-based approaches designed to improve the health and well-being of Indigenous youth in Canada. Central themes and prevalent findings discussed from this review include: (1) the role of cultural continuity; (2) community and family ties; and (3) empowering youth programs. Future implications for public health and community wellness initiatives should include a collaborative approach alongside Indigenous youth and their communities to understand resilience better as well as incorporating these relevant findings to contribute to strength within health and wellness related programming.
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The Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood (CIPA) study brought together researchers from five different universities, working in five different regions of the Arctic, to explore arctic indigenous-youth resilience utilizing collaborative and participatory approaches. This paper focuses on outcomes from the collaboration of two sites in the project and presents findings from a culminating cross-site workshop that engaged indigenous youth and community members, along with university researchers of various disciplines and backgrounds, in a cultural exchange of knowledge and practice. While our main goal for the study was to reveal processes and factors underlying indigenous-youth resilience, we learned much about the processes and factors contributing to resilience in research collaborations as well. Our findings suggest indigenous research methodologies may contribute towards the development of resilient collaborations with potential to bring about transformative outcomes for indigenous-community members engaged in research.
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Adversity and Resilience Science
Relative to non-Indigenous youth, Indigenous youth have been under-represented when studying pathways to mental wellness. Yet, a broad range of adversity is acknowledged, from intergenerational and ongoing trauma arising from colonial policies. This scoping review explores resilience definitions, measures, key stressors, and what Indigenous youth identify as pathways to their wellness, based on quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed literature in Canada and the Continental United States. Eight databases (EBSCO, PsycINFO, Science Direct, Social Science Citation Index, Web of Science, PsycARTICLES, and EMBASE) and hand searches of 7 relevant journals were conducted to ensure literature coverage. Two independent reviewers screened each article, with one Indigenous screener per article. The final scoping review analysis included 44 articles. In articles, no Indigenous term for resilience was found, but related concepts were identified (“walking a good path,” “good mind,” Grandfather...
Mapping resilience pathways of Indigenous youth in five circumpolar communities
Transcultural psychiatry, 2014
This introduction to the Special Issue Indigenous Youth Resilience in the Arctic reviews relevant resilience theory and research, with particular attention to Arctic Indigenous youth. Current perspectives on resilience, as well as the role of social determinants, and community resilience processes in understanding resilience in Indigenous circumpolar settings are reviewed. The distinctive role for qualitative inquiry in understanding these frameworks is emphasized, as is the uniquely informative lens youth narratives can offer in understanding Indigenous, cultural, and community resilience processes during times of social transition. We then describe key shared cross-site methodological elements of the Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood study, including sampling, research design, procedures, and analytic strategies. The site-specific papers further elaborate on methods, focusing on those elements unique to each site, and describe in considerable detail locally salient stre...
2017
The wellbeing of Indigenous youth living in Canada’s northern communities continues to lag behind the rest of the Canadian population. To a large extent, these health inequities are perpetuated by processes of colonisation that significantly impact the social determinants of health in Canada’s Indigenous north. The purpose of this article is to review the history of colonisation and its impacts on the wellbeing of Indigenous youth in Canada’s north, as well as processes of resilience that have helped Indigenous youth live healthy lives despite social challenges. Academic articles published between 2000 and 2016 outlining resilience from Indigenous perspectives are reviewed in the contexts of Canada’s Indigenous north. Analysis focuses on what insights about resilience emerge from Indigenous communities, particularly as they related to the health inequities of circumpolar regions. The concept of Âhkameyimo is discussed and how systems of Indigenous knowledge offer important insights ...
Relationship Building for a Healthy Future: Indigenous Youth Pathways for Resiliency and Recovery
2012
This study investigated why Indigenous youth (Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, American Indians, First Nations, and Alaska Natives) decided to abstain from substance abuse behaviors. The authors used both qualitative methods (grounded theory) and quantitative methods (exploratory factor analysis) to develop a story line of the rationale participants used to abstain from substance abuse behaviors and to provide a voice from participants to enhance future Indigenous-relevant curriculum and social work related intervention development. This project was based on the guiding principles set forth by a tribally relevant research code. Aggregate data from Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) intakes were used. Results included the importance of maintaining relationships as a driving factor in the quit process. Youths also stated that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and having strong self-will not being an addict were resiliency factors in the path to recovery. Finally, Indigenous youth used their perceptions of future
Pimatisiwin, 2008
CIET started supporting Canadian Aboriginal community-based researchers of resilience in 1995. An evolving approach to Aboriginal resilience used a combination of standard instruments and questionnaires of local design. Over the years, CIET measured personal assets like sense of coherence, spirituality, knowledge, pride in one's heritage, mastery or self-efficacy, self-esteem, low levels of distress, involvement in traditional ways and activities, church attendance. Other indicators reflected the social dimension of resilience: feeling supported; parental care and support; parental monitoring, attitudes, and example; peer support; and support from the wider community.Pride in one's heritage, self-esteem, low distress, and mastery were measurable personal assets of resilient Aboriginal youth in a variety of cultures and circumstances. Early efforts to link resilience with specific features of culture or spirituality did not meet with success - largely reflecting failure to as...
DISTINGUISHING DIFFERENCES IN PATHWAYS TO RESILIENCE AMONG CANADIAN YOUTH
2008
As part of an 11-country qualitative study of resilience among at-risk youth, 19 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadian adolescents were interviewed. In this paper, we report on the Canadian youths' culturally specific and generic strategies to cope with adversity. Findings suggest that the youths' resilience, or capacity to cope under stress, reflects different degrees of access to 7 mental health-enhancing experiences (we term these "tensions"): access to material resources; access to supportive relationships; development of a desirable personal identity; experiences of power and control; adherence to cultural traditions; experiences of social justice; and experiences of a sense of cohesion with others.
Directions in Indigenous Resilience Research
Pimatisiwin, 2008
The last decade or so of research in Canada, reflected in this special issue, has increased our understanding of the distinction between Indigenous resilience and the research into Indigenous resilience.Measurement offers glimpses of resilience, mostly from the potentially distorted view of how resilient youth face specific adversity - adversity that is set by the funding opportunity: tobacco, substance abuse, suicide, or HIV infection. The driving role of funding has obvious problems; the priorities of funders may not be the priorities of communities and results can tell more about the funding opportunity than about resilience itself. Even so, this problem-focussed research has the very practical advantage of producing results geared to solutions.A major lesson of this body of work is that we should allow ourselves the space (and the modesty) to recognize that Aboriginal resilience is greater than we have been able to measure under specific funding opportunities. Even with this lim...