Lisa Wexler

Resilience and marginalized youth: Making a case for personal and collective meaning-making as part of resilience research in public health

The public health research community has long recognized the roles of discrimination, institutional structures, and unfair economic practices in the production and maintenance of health disparities, but it has neglected the ways in which the interpretation of these structures orients people in overcoming them and achieving positive outcomes in their lives. In this call for researchers to pay more - and more nuanced - attention to cultural context, we contend that group identity-as expressed through affiliation with an oppressed group-can itself prompt meaningful role-based action. Public healths study of resilience, then, must consider the ways that individuals understand and, in turn, resist discrimination. In this article, we briefly outline the shortcomings of current perspectives on resilience as they pertain to the study of marginalized youth and then consider the potential protection offered by ideological commitment. To ground our conceptual argument, we use examples from two different groups with whom the authors have worked for many years: indigenous and sexual minority youth. Though these groups are dissimilar in many ways, the processes related to marginalization, identity and resilience are remarkably similar. Specifically, group affiliation can provide a context to reconceptualize personal difficulty as a politicized collective struggle, and through this reading, can create a platform for ideological commitment and resistance.

Culturally Responsive Suicide Prevention in Indigenous Communities: Unexamined Assumptions and New Possibilities

Indigenous communities have significantly higher rates of suicide than non-Native communities in North America. Prevention and intervention efforts have failed to redress this disparity. One explanation is that these efforts are culturally incongruent for Native communities. Four prevalent assumptions that underpin professional suicide prevention may conflict with local indigenous understandings about suicide. Our experiences in indigenous communities led us to question assumptions that are routinely endorsed and promoted in suicide prevention programs and interventions. By raising questions about the universal relevance of these assumptions, we hope to stimulate exchange and inquiry into the character of this devastating public health challenge and to aid the development of culturally appropriate interventions in cross-cultural contexts.

The Importance of Identity, History, and Culture in the Wellbeing of Indigenous Youth

1but the behavioral health consequences for them have been well documented. These historical events have been linked to acculturation stress and identity conflicts, and rapid social change has been associated with significant health problems among Indigenous young people. 2–5 Conversely, studies have consistently found robust correlations between positive affiliation and engagement with their culture and Indigenous young people’s well-being and resilience. 6–9 Resilience, consists in the processes by which people overcome life challenges to achieve their sense of well-being. Although the connection between culture and these processes are clear, previous studies have neglected to describe how cultural identity plays into Indigenous youth wellness and resilience. Specifically, they have failed to explain how a strong and positive link to their culture supports young people, especially as they encounter and respond to hardships. In this article, I will present a model for understanding the role of ethnic identity development in Indigenous youth resilience and will point to the value of historical consciousness in that process.

Correlates of Alaska Native Fatal and Nonfatal Suicidal Behaviors 1990–2001

Factors correlated with suicidal behavior in a predominately Alaska Native region of Alaska are described, and the correlates relating to fatal and nonfatal suicide behaviors in this indigenous population are distinguished. Suicide data from the region (1990-2001) were aggregated and compared to 2000 U.S. Census Data using chi-squared tests. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of suicide behaviors. Suicidal behaviors were significantly more common among single, unemployed Alaska Natives who had not completed high school. In multivariable analysis, male sex, age > or = 25 years, firearms, and substance abuse history were each associated with suicide death.

Looking across three generations of Alaska Natives to explore how culture fosters indigenous resilience

Research has established connection between indigenous culture—often described in terms of cultural identity, enculturation, and participation in traditional activities—and resilience, the process by which people overcome acute and ongoing challenges. Despite correlations between culture and resilience, research has seldom described the ways these concepts are linked in indigenous people’s narratives. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to the affect of historical trauma on different generations’ understanding and deployment of “culture” in the context of hardship. This project, conducted in the summer of 2008 in an indigenous Arctic community, focuses on narratives from three generations who have experienced different degrees of cultural suppression in their lifetimes. From this starting point, the study explores how individuals make meaning and take strength from particular notions of culture, and illuminates the ways each generation accesses and deploys their cultural understandings in the face of hardship. By identifying the similarities and differences in both the challenges and sources of strength for each generation, the paper highlights how understandings of culture are shaped by historical experiences and modified through time. The differing ways that culture fosters strength, purpose, and fortitude (or does not) in indigenous young people’s, adults’ and Elders’ life stories provide clues for enhancing indigenous youth resilience. Findings suggest that “culture” can galvanize Inupiaq people’s sense of identity, feeling of commitment, and purpose, all of which are protective. However, young people need support in developing particular ideas around cultural identity and group membership that can contribute to resilience.

Promoting Positive Youth Development and Highlighting Reasons for Living in Northwest Alaska Through Digital Storytelling

Using a positive youth development framework, this article describes how a 3-year digital storytelling project and the 566 digital stories produced from it in Northwest Alaska promote protective factors in the lives of Alaska Native youth and serve as digital “hope kits,” a suicide prevention approach that emphasizes young people’s reasons for living. Digital stories are short, participant-produced videos that combine photos, music, and voice. We present process data that indicate the ways that digital stories serve as a platform for youth to reflect on and represent their lives, important relationships and achievements. In so doing, youth use the digital storytelling process to identify and highlight encouraging aspects of their lives, and develop more certain and positive identity formations. These processes are correlated with positive youth health outcomes. In addition, the digital stories themselves serve as reminders of the young people’s personal assets—their reasons for living—after the workshop ends. Young people in this project often showed their digital stories to those who were featured positively within as a way to strengthen these interpersonal relationships. Evaluation data from the project show that digital storytelling workshops and outputs are a promising positive youth development approach. The project and the qualitative data demonstrate the need for further studies focusing on outcomes related to suicide prevention.

Mapping resilience pathways of Indigenous youth in five circumpolar communities.

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 stressors and culturally patterned resilience strategies operating in each community. The concluding paper considers these across sites, exploring continuities and discontinuities, and the influence of cross-national social policies.

Factors Associated with Alaska Native Fatal and Nonfatal Suicidal Behaviors 2001–2009: Trends and Implications for Prevention

Suicide rates among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) young people are significantly higher than other ethnic groups in the United States. Not only are there great differences when comparing AI/AN rates and those of other Americans, some tribal groups have very low rates of suicide while other Native communities have much higher rates. Despite this obvious variability, there is little research to help understand the factors associated with these differences. The current study considers the correlates of suicidal behavior in one rural Alaska Native region that suffers disproportionately from suicide. The analysis describes suicide behavior between the years 2001–2009, and considers the characteristics associated with both suicide deaths and nonfatal suicidal behavior. In multivariate analyses we identified gender, method of suicide and history of previous attempt as significant predictors of fatal suicide behavior, similar to results obtained from analyses on the same communitys data from the previous decade. This descriptive study can offer some insights to shape prevention efforts in this and other rural, tribal communities.

Behavioral Health Services “Don’t Work for Us”: Cultural Incongruities in Human Service Systems for Alaska Native Communities

Community psychology emphasizes the importance of context in the study of people’s lives, and culture influences this in profound ways. To develop programs that effectively address diverse communities’ problems, it is essential to recognize how Euro-American human service systems are understood and responded to by the many different people being served by them. The article describes how some broadly defined social services—conceptualized and implemented within a Euro-American framework—are ill suited for the everyday realities of Alaska Native villages. The cultural discontinuities are illustrated through ethnographic vignettes. The article concludes with suggestions for developing more culturally-responsive ways to conceive of and do programming for Alaska Native and possibly other Indigenous and minority communities.

Using Digital Stories to Understand the Lives of Alaska Native Young People

To better understand how young Alaska Native (Inupiaq) people are creatively responding to the tensions of growing up in a world markedly different from that of their parents and grandparents, the pilot study examined youth-produced digital stories as representations of their everyday lives, values, and identities. Two hundred and seventy-one youth–produced digital stories were examined and assigned descriptive attributes; of these, 31 stories were selected and subjected to a more rigorous coding and a thematic analysis. Findings fall into three main categories: self-representation, sites of achievement, and relationships. Participants’ digital stories overwhelmingly depicted positive self-images that included both codified cultural values and pop cultural images to construct novel forms of cultural identity. The gendered depictions of achievement signal a need for more varied, valued, and accessible avenues for success for boys. Lastly, relationships were prominent in the stories, but there was an absence of young adult role models, particularly men, in the stories.