Child Development Research in North American Native Communities—Looking Back and Moving Forward: Introduction

Abstract

Abstract— The study of Native children’s development in the United States and Canada has lagged behind that of other populations. As a result, there is limited research literature to inform efforts to address the challenges faced by Native children and their families, including disparities in mental health problems such as substance abuse, suicide, mental disorders, and academic achievement. This article provides a brief overview of the historical context of children’s development in Native communities and introduces the Native Children’s Research Exchange (NCRE), formed in 2008 to facilitate child development research with tribal communities. The following collection of articles, written by NCRE scholars, reviews existing research, highlights challenges encountered in this work, and points to an agenda for furthering developmental research within Native cultures.

Cultural Identity Among Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Youth: Implications for Alcohol and Drug Use

“…Today, approximately 70% of AI/AN youth reside in urban areas (Norris, Vines, & Hoeffel, 2012). This forced relocation has had detrimental effects that have persisted across generations, including homelessness, unemployment, poverty, poor mental health outcomes (Duran & Duran, 1995; Sarche & Whitesell, 2012) and a disconnection from culture and community (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2014; Williams, 2013). …”

Self‐Efficacy About Sexual Risk/Protective Behaviors: Intervention Impact Trajectories Among American Indian Youth

“…AI youth must navigate many of the same risk factors experienced by adolescents of other race groups but often do so in an environment characterized by past and present trauma and discrimination, elevated rates of alcohol and drug use, and pervasive poverty. The resiliency of many AI youth and their ability to resist risk and excel in spite of adverse conditions has been attributed in part to cultural strengths and kin connectedness foundational in AI communities—suggesting that proposed interventions that incorporate these cultural dimensions may be particularly effective (Fitzgerald & Farrell, 2012; Goodkind et al, 2010; Sarche & Whitesell, 2012). While culture and kinship are hypothesized to work protectively, the thin base of empirical evidence suggests a complex relationship (Baldwin, Brown, Wayment, Nez, & Brelsford, 2011; Kaufman et al, 2007; Kenyon & Carter, 2011; Whitbeck, Chen, Hoyt, & Adams, 2004).…”

The Survey of Well-Being of Young Children: Results of a Feasibility Study With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

“…First, AIAN communities in the United States continue to experience the repercussions of historically traumatic events driven by past federal policies to assimilate Native people into mainstream society and eliminate their existence as a distinct cultural group. Children were targeted for removal from their families and communities into government‐ and missionary‐run boarding schools that severely limited their contact with families and communities and forbade them from practicing their culture or speaking their language (Adams, ; Beiser, ; Campbell & Evans‐Campbell, ; Sarche & Whitesell, ). Boarding schools devastated not only the boarding school children and their families but future generations as well, through disrupted parenting and destabilized culture passed down through the generations.…”