The Family Resilience Inventory: A Culturally Grounded Measure of Current and Family‐of‐Origin Protective Processes in Native American Families

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to introduce the Family Resilience Inventory (FRI) and present findings on initial efforts to validate this measure. The FRI is designed to assess family resilience in one's current family and in one's family of origin, enabling the assessment of family protective factors across these generations. The development of the FRI was the result of many years of ethnographic research with Southeastern Native American tribes; yet, we believe that this scale is applicable to families of various backgrounds. Items for the FRI were derived directly from thematic analysis of qualitative data with 436 participants, resulting in two 20-item scales. Due to missing data, eight cases were removed from the 127 participants across two tribes, resulting in an analytic sample size of 119. Conceptually, the FRI is comprised of two factors or scales measuring distinct dimensions of family resilience (i.e., resilience in one's current family and resilience in one's family of origin). The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized two-factor structure (X 2 (644) = 814.14, p = .03, X 2 /df = 1.10, RMSEA = .03, CFI = .97, TLI = .96). Both the subscales and the total FRI scale (a = .92) demonstrated excellent reliability. The results also provided preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. This measure fills a gap in the absence of community-based, culturally grounded, and empirical measures of family resilience. The examination of family resilience, which may occur across generations, is an exciting new contribution of the FRI.

The Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience and Transcendence to Understand Disparities in Depression Amongst Indigenous Peoples

“…Family resilience: Family resilience was assessed through the twentyitem family resilience inventory subscale, a scale of one's current family protective and promotive factors (Burnette et al, 2019), which was created from emergent qualitative results (see Supplementary Appendix B).…”

An Exploratory Model of Family Resilience Processes and Functioning: A Cultural Perspective of the Semai Indigenous Communities in Perak, Malaysia

“…Over the years, there has been an increase in the number of studies examining resilience processes and mechanisms that facilitate communities' positive adaptation under challenging circumstances. Studies have identified that people draw strength from their social and cultural networks such as their families to overcome challenges (e.g., Burnette et al, 2019;MacPhee, Lunkenheimer, & Riggs, 2015;Prendergast & MacPhee, 2017). These dynamics, interactions and interrelationships were at the heart of weaving a strong and unique fabric of resilience as families act as a foundation of social and emotional support in times of adversities (Burnette et al, 2019;MacPhee et al, 2015).…”

“…Studies have identified that people draw strength from their social and cultural networks such as their families to overcome challenges (e.g., Burnette et al, 2019;MacPhee, Lunkenheimer, & Riggs, 2015;Prendergast & MacPhee, 2017). These dynamics, interactions and interrelationships were at the heart of weaving a strong and unique fabric of resilience as families act as a foundation of social and emotional support in times of adversities (Burnette et al, 2019;MacPhee et al, 2015). Acknowledging the importance of the role of family in studying resilience, further investigation on how one's SEMAI FAMILY PROCESSES & FUNCTIONING 5 cultural ideals and context influence the complex interactions that occur within these networks is required.…”

“She’s the Center of My Life, the One That Keeps My Heart Open”: Roles and Expectations of Native American Women

“…Hill-Collins (1997) argues that motherwork refocuses attention on three main themes-(a) survival (the essential work mothers perform to ensure the survival of their children and thus their communities, and its concomitant tolls on mothers), (b) power (mothers' struggle for control of their own bodies and of their children's upbringing, education, and values), and (c) identity (mothers' constant negotiation to constitute their own self-definitions as mothers of color embedded in oppressive systems). Motherwork includes not only caring for one's own children but caring for other children in the community and future generations of children; this more expansive purview of mothering is needed to analyze NA family systems that tend to be characterized by intergenerational extended family and kinship networks (Burnette et al, 2018;Burnette et al, 2019;Tam et al, 2017). NA women's motherwork is better understood when situated in the reproductive justice framework, which highlights the impact of historical and contemporary reproductive and sexual health injustices experienced by NA women (Gurr, 2014).…”