Family, Community, and School Influences on Resilience among American Indian Adolescents in the Upper Midwest

This study examines resilience among a sample of American Indian adolescents living on or near reservations in the upper Midwest. Data are from a baseline survey of 212 youth (115 boys and 97 girls) who were enrolled in the fifth through eighth grades. Based upon the definition of resilience, latent class analyses were conducted to identify youth who displayed prosocial outcomes (60.5%) as opposed to problem behavior outcomes. A measure of family adversity was also developed that indicated only 38.4% of the youth lived in low-adversity households. Defining resilience in the context of positive outcomes in the face of adversity, logistic regression was used to examine the predictors of prosocial outcomes among youth who lived in moderateto high-adversity households. The analyses identified key risk and protective factors. A primary risk factor appeared to be perceived discrimination. Protective factors were from multiple contexts: family, community, and culture. Having a warm and supportive mother, perceiving community support, and exhibiting higher levels of enculturation were each associated with increased likelihood of prosocial outcomes. 194 LaFr o m b o i s e e t a l . i n Jo u r n a l o f Co m m u n i t y Ps y C h o l o g y 34 (2006) Conditions on American Indian reservations today continue to demand a high degree of resourcefulness, competence, and flexibility. American Indians live in a society in which they must constantly adjust to the demands of their cultures and White American culture (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993). The stressors associated with this adjustment are particularly notable for youth. American Indian adolescents must learn to negotiate the “shifting requirements of multiple social and cultural systems as they are growing up” (Beauvais, 2000, p. 2). While living on reservations may expose youth to more poverty and fewer economic opportunities, it may also provide protective elements. For example, urban American Indian youth may well experience greater stress in daily living than their relatives on the reservation because it is difficult for them to access social support networks, such as extended family networks that are more readily available on reservations (LaFromboise & Dizon, 2003). The reservations have been the base for another important component of resilience, the continuity and revival of American Indian culture and traditions (Goodluck, 2002). Resilience in the face of adversity is not new to American Indian tribes. They have survived genocidal practices directed toward them, including a massive redistribution of people away from their homelands and the imposition of the reservation system. They withstood drastic changes in sociopolitical, cultural, and physical environments and the added stress from oppression and hostility. Through it all, many were able to adapt and overcome adverse circumstances. Although the term “resilience” has only recently been linked with Native people, the meaning of the term has been applied and practiced among American Indians for centuries. James Clairmont, a Lakota spiritual elder, expresses how the concept of resilience is inherent in his tribal culture: “The closest translation of ‘resilience’ is a sacred word that means ‘resistance’ . . . resisting bad thoughts, bad behaviors. We accept what life gives us, good and bad, as gifts from the Creator. We try to get through hard times, stressful times, with a good heart. The gift [of adversity] is the lesson we learn from overcoming it” (Graham, 2001, p. 1). It is important that research address the potential protective mechanisms that American Indian people and American Indian communities may provide to their youth rather than simply advancing deficit hypotheses (LaFromboise, Trimble, & Mohatt, 1990). This research will examine resilience in the context of American Indian youth living on or near reservations and examine the factors that predict resilient outcomes in this high-risk population. We will assess how to best measure resilience and then systematically examine individual, family, and cultural predictors of resilience.