Melissa L Walls
Biographic Data
| ID | 142209 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa L Walls |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa L |
| FAMILY NAME | Walls |
| SIGNATURE | WALLS M L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6324-457X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 102 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Culturally centering alcohol use assessments: Insight from indigenous adults with lived and living experience
Objectives: There are high rates of both alcohol abstinence and hazardous drinking among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities compared with non-Hispanic Whites. Few measures exist that examine alcohol use consequences within a relevant historical and cultural context for Indigenous populations, hindering the ability of communities, researchers, and practitioners to effectively address alcohol misuse. In the present study, we disc…
Overdose, Naloxone Receipt, and Willingness to Distribute Naloxone Among People Who Use Drugs on An American Indian Reservation of a Tribal Nation in the Southern Plains of the United States
BACKGROUND: Indigenous populations in the United States experience disproportionate substance use and opioid overdose burdens. Yet, little is known about naloxone distribution in Indigenous communities on Tribal reservation lands. METHODS: We used survey data from 209 people who use drugs (PWUD), collected on the reservation lands of a southern plains Tribal Nation to understand the prevalence of overdose, naloxone receipt, and interest in partic…
Rural/Urban Differences among American Indian/Alaska Native Peoples in Health Care Access and Outcomes, 2019–2023
Health challenges affecting American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals are well-documented, but rural/urban differences remain understudied. This analysis describes health and health care access for rural and urban AI/AN adults, with attention to the role of the Indian Health Service (IHS), which primarily serves rural areas. Using 2019–2023 National Health Interview Surveys, we included adult respondents identifying as AI/AN, regardless o…
Indigenous research sovereignty within academia: Challenges and opportunities
Indigenous Peoples' inherent right to self-determination includes authority over research, yet university systems centralize control in ways that constrain Indigenous sovereignty. This article examines how academic institutional structures and processes-well beyond the actions of individual researchers-shape the possibilities and limitations of Indigenous-focused research within universities. Drawing on a collaborative, story-based process involv…
What nourishes us: Psychometric validation of culturally grounded measures of indigenous nourishment in a cross-sectional study of two urban native communities
Objective: To examine the Indigenous Nourishment Scales (INS), a set of community-developed strengths-based measures of nourishment, for psychometric validity and reliability through community-based research with two urban American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Design: Cross-sectional survey of health measures and INS. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), correlation analysis and regression were used to determine…
Experiences with recovery from substance use in a Northern Midwest Indigenous Reservation setting
Our findings highlight the importance of social connectedness to recovery in this reservation setting, tying in with Indigenous conceptualizations of individual wellbeing as interrelated with intergenerational, family, community, spiritual, and environmental connectedness. These findings support the potential for peer-recovery support programs and expanded access to cultural practices and events
Preexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention: Awareness and Interest among a Northern Midwestern US Indigenous Population
Development and validation of the American Indian Multimedia Stimulus (Aims) set for measuring cultural identity responding
These findings underline the potential of the devised stimulus set to effectively measure cultural connection in a heterogeneous AI population and offer a framework for broad cross-cultural application in future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Someday, I'll be an ancestor: ” Understanding indigenous intergenerational connectedness through qualitative research to inform measure development
Intergenerational connectedness broadly encompasses relations among humans, lands, and all living and spiritual beings, and functions as an important part of Indigenous well‐being. Many public health campaigns and interventions aim to promote connectedness to support holistic wellness and reduce health inequities. Currently, however, there are no measurement tools to assess intergenerational connectedness to support culturally grounded research a…
Centering Indigenous Knowledges in Community-Based Participatory Research
A Authentic equity-centered partnerships between researchers and community teams can generate new evidence and understanding to propel action for improving community health. This study describes a Community/Tribally-Based Participatory Research (C/TBPR) approach to implementing a population estimation and qualitative study aimed at understanding the prevalence and correlates of substance use in two geographically and culturally distinct American …
The Perpetual Influence of Historical Trauma: A Broad Look at Indigenous Families and Communities in Areas Now Called the United States and Canada
This article provides an overview of the perpetual influence and impacts of historical trauma within Indigenous families and communities who now live in areas called the United States and Canada. Indigenous Peoples (to include American Indians, Alaska Natives, and First Nations Peoples) continue to experience health inequities which stem in part from violent and systemic geographical dislocations and separations from ancestral and traditional hom…
Indigenous Perspectives on Strengths, Resilience, and Well-being
Indigenous communities consistently call for strengths-based, assets-driven approaches to promoting health equity. This includes efforts to expand well-being and resilience frameworks to reflect cultural understandings and perspectives. This study describes community-based participatory research (CBPR) involving focus groups with four diverse groups of Indigenous community members in a single reservation community in the United States. Data were …
Community-Engaged Development of Strengths-Based Nutrition Measures: The Indigenous Nourishment Scales
Mainstream approaches to nutrition typically focus on diet consumption, overlooking multi-dimensional aspects of nutrition that are important to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. To address health challenges faced by AI/AN communities, strengths-based measures of nutrition grounded in community worldviews are needed. In collaboration with AI/AN communities in Baltimore and Minneapolis, we developed the Indigenous Nourishment Scal…
Planting the seed: Using research as a tool to revitalize puberty ceremonies in Anishinaabe communities
Frameworks of health, grounded in unique community wisdoms and worldviews, are imperative to repair spiritual and community relationships damaged in a history of colonialism. An Anishinaabe perspective on youth development may shed light on shared Indigenous experiences of cultural restoration and continuity
The resounding influence of benevolent childhood experiences
Research with Indigenous communities has demonstrated the detrimental impacts of intergenerational trauma and disproportionate adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on health and behavioral outcomes in adulthood. A more balanced narrative that includes positive childhood experiences is needed. The construct of benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) facilitates assessment of positive early life experiences and their impact on well-being for Indige…
Historical trauma and oppression: Associations with internalizing outcomes among American Indian adults with type 2 diabetes
American Indian (AI) people experience disproportionate exposure to stressors and health inequities, including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and mental health problems. There is increasing interest in how historical trauma and ongoing experiences of discrimination and marginalization (i.e., historical oppression) interact to influence AI health. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between historically traumatic experiences (i.e., bo…
Indigenous Elders' Conceptualization of Wellbeing: An Anishinaabe Worldview Perspective
Language and cultural revitalization are vital in developing the self-healing capacity of Indigenous Peoples. This study emphasized the perspective of 1st language speaking Elders, our knowledge keepers and community leaders, to critically examine what it means to be well for one Indigenous Nation in the Midwest. Semi-structured interviews with Elders were administered in the Anishinaabe language by fluent second language speakers. The interviews…
Predictors of STD Screening From the Indigenist Stress-Coping Model Among Native Adults With Binge Substance Use
Objective: The American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population in the U.S. is thriving in spite of settler colonialist efforts of erasure. AI/AN people, however, continue to experience persistent health disparities including a disproportionate burden of substance use and sexually transmitted diseases/infections (STDs/STIs), as well as a disproportionate lack of public health STD screening services and STD prevention interventions grounded in AI/…
Centering the Strengths of American Indian Culture, Families and Communities to Overcome Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a critical Indigenous health inequity rooted in experiences of colonization and marginalization including disproportionate exposure to stressors, disruption of traditional family and food systems, and attacks on cultural practices that have led to more sedentary lifestyles. Thus, an important step in redressing inequities is building awareness of and interventions attuned to unique Indigenous contexts influencing T2D and …
The Health Effects of a Cherokee Grounded Culture and Leadership Program
This is one of the first quantitative studies to demonstrate the profound effects that cultural learning and connection have on the health and well-being of Indigenous people and practices. It also demonstrates the specificity and effectiveness of a program created by and for tribal citizens. Future programs with Indigenous populations should work to center cultural connection and ensure that programs are created and directed by tribal community …
Centering Indigenous Knowledges and Worldviews: Applying the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to Youth Mental Health and Wellness Research and Programs
Globally, Indigenous communities, leaders, mental health providers, and scholars have called for strengths-based approaches to mental health that align with Indigenous and holistic concepts of health and wellness. We applied the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to strengths-based case examples of Indigenous youth mental health and wellness work occurring in CANZUS (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United States). The case examples include r…
Socio-cultural integration and holistic health among Indigenous young adults
Results underscore the importance of expanding our assessment of social integration with attention to the interrelationships of family, community, culture, and our environment. Such concepts align with Indigenous conceptions of wellbeing, and have relevance for health across cultures. More concretely, the indicators of socio-cultural integration used in this study (e.g., cultural identity, having a sense of connectedness to nature or family, givi…
Cultural efficacy as a novel component of understanding linkages between culture and mental health in Indigenous communities
We used a novel measure of cultural efficacy to examine empirical pathways between enculturation, efficacy, and two wellbeing outcomes. Cultural factors are not consistently linked to better wellbeing in the academic literature despite widespread understanding of these processes in Indigenous communities. Healing pathways is a community‐based participatory study with eight reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. This study uses dat…
Nurturing Innovation at the Roots: The Success of Covid-19 Vaccination in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Nurturing Innovation at the Roots: The Success of COVID-19 Vaccination in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Emily E. HarozPhD, MA, MHS, Christopher G. KempPhD, MPH, Victoria M. O'KeefePhD, MS, Katherine PocockPA-C, David R. WilsonPhD, Loretta ChristensenMD, MBA, MSJ, FACS, Melissa WallsMA, PhD, Allison BarlowPhD, and Laura HammittMD Affiliation Emily E. Haroz, Christopher G. Kemp, Victoria M. O'Keefe, Melissa Walls, Allison Barlow, an…
The Role of Social Support in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among American Indians: A Qualitative Study
The purpose of this study is to gain insights of American Indian (AI) communities on the role of social support in type 2 diabetes (T2D) management. Social support is a means of enhancing social and personal resources that can address underlying stressors that contribute to T2D inequities and represents a potential channel of intervention to improve management of T2D in these communities. This community-based participatory research included AI ad…
Strain, Emotion, and Suicide Among American Indian Youth
In this article, we test the utility of Agnew's general strain theory to explain suicidal behaviors among American Indian youth. Data from 721 American Indian adolescents from the Midwest and Canada were collected in partnership with participating reservations/reserves and a research team. We investigate the effects of strains/stressors on suicide, including tests of mediating effects of negative emotions on relationships between stressors and su…
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Preferences among American Indian People of the Northern Midwest
This study examines factors that influence preferences between traditional cultural and western mental health and substance use associated care among American Indians from the northern Midwest. Personal interviews were conducted with 865 parents/caretakers of tribally enrolled youth concerning their preferences for traditional/cultural and formal healthcare for mental health or substance abuse problems. Adults strongly preferred traditional infor…
The Intergenerational Effects of Relocation Policies on Indigenous Families
This research uses life course perspective concepts of linked lives and historical time and place to examine the multigenerational effects of relocation experiences on Indigenous families. Data were collected from a longitudinal study currently underway on four American Indian reservations in the Northern Midwest and four Canadian First Nation reserves where residents share a common Indigenous cultural heritage. This article includes information …
Living a Good Way of Life: Perspectives from American Indian and First Nation Young Adults
In this study, we respond to calls for strengths‐based Indigenous research by highlighting American Indian and First Nations (Anishinaabe) perspectives on wellness. We engaged with Anishinaabe community members by using an iterative, collaborative Group Concept Mapping methodology to define strengths from a within‐culture lens. Participants ( n = 13) shared what it means to live a good way of life/have wellness for Anishinaabe young adults, ranke…
Substance Use Research with Indigenous Communities: Exploring and Extending Foundational Principles of Community Psychology
Highlights Indigenous Peoples are concerned with previous experience of substance use research as disempowering. Community psychology principles may inform ethical community‐driven substance use research. We explore these principles through seven Indigenous substance use studies across the U.S. and Canada. Indigenous substance use research reflects, expands, and challenges community psychology principles. We discuss implications for Indigenous su…
Nurturing Innovation at the Roots: The Success of Covid-19 Vaccination in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Nurturing Innovation at the Roots: The Success of COVID-19 Vaccination in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Emily E. HarozPhD, MA, MHS, Christopher G. KempPhD, MPH, Victoria M. O'KeefePhD, MS, Katherine PocockPA-C, David R. WilsonPhD, Loretta ChristensenMD, MBA, MSJ, FACS, Melissa WallsMA, PhD, Allison BarlowPhD, and Laura HammittMD Affiliation Emily E. Haroz, Christopher G. Kemp, Victoria M. O'Keefe, Melissa Walls, Allison Barlow, an…
Rebuilding our community: Hearing silenced voices on Aboriginal youth suicide
This paper brings forth the voices of adult Aboriginal First Nations community members who gathered in focus groups to discuss the problem of youth suicide on their reserves. Our approach emphasizes multilevel (e.g., individual, family, and broader ecological systems) factors viewed by participants as relevant to youth suicide. Wheaton's conceptualization of stressors and Evans-Campbell's multilevel classification of the impacts of historical tra…
Early-Onset Alcohol Use Among Native American Youth: Examining Female Caretaker Influence
This article investigates the influence of female caretaker substance use on early-onset youth drinking among Native American families in the Northern Midwest. Data include 603 Native American families, with reports from female caretakers and youths aged 10 - 13 years. Two potential caretaker influences are taken into account: adolescent modeling of caretaker behaviors and the effects of caretaker substance abuse on parenting. Results of bivariat…
Cultural efficacy as a novel component of understanding linkages between culture and mental health in Indigenous communities
We used a novel measure of cultural efficacy to examine empirical pathways between enculturation, efficacy, and two wellbeing outcomes. Cultural factors are not consistently linked to better wellbeing in the academic literature despite widespread understanding of these processes in Indigenous communities. Healing pathways is a community‐based participatory study with eight reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. This study uses dat…
Spiritual connectedness through prayer as a mediator of the relationship between Indigenous language use and positive mental health
Results support tribal community expressions of the positive effects of cultural involvement for Indigenous wellbeing, and improve what is known about the interconnectedness of language and spirituality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Sources of Stress Among Midwest American Indian Adults with Type 2 Diabetes
To address this gap, we analyze focus group transcripts of AI adults with type 2 diabetes from five tribal communities and classify stressors using an inductive/deductive analytical approach. A Continuum of American Indian Stressor Model was constructed from categorization of nineteen stressor categories within four domains. We further identified poverty, genocide, and colonization as fundamental causes of contemporary stress and health outcomes …
Racial Discrimination’s Influence on Smoking Rates among American Indian Alaska Native Two-Spirit Individuals: Does Pain Play a Role
High rates of racial discrimination and non-ceremonial tobacco smoking exist among American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) Two-Spirit/LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) populations. The authors examined whether or not pain mediates between racial discrimination and smoking among Two-Spirits. Two-Spirit adults (n=447) from seven urban U.S. locations were surveyed during the HONOR project. The Indigenist stress coping model was used as framewo…
Maturation, Peer Context, and Indigenous Girls’ Early-Onset Substance Use
This paper examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on Indigenous girls' early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e. mixed-sex peer groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common Indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation m…
Historical trauma and oppression: Associations with internalizing outcomes among American Indian adults with type 2 diabetes
American Indian (AI) people experience disproportionate exposure to stressors and health inequities, including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and mental health problems. There is increasing interest in how historical trauma and ongoing experiences of discrimination and marginalization (i.e., historical oppression) interact to influence AI health. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between historically traumatic experiences (i.e., bo…
Cultural Sources of Strength and Resilience: A Case Study of Holistic Wellness Boxes for Covid-19 Response in Indigenous Communities
The COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionately severe impacts on Indigenous peoples in the United States compared to non-Indigenous populations. In addition to the threat of viral infection, COVID-19 poses increased risk for psychosocial stress that may widen already existing physical, mental, and behavioral health inequities experienced by Indigenous communities. In recognition of the impact of COVID-19 related psychosocial stressors on our tr…
Someday, I'll be an ancestor: ” Understanding indigenous intergenerational connectedness through qualitative research to inform measure development
Intergenerational connectedness broadly encompasses relations among humans, lands, and all living and spiritual beings, and functions as an important part of Indigenous well‐being. Many public health campaigns and interventions aim to promote connectedness to support holistic wellness and reduce health inequities. Currently, however, there are no measurement tools to assess intergenerational connectedness to support culturally grounded research a…
The Perpetual Influence of Historical Trauma: A Broad Look at Indigenous Families and Communities in Areas Now Called the United States and Canada
This article provides an overview of the perpetual influence and impacts of historical trauma within Indigenous families and communities who now live in areas called the United States and Canada. Indigenous Peoples (to include American Indians, Alaska Natives, and First Nations Peoples) continue to experience health inequities which stem in part from violent and systemic geographical dislocations and separations from ancestral and traditional hom…
The resounding influence of benevolent childhood experiences
Research with Indigenous communities has demonstrated the detrimental impacts of intergenerational trauma and disproportionate adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on health and behavioral outcomes in adulthood. A more balanced narrative that includes positive childhood experiences is needed. The construct of benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) facilitates assessment of positive early life experiences and their impact on well-being for Indige…
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Preferences among American Indian People of the Northern Midwest
This study examines factors that influence preferences between traditional cultural and western mental health and substance use associated care among American Indians from the northern Midwest. Personal interviews were conducted with 865 parents/caretakers of tribally enrolled youth concerning their preferences for traditional/cultural and formal healthcare for mental health or substance abuse problems. Adults strongly preferred traditional infor…
Early-Onset Alcohol Use Among Native American Youth: Examining Female Caretaker Influence
This article investigates the influence of female caretaker substance use on early-onset youth drinking among Native American families in the Northern Midwest. Data include 603 Native American families, with reports from female caretakers and youths aged 10 - 13 years. Two potential caretaker influences are taken into account: adolescent modeling of caretaker behaviors and the effects of caretaker substance abuse on parenting. Results of bivariat…
Strain, Emotion, and Suicide Among American Indian Youth
In this article, we test the utility of Agnew's general strain theory to explain suicidal behaviors among American Indian youth. Data from 721 American Indian adolescents from the Midwest and Canada were collected in partnership with participating reservations/reserves and a research team. We investigate the effects of strains/stressors on suicide, including tests of mediating effects of negative emotions on relationships between stressors and su…
Maturation, Peer Context, and Indigenous Girls’ Early-Onset Substance Use
This paper examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on Indigenous girls' early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e. mixed-sex peer groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common Indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation m…
Distress among Indigenous North Americans: Generalized and Culturally Relevant Stressors
Stress process and life-course models of mental distress emphasize sociocultural and historical processes that influence stress exposure and the impact of stress on mental health outcomes. Drawing from these theoretical orientations as well as concepts from the historical trauma literature, the authors examine the effects of culturally relevant and more generalized sources of stress on distress among North American Indigenous adults and test for …
The Intergenerational Effects of Relocation Policies on Indigenous Families
This research uses life course perspective concepts of linked lives and historical time and place to examine the multigenerational effects of relocation experiences on Indigenous families. Data were collected from a longitudinal study currently underway on four American Indian reservations in the Northern Midwest and four Canadian First Nation reserves where residents share a common Indigenous cultural heritage. This article includes information …
Racial Discrimination’s Influence on Smoking Rates among American Indian Alaska Native Two-Spirit Individuals: Does Pain Play a Role
High rates of racial discrimination and non-ceremonial tobacco smoking exist among American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) Two-Spirit/LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) populations. The authors examined whether or not pain mediates between racial discrimination and smoking among Two-Spirits. Two-Spirit adults (n=447) from seven urban U.S. locations were surveyed during the HONOR project. The Indigenist stress coping model was used as framewo…
Rebuilding our community: Hearing silenced voices on Aboriginal youth suicide
This paper brings forth the voices of adult Aboriginal First Nations community members who gathered in focus groups to discuss the problem of youth suicide on their reserves. Our approach emphasizes multilevel (e.g., individual, family, and broader ecological systems) factors viewed by participants as relevant to youth suicide. Wheaton's conceptualization of stressors and Evans-Campbell's multilevel classification of the impacts of historical tra…
Flourishing: American Indian Positive Mental Health
Positive mental health (PMH) is an important construct for understanding the full continuum of mental health. Some socially disadvantaged populations experience a paradoxically high level of PMH despite negative social experiences including discrimination. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and culturally salient correlates of PMH among a cross-sectional sample of 218 American Indian adults living with type 2 diabetes mellitus…
Barriers to healthcare for American Indians experiencing homelessness
Members of American Indian (AI) communities face many barriers to receiving both mental and physical healthcare. These barriers can have a negative effect on overall health. Barriers are compounded for AIs who are also experiencing homelessness, and AI make up a disproportionate percentage of the homeless population nationwide. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 service providers and 16 homeless participants in a mid-size …
Stress Exposure and Physical, Mental, and Behavioral Health among American Indian Adults with Type 2 Diabetes
American Indian (AI) communities experience disproportionate exposure to stressors and health inequities including type 2 diabetes. Yet, we know little about the role of psychosocial stressors for AI diabetes-related health outcomes. We investigated associations between a range of stressors and psychological, behavioral, and physical health for AIs with diabetes. This community-based participatory research with 5 AI tribes includes 192 AI adult t…
Research with American Indian and Alaska Native populations: Measurement matters
Research is an important tool in addressing myriad American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) health disparities; however, tensions exist between common empirical measurement approaches that facilitate cross-cultural comparisons and measurement specificity that may be more valid locally and/or culturally appropriate. The tremendous diversity of AIAN communities, small population sizes of distinct AIAN cultural groups, and varying cultural contexts …
Substance Use Research with Indigenous Communities: Exploring and Extending Foundational Principles of Community Psychology
Highlights Indigenous Peoples are concerned with previous experience of substance use research as disempowering. Community psychology principles may inform ethical community‐driven substance use research. We explore these principles through seven Indigenous substance use studies across the U.S. and Canada. Indigenous substance use research reflects, expands, and challenges community psychology principles. We discuss implications for Indigenous su…
Living a Good Way of Life: Perspectives from American Indian and First Nation Young Adults
In this study, we respond to calls for strengths‐based Indigenous research by highlighting American Indian and First Nations (Anishinaabe) perspectives on wellness. We engaged with Anishinaabe community members by using an iterative, collaborative Group Concept Mapping methodology to define strengths from a within‐culture lens. Participants ( n = 13) shared what it means to live a good way of life/have wellness for Anishinaabe young adults, ranke…
Sources of Stress Among Midwest American Indian Adults with Type 2 Diabetes
To address this gap, we analyze focus group transcripts of AI adults with type 2 diabetes from five tribal communities and classify stressors using an inductive/deductive analytical approach. A Continuum of American Indian Stressor Model was constructed from categorization of nineteen stressor categories within four domains. We further identified poverty, genocide, and colonization as fundamental causes of contemporary stress and health outcomes …
Prevalence of Mental Disorders from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood in American Indian and First Nations Communities
Factors Associated with Sterile Syringe Acquisition among People Who Inject Drugs in West Virginia
BACKGROUND: Syringe services programs (SSPs) are evidence-based interventions that provide essential overdose and infectious disease prevention resources to people who inject drugs (PWID). Little research has examined factors associated with sterile syringe acquisition at SSPs among rural PWID populations. OBJECTIVES: We aim to identify factors associated with PWID in a rural county in West Virginia having recently acquired sterile syringes at an…
Empowering Native Adolescents: Responsibility for Their Health Behaviors
Objectives: In this study, we assess the impact of a home-based diabetes prevention program, Together on Diabetes (TOD), on adolescent responsibility-taking for tasks related to diabetes risk. Methods: Participants were Native American youth ages 10-19 with or at risk of type 2 diabetes who participated in a 12-session, 6-month diabetes prevention program with an adult caretaker. Assessments completed at baseline, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up …
Cultural Sources of Strength and Resilience: A Case Study of Holistic Wellness Boxes for Covid-19 Response in Indigenous Communities
The COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionately severe impacts on Indigenous peoples in the United States compared to non-Indigenous populations. In addition to the threat of viral infection, COVID-19 poses increased risk for psychosocial stress that may widen already existing physical, mental, and behavioral health inequities experienced by Indigenous communities. In recognition of the impact of COVID-19 related psychosocial stressors on our tr…
Spiritual connectedness through prayer as a mediator of the relationship between Indigenous language use and positive mental health
Results support tribal community expressions of the positive effects of cultural involvement for Indigenous wellbeing, and improve what is known about the interconnectedness of language and spirituality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
A longitudinal study of the stress of poor glucose control and diabetes distress
Poor glucose control can be viewed as a stressor, possibly promulgating diabetes distress. We examined the relationship between perceived blood glucose control and diabetes distress over time using a partially controlled cross-lagged path analysis model. After controlling for demographics, control at 6 months was directly related to change in distress at 12 months. Subsequently, distress at 12 months was directly related to change in control at 1…
Predictors of STD Screening From the Indigenist Stress-Coping Model Among Native Adults With Binge Substance Use
Objective: The American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population in the U.S. is thriving in spite of settler colonialist efforts of erasure. AI/AN people, however, continue to experience persistent health disparities including a disproportionate burden of substance use and sexually transmitted diseases/infections (STDs/STIs), as well as a disproportionate lack of public health STD screening services and STD prevention interventions grounded in AI/…
Centering the Strengths of American Indian Culture, Families and Communities to Overcome Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a critical Indigenous health inequity rooted in experiences of colonization and marginalization including disproportionate exposure to stressors, disruption of traditional family and food systems, and attacks on cultural practices that have led to more sedentary lifestyles. Thus, an important step in redressing inequities is building awareness of and interventions attuned to unique Indigenous contexts influencing T2D and …
The Health Effects of a Cherokee Grounded Culture and Leadership Program
This is one of the first quantitative studies to demonstrate the profound effects that cultural learning and connection have on the health and well-being of Indigenous people and practices. It also demonstrates the specificity and effectiveness of a program created by and for tribal citizens. Future programs with Indigenous populations should work to center cultural connection and ensure that programs are created and directed by tribal community …
Centering Indigenous Knowledges and Worldviews: Applying the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to Youth Mental Health and Wellness Research and Programs
Globally, Indigenous communities, leaders, mental health providers, and scholars have called for strengths-based approaches to mental health that align with Indigenous and holistic concepts of health and wellness. We applied the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to strengths-based case examples of Indigenous youth mental health and wellness work occurring in CANZUS (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United States). The case examples include r…
Psychology (30 works) · Medicine (29 works) · Indigenous (25 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (25 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Gerontology (15 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Clinical Psychology (13 works) · Community Health and Development (13 works)