Michelle Sarche
Biographic Data
| ID | 171638 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Sarche |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Sarche |
| SIGNATURE | SARCHE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Colorado School of Public Health |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9044-928X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk, Mental Health, Self-Understanding, and Relational Connections Among Urban Native American Young Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on American Indian and Alaska Native ("Native") communities, including factors impacting alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) risk. This is especially true for young Native women in urban settings, where over 70% of the population resides, yet their experiences are rarely accounted for in research. We conducted remote in-depth interviews from March to May 2022, roughly concurrent with the Omicron sur…
Co‐creating a conceptual model of Indigenous relational wellbeing in early childhood: Planting seeds of connectedness
The purpose of this article is to share our story of conceptualizing Indigenous early relational wellbeing (ERW), specifically reflecting American Indian and Alaska Native worldviews. Our approach is grounded in Indigenous methodologies and guided by a Community of Learning comprised of Indigenous and allied Tribal early childhood community partners, researchers, practitioners, and federal funders. We describe the steps we took to conceptualize c…
A decolonial perspective on Indigenous infant and early childhood mental health: Reclaiming Indigenous ways for the next seven generations
Indigenous lifeways, perspectives, and ways of knowing in the field of infant and early childhood mental health are underrepresented, especially given the inequitable and unjust prevalence of removal and separation of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children from their families and communities by the child welfare system in the United States. Strengthening the infant and early childhood mental health field requires uncovering and addres…
Reach, Acceptability, and Sustainability of the Native Changing High-Risk Alcohol Use and Increasing Contraception Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Intervention: A Qualitative Evaluation of an Alcohol-Ex…
American Indian (AI) women are at risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) due to the higher prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and risky drinking. The Native Changing High-Risk Alcohol Use and Increasing Contraception Effectiveness Study (Native CHOICES) was implemented in partnership with a Northern Plains Tribal community to address the effectiveness of a brief, motivational interviewing-based intervention to reduce AEP risk among adult…
Feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a culturally informed intervention to decrease stress and promote well-being in reservation-based Native American Head Start teachers
Utilizing a culturally based intervention to buffer stress and support the well-being of reservation-based teachers showed promise in helping them recognize their cultural strengths, stress, and need for ongoing support. Implementation outcomes show that intervention scale-out is feasible
Increasing Native Research Leadership Through an Early Career Development Program
Inequities impact American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian populations across various health conditions; in particular, many Native communities bear a disproportionate burden of substance use disorder. Such inequities persist despite concerted efforts of communities and significant research directed toward prevention and intervention. One factor hampering these efforts is the underrepresentation of researchers who are themselves Native…
Virtual Research with Urban Native Young Women: Cautionary Tales in the Time of a Pandemic
Virtual technologies, such as videoconferencing, social media, and mobile health apps, offer many tools to reach communities, especially in a pandemic. The virtualization of research with AIAN communities requires a significant investment in time, resources and planning to mitigate disadvantages; it cannot fully replace in-person-based community-based participatory research approaches, but may offer many strengths and unique advantages for resear…
Exploring the feasibility of validating early developmental screening tools for American Indian and Alaska Native children
Screening children from birth through age 5 is critical to early identification of challenges and referral to intervention to support optimal development. Screening of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children lags behind that of other children, partly due to the lack of screening tools validated for this population. This study tested the feasibility of an online data collection strategy for use in a future study of the validity of existi…
Community perspectives on developmental screening of American Indian and Alaska Native children
Children are highly regarded and treasured as the future of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Developmental disorders, however, are more frequently undiagnosed and untreated in AIAN children compared to others in the United States. Developmental screening can help communities ensure that their children reach their full potential, but lack of culturally sensitive and valid screening measures complicates screening among AIAN chi…
Perspectives of Region XI Head Start Federal, Research, and Program Partners in Carrying out a National Study of American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Children, Families, and Programs
The American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (AIAN FACES) 2015 was the first national study of children served by Region XI Head Start programs, which are those operated by federally recognized AIAN tribes. Until 2015, Region XI programs had not been included in national studies of Head Start children’s experiences and development, leaving them without this critical source of data to inform policy and pract…
Diet Quality and Depression in a Cohort of American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study
Diet quality has been shown to be inversely associated with depression, but this has not been studied in American Indians (AIs). We examined the prospective association of diet quality and probable depression in a family-based cohort of rural AIs. Using data from the Strong Heart Family Study, we included 1,100 AIs ≥14 years old who were free of probable depression at baseline. We defined probable depression as the presence of moderate or severe …
Alcohol Consumption during Covid among Women with an Existing Alcohol-Use Disorder
Prior to the pandemic, our research team implemented a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) in American Indian women. When active recruitment for the in-person trial was paused due to COVID, the research team moved to conducting follow-up surveys with participants who had completed the intervention to better understand changes to their alcohol use during the pandemic. We collected surve…
The “EA brief”: A single session of parent feedback and coaching to improve emotional attachment and emotional availability (EA)
The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which a brief parenting intervention provided the context for helping families to support positive mother–child interactions as well as more optimal mother and child outcomes. Participants in this study were middle income mothers and their children were between 0–3 years of age (N = 25 dyads). Participants were filmed via Skype during a 20‐minute mother–child free play and completed questionna…
Lessons Learned and Next Steps for Building Knowledge About Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
Authors in this Special Issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal shared the work of the first three cohorts of Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families. Since 2010, Tribal MIECHV grantees have served families and children prenatally to kindergarten entry in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities across the lower 48 United States and Alaska. …
Cultural Adaptations of Evidence‐based Home‐visitation Models in Tribal Communities
The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV) Program provides federal grants to tribes, tribal consortia, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to implement evidence‐based home‐visiting services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families. To date, only one evidence‐based home‐visiting program has been developed for use in AI/AN communities. The purpose of this article is to describe the…
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 …
Advancing Scientific Methods in Community and Cultural Context to Promote Health Equity: Lessons From Intervention Outcomes Research With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Evidence-based interventions hold promise for reducing gaps in health equity across diverse populations, but evidence about effectiveness within these populations lags behind the mainstream, often leaving opportunities to fulfill this promise unrealized. Mismatch between standard intervention outcomes research methods and the cultural and community contexts of populations at greatest risk presents additional challenges in designing and implementi…
American Indian and Alaska Native Boys: Early Childhood Risk and Resilience Amidst Context and Culture
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adolescent and adult men experience a range of health disparities relative to their non‐AIAN counterparts and AIAN women. Given the relatively limited literature on early development in tribal contexts, however, indicators of risk during early childhood specific to AIAN boys are not well‐known. The current article reviews sources of strength and challenge within AIAN communities for AIAN children in genera…
The Survey of Well-Being of Young Children: Results of a Feasibility Study With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
This study examined the feasibility of the Survey of Well-Being of Young Children (SWYC), a new screener for socioemotional and developmental problems and family risk in children birth to age 5 years, for use in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. A Community of Learning within the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, composed of university researchers, tribal early childhood program staff and evaluators, and federal partners…
The social construction of violence among Northern Plains tribal members with antisocial personality disorder and alcohol use disorder
Whereas recent reports from national studies have presented extremely high rates for many personality disorders in American Indian communities, persistent concerns about the meaning of these symptoms have left many troubled by these reports. American Indians as a group are known to suffer disproportionately from a number of violent experiences, but the dynamics of this violence have received little attention. This paper examines perspectives on v…
Development of infants and toddlers in ethnoracial families
Poverty and Health Disparities for American Indian and Alaska Native Children: Current Knowledge and Future Prospects
This report explores the current state of knowledge regarding inequalities and their effect on American Indian and Alaska Native children, underscoring gaps in our current knowledge and the opportunities for early intervention to begin to address persistent challenges in young American Indian and Alaska Native children's development. This overview documents demographic, social, health, and health care disparities as they affect American Indian an…
Advancing Scientific Methods in Community and Cultural Context to Promote Health Equity: Lessons From Intervention Outcomes Research With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Evidence-based interventions hold promise for reducing gaps in health equity across diverse populations, but evidence about effectiveness within these populations lags behind the mainstream, often leaving opportunities to fulfill this promise unrealized. Mismatch between standard intervention outcomes research methods and the cultural and community contexts of populations at greatest risk presents additional challenges in designing and implementi…
American Indian and Alaska Native Boys: Early Childhood Risk and Resilience Amidst Context and Culture
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adolescent and adult men experience a range of health disparities relative to their non‐AIAN counterparts and AIAN women. Given the relatively limited literature on early development in tribal contexts, however, indicators of risk during early childhood specific to AIAN boys are not well‐known. The current article reviews sources of strength and challenge within AIAN communities for AIAN children in genera…
Cultural Adaptations of Evidence‐based Home‐visitation Models in Tribal Communities
The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV) Program provides federal grants to tribes, tribal consortia, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to implement evidence‐based home‐visiting services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families. To date, only one evidence‐based home‐visiting program has been developed for use in AI/AN communities. The purpose of this article is to describe the…
The Survey of Well-Being of Young Children: Results of a Feasibility Study With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
This study examined the feasibility of the Survey of Well-Being of Young Children (SWYC), a new screener for socioemotional and developmental problems and family risk in children birth to age 5 years, for use in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. A Community of Learning within the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, composed of university researchers, tribal early childhood program staff and evaluators, and federal partners…
Community perspectives on developmental screening of American Indian and Alaska Native children
Children are highly regarded and treasured as the future of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Developmental disorders, however, are more frequently undiagnosed and untreated in AIAN children compared to others in the United States. Developmental screening can help communities ensure that their children reach their full potential, but lack of culturally sensitive and valid screening measures complicates screening among AIAN chi…
Diet Quality and Depression in a Cohort of American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study
Diet quality has been shown to be inversely associated with depression, but this has not been studied in American Indians (AIs). We examined the prospective association of diet quality and probable depression in a family-based cohort of rural AIs. Using data from the Strong Heart Family Study, we included 1,100 AIs ≥14 years old who were free of probable depression at baseline. We defined probable depression as the presence of moderate or severe …
Development of infants and toddlers in ethnoracial families
Co‐creating a conceptual model of Indigenous relational wellbeing in early childhood: Planting seeds of connectedness
The purpose of this article is to share our story of conceptualizing Indigenous early relational wellbeing (ERW), specifically reflecting American Indian and Alaska Native worldviews. Our approach is grounded in Indigenous methodologies and guided by a Community of Learning comprised of Indigenous and allied Tribal early childhood community partners, researchers, practitioners, and federal funders. We describe the steps we took to conceptualize c…
Exploring the feasibility of validating early developmental screening tools for American Indian and Alaska Native children
Screening children from birth through age 5 is critical to early identification of challenges and referral to intervention to support optimal development. Screening of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children lags behind that of other children, partly due to the lack of screening tools validated for this population. This study tested the feasibility of an online data collection strategy for use in a future study of the validity of existi…
The “EA brief”: A single session of parent feedback and coaching to improve emotional attachment and emotional availability (EA)
The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which a brief parenting intervention provided the context for helping families to support positive mother–child interactions as well as more optimal mother and child outcomes. Participants in this study were middle income mothers and their children were between 0–3 years of age (N = 25 dyads). Participants were filmed via Skype during a 20‐minute mother–child free play and completed questionna…
Lessons Learned and Next Steps for Building Knowledge About Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
Authors in this Special Issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal shared the work of the first three cohorts of Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families. Since 2010, Tribal MIECHV grantees have served families and children prenatally to kindergarten entry in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities across the lower 48 United States and Alaska. …
Poverty and Health Disparities for American Indian and Alaska Native Children: Current Knowledge and Future Prospects
This report explores the current state of knowledge regarding inequalities and their effect on American Indian and Alaska Native children, underscoring gaps in our current knowledge and the opportunities for early intervention to begin to address persistent challenges in young American Indian and Alaska Native children's development. This overview documents demographic, social, health, and health care disparities as they affect American Indian an…
Development of infants and toddlers in ethnoracial families
The social construction of violence among Northern Plains tribal members with antisocial personality disorder and alcohol use disorder
Whereas recent reports from national studies have presented extremely high rates for many personality disorders in American Indian communities, persistent concerns about the meaning of these symptoms have left many troubled by these reports. American Indians as a group are known to suffer disproportionately from a number of violent experiences, but the dynamics of this violence have received little attention. This paper examines perspectives on v…
The Survey of Well-Being of Young Children: Results of a Feasibility Study With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
This study examined the feasibility of the Survey of Well-Being of Young Children (SWYC), a new screener for socioemotional and developmental problems and family risk in children birth to age 5 years, for use in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. A Community of Learning within the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, composed of university researchers, tribal early childhood program staff and evaluators, and federal partners…
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 …
Advancing Scientific Methods in Community and Cultural Context to Promote Health Equity: Lessons From Intervention Outcomes Research With American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Evidence-based interventions hold promise for reducing gaps in health equity across diverse populations, but evidence about effectiveness within these populations lags behind the mainstream, often leaving opportunities to fulfill this promise unrealized. Mismatch between standard intervention outcomes research methods and the cultural and community contexts of populations at greatest risk presents additional challenges in designing and implementi…
American Indian and Alaska Native Boys: Early Childhood Risk and Resilience Amidst Context and Culture
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adolescent and adult men experience a range of health disparities relative to their non‐AIAN counterparts and AIAN women. Given the relatively limited literature on early development in tribal contexts, however, indicators of risk during early childhood specific to AIAN boys are not well‐known. The current article reviews sources of strength and challenge within AIAN communities for AIAN children in genera…
Lessons Learned and Next Steps for Building Knowledge About Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
Authors in this Special Issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal shared the work of the first three cohorts of Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families. Since 2010, Tribal MIECHV grantees have served families and children prenatally to kindergarten entry in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities across the lower 48 United States and Alaska. …
Cultural Adaptations of Evidence‐based Home‐visitation Models in Tribal Communities
The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV) Program provides federal grants to tribes, tribal consortia, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to implement evidence‐based home‐visiting services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families. To date, only one evidence‐based home‐visiting program has been developed for use in AI/AN communities. The purpose of this article is to describe the…
The “EA brief”: A single session of parent feedback and coaching to improve emotional attachment and emotional availability (EA)
The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which a brief parenting intervention provided the context for helping families to support positive mother–child interactions as well as more optimal mother and child outcomes. Participants in this study were middle income mothers and their children were between 0–3 years of age (N = 25 dyads). Participants were filmed via Skype during a 20‐minute mother–child free play and completed questionna…
Alcohol Consumption during Covid among Women with an Existing Alcohol-Use Disorder
Prior to the pandemic, our research team implemented a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) in American Indian women. When active recruitment for the in-person trial was paused due to COVID, the research team moved to conducting follow-up surveys with participants who had completed the intervention to better understand changes to their alcohol use during the pandemic. We collected surve…
Increasing Native Research Leadership Through an Early Career Development Program
Inequities impact American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian populations across various health conditions; in particular, many Native communities bear a disproportionate burden of substance use disorder. Such inequities persist despite concerted efforts of communities and significant research directed toward prevention and intervention. One factor hampering these efforts is the underrepresentation of researchers who are themselves Native…
Virtual Research with Urban Native Young Women: Cautionary Tales in the Time of a Pandemic
Virtual technologies, such as videoconferencing, social media, and mobile health apps, offer many tools to reach communities, especially in a pandemic. The virtualization of research with AIAN communities requires a significant investment in time, resources and planning to mitigate disadvantages; it cannot fully replace in-person-based community-based participatory research approaches, but may offer many strengths and unique advantages for resear…
Exploring the feasibility of validating early developmental screening tools for American Indian and Alaska Native children
Screening children from birth through age 5 is critical to early identification of challenges and referral to intervention to support optimal development. Screening of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children lags behind that of other children, partly due to the lack of screening tools validated for this population. This study tested the feasibility of an online data collection strategy for use in a future study of the validity of existi…
Community perspectives on developmental screening of American Indian and Alaska Native children
Children are highly regarded and treasured as the future of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Developmental disorders, however, are more frequently undiagnosed and untreated in AIAN children compared to others in the United States. Developmental screening can help communities ensure that their children reach their full potential, but lack of culturally sensitive and valid screening measures complicates screening among AIAN chi…
Perspectives of Region XI Head Start Federal, Research, and Program Partners in Carrying out a National Study of American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Children, Families, and Programs
The American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (AIAN FACES) 2015 was the first national study of children served by Region XI Head Start programs, which are those operated by federally recognized AIAN tribes. Until 2015, Region XI programs had not been included in national studies of Head Start children’s experiences and development, leaving them without this critical source of data to inform policy and pract…
Diet Quality and Depression in a Cohort of American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study
Diet quality has been shown to be inversely associated with depression, but this has not been studied in American Indians (AIs). We examined the prospective association of diet quality and probable depression in a family-based cohort of rural AIs. Using data from the Strong Heart Family Study, we included 1,100 AIs ≥14 years old who were free of probable depression at baseline. We defined probable depression as the presence of moderate or severe …
Feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a culturally informed intervention to decrease stress and promote well-being in reservation-based Native American Head Start teachers
Utilizing a culturally based intervention to buffer stress and support the well-being of reservation-based teachers showed promise in helping them recognize their cultural strengths, stress, and need for ongoing support. Implementation outcomes show that intervention scale-out is feasible
Reach, Acceptability, and Sustainability of the Native Changing High-Risk Alcohol Use and Increasing Contraception Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Intervention: A Qualitative Evaluation of an Alcohol-Ex…
American Indian (AI) women are at risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) due to the higher prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and risky drinking. The Native Changing High-Risk Alcohol Use and Increasing Contraception Effectiveness Study (Native CHOICES) was implemented in partnership with a Northern Plains Tribal community to address the effectiveness of a brief, motivational interviewing-based intervention to reduce AEP risk among adult…
Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk, Mental Health, Self-Understanding, and Relational Connections Among Urban Native American Young Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on American Indian and Alaska Native ("Native") communities, including factors impacting alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) risk. This is especially true for young Native women in urban settings, where over 70% of the population resides, yet their experiences are rarely accounted for in research. We conducted remote in-depth interviews from March to May 2022, roughly concurrent with the Omicron sur…
Co‐creating a conceptual model of Indigenous relational wellbeing in early childhood: Planting seeds of connectedness
The purpose of this article is to share our story of conceptualizing Indigenous early relational wellbeing (ERW), specifically reflecting American Indian and Alaska Native worldviews. Our approach is grounded in Indigenous methodologies and guided by a Community of Learning comprised of Indigenous and allied Tribal early childhood community partners, researchers, practitioners, and federal funders. We describe the steps we took to conceptualize c…
A decolonial perspective on Indigenous infant and early childhood mental health: Reclaiming Indigenous ways for the next seven generations
Indigenous lifeways, perspectives, and ways of knowing in the field of infant and early childhood mental health are underrepresented, especially given the inequitable and unjust prevalence of removal and separation of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children from their families and communities by the child welfare system in the United States. Strengthening the infant and early childhood mental health field requires uncovering and addres…
Medicine (19 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Nursing (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Environmental health (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Community Health and Development (7 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works)