TY - JOUR
T1 - Historical Trauma, Ethnic Experience, and Mental Health in a Sample of Urban American Indians
AU - Guenzel, Nicholas
AU - Struwe, Leeza
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Lucinda Mesteth, Chandra Walker, the Society of Care, the Southeast Nebraska Native American Coalition, and the Lincoln Indian Center. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funded through a grant from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Foundation
Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6976-1970 Guenzel Nicholas 1 Struwe Leeza 2 1 Nicholas Guenzel, PhD, PMHNP-BC, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Lincoln, NE, USA 2 Leeza Struwe, PhD, MSN, RN, Niedfelt Nursing Research Center, Omaha, NE, USA Nicholas Guenzel, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 550 N 19th Street, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA. Email: [email protected] 11 2019 1078390319888266 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 American Psychiatric Nurses Association BACKGROUND: Historical trauma (HT) among American Indians (AIs) has been linked with poor mental health but has been inadequately studied among urban populations. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe historical trauma, historical loss associated thoughts, ethnic experience, and psychological symptoms among a population of urban AIs. METHOD: This was a mixed methods study. In addition to focus groups, survey participants were administered the Historical Losses Scale, the Historical Losses Associated Symptoms Scale, the Scale of Ethnic Experience, and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Adult Self-Report. Rates of psychological symptoms were compared with matched controls from a normative data set. RESULTS: Participants reported a strong sense of ethnic identity, a moderate desire to associate with other AIs, moderate comfort within mainstream society, and moderately high perceived discrimination. The most common HT themes were loss of culture, respect by children of traditional ways, and language. Compared with controls, participants had higher rates of aggressive behavior, substance use, thought problems, and obsessive symptoms, but some of these issues are likely explained by cultural factors. A greater number of participants met the clinical threshold for multiple problems compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: This sample of AIs reported frequent experiences of discrimination. HT is a significant factor in the lives of many urban AIs who also have significantly higher rates of a number of mental health problems. Providers must be aware of these issues to provide the most effective care to AIs. minority populations transcultural psychiatry trauma-informed care American Psychiatric Nurses Association Foundation edited-state corrected-proof The authors would like to thank Lucinda Mesteth, Chandra Walker, the Society of Care, the Southeast Nebraska Native American Coalition, and the Lincoln Indian Center. Author Roles Nicholas Guenzel—secured funding, designed study, obtained IRB approval, directed study, major responsibility for writing and revising the manuscript. Leeza Struwe—designed, created, and completed the statistical analysis; provided initial data interpretation and assisted with writing the quantitative results portion. Both authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funded through a grant from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Foundation ORCID iD Nicholas Guenzel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6976-1970
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Historical trauma (HT) among American Indians (AIs) has been linked with poor mental health but has been inadequately studied among urban populations. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe historical trauma, historical loss associated thoughts, ethnic experience, and psychological symptoms among a population of urban AIs. METHOD: This was a mixed methods study. In addition to focus groups, survey participants were administered the Historical Losses Scale, the Historical Losses Associated Symptoms Scale, the Scale of Ethnic Experience, and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Adult Self-Report. Rates of psychological symptoms were compared with matched controls from a normative data set. RESULTS: Participants reported a strong sense of ethnic identity, a moderate desire to associate with other AIs, moderate comfort within mainstream society, and moderately high perceived discrimination. The most common HT themes were loss of culture, respect by children of traditional ways, and language. Compared with controls, participants had higher rates of aggressive behavior, substance use, thought problems, and obsessive symptoms, but some of these issues are likely explained by cultural factors. A greater number of participants met the clinical threshold for multiple problems compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: This sample of AIs reported frequent experiences of discrimination. HT is a significant factor in the lives of many urban AIs who also have significantly higher rates of a number of mental health problems. Providers must be aware of these issues to provide the most effective care to AIs.
AB - BACKGROUND: Historical trauma (HT) among American Indians (AIs) has been linked with poor mental health but has been inadequately studied among urban populations. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe historical trauma, historical loss associated thoughts, ethnic experience, and psychological symptoms among a population of urban AIs. METHOD: This was a mixed methods study. In addition to focus groups, survey participants were administered the Historical Losses Scale, the Historical Losses Associated Symptoms Scale, the Scale of Ethnic Experience, and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Adult Self-Report. Rates of psychological symptoms were compared with matched controls from a normative data set. RESULTS: Participants reported a strong sense of ethnic identity, a moderate desire to associate with other AIs, moderate comfort within mainstream society, and moderately high perceived discrimination. The most common HT themes were loss of culture, respect by children of traditional ways, and language. Compared with controls, participants had higher rates of aggressive behavior, substance use, thought problems, and obsessive symptoms, but some of these issues are likely explained by cultural factors. A greater number of participants met the clinical threshold for multiple problems compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: This sample of AIs reported frequent experiences of discrimination. HT is a significant factor in the lives of many urban AIs who also have significantly higher rates of a number of mental health problems. Providers must be aware of these issues to provide the most effective care to AIs.
KW - minority populations
KW - transcultural psychiatry
KW - trauma-informed care
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075345111&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85075345111&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1078390319888266
DO - 10.1177/1078390319888266
M3 - Article
C2 - 31747831
AN - SCOPUS:85075345111
SN - 1078-3903
VL - 26
SP - 145
EP - 156
JO - Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association
JF - Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association
IS - 2
ER -