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 from 507 10- to 12-year-old Indigenous youth and their biological mothers who participated in the study. Results of path analysis revealed significant direct and indirect effects whereby grandparent-generation participation in government relocation programs negatively affects not only grandparent-generation well-being but also ripples out to affect subsequent generations.

Purpose: This article reports on the prevalence and correlates of microaggressive experiences in health care settings reported by American Indian (AI) adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This community-based participatory research project includes two AI reservation communities. Data were collected via in-person article-and-pencil survey interviews with 218 AI adults diagnosed with T2DM. Results: Greater than one third of the sample reported experiencing a microaggression in interactions with their health providers. Reports of microaggressions were correlated with self-reported history of heart attack, worse depressive symptoms, and prior-year hospitalization. Depressive symptom ratings seemed to account for some of the association between microaggressions and hospitalization (but not history of heart attack) in multivariate models. Conclusions: Microaggressive experiences undermine the ideals of patient-centered care and in this study were correlated with worse mental and physical health reports for AIs living with a chronic disease. Providers should be cognizant of these subtle, often unconscious forms of discrimination.

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 potential cumulative and interactive effects of stress on distress across the life course via self-reported early childhood and adult and contemporary stressors. Results of ordinary least squares regression analyses reveal positive, significant associations between general stressors and distress as well as culturally meaningful stressors and distress. In addition, the authors found evidence of the accumulating and interactive impact of stress on psychological distress.

Successfully recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue biomedical science research careers continues to be a challenge. Early exposure to scientific research is often cited as a powerful means to attract research scholars with the research mentor being critical in facilitating the development of an individual's science identity and career; however, most mentors in the biological sciences have had little formal training in working with research mentees. To better understand mentors’ experiences working with undergraduates in the laboratory, we conducted semistructured interviews with 15 research mentors at a public university in the Midwest. The interviewed mentors were part of a program designed to increase the number of American Indians pursuing biomedical/biobehavioral research careers and represented a broad array of perspectives, including equal representation of male and female mentors, mentors from underrepresented groups, mentors at different levels of their careers, and mentors from undergraduate and professional school departments. The mentors identified benefits and challenges in being an effective mentor. We also explored what the term underrepresented means to the mentors and discovered that most of the mentors had an incomplete understanding about how differences in culture could contribute to underrepresented students’ experience in the laboratory. Our interviews identify issues relevant to designing programs and courses focused on undergraduate student research.

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 informal services to formal medical services. In addition, formal services on reservation were preferred to off reservation services. To better serve the mental health and substance abuse treatment needs of American Indians, traditional informal services should be incorporated into the current medical model.