“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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transcultural psychiatry 2014-02, Vol.51 (1), p.47-72
Main Authors: Walls, Melissa L., Hautala, Dane, Hurley, Jenna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior - ethnology
Adult
America
Canada - ethnology
Childhood, adolescence
Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore
Ethnology
Ethnopsychiatry. Ethnopsychoanalysis. Ethnopsychology
Family. Family relations
Female
Focus Groups
Humans
Indians, North American - ethnology
Life cycle an individual status
Male
Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity
Social structure and social relations
Suicide - ethnology
Traditional sciences and medicine
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Summary: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 trauma are used as theoretical and analytic guides. Thematic analysis of qualitative data transcripts revealed a highly complex intersection of stressors, traumas, and social problems seen by community members as underlying mechanisms influencing heightened levels of Aboriginal youth suicidality. Our multilevel coding approach revealed that suicidal behaviors were described by community members largely as a problem with deep historical and contemporary structural roots, as opposed to being viewed as individualized pathology.
ISSN:1363-4615
1461-7471
DOI:10.1177/1363461513506458