Brown Ryan A, Palimaru Alina I, Dickerson Daniel L, Etz Kathy, Kennedy David P, Hale Benjamin, Johnson Carrie L, D'Amico Elizabeth J
RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90401 USA.
UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, David Geffen School of Medicine, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, 11075 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 200, Los Angeles, CA 90025 USA.
Advers Resil Sci. 2023;4(1):23-32. doi: 10.1007/s42844-022-00058-w. Epub 2022 Jun 18.
Identity development during emerging adulthood helps lay down the structure of values, social bonds, and decision-making patterns that help determine adult outcomes, including patterns of substance use. Managing cultural identity may pose unique challenges for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) emerging adults in "urban" areas (away from tribal lands or reservations), who are relatively isolated from social and cultural connections. This isolation is in turn a product of cultural genocide and oppression, both historically and in the present day. This paper uses qualitative data from 13 focus groups with urban AI/AN emerging adults, parents, and providers to explore how cultural dynamics are related to substance use outcomes for urban AI/AN emerging adults. We found that cultural isolation as well as ongoing discrimination presents challenges to negotiating cultural identity, and that the AI/AN social and cultural context sometimes presented risk exposures and pathways for substance use. However, we also found that culture provided a source of strength and resilience for urban AI/AN emerging adults, and that specific cultural values and traditions - such as mindfulness, connection to nature, and a deep historical and cosmological perspective - offer "binding pathways" for positive behavioral health. We conclude with two suggestions for substance use prevention and intervention for this population: (1) incorporate these "binding pathways" for health and resilience explicitly into intervention materials; (2) emphasize and celebrate emerging adulthood itself as a sacred cultural transition.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42844-022-00058-w.
成年初期的身份认同发展有助于奠定价值观、社会纽带和决策模式的结构，这些因素有助于决定成年后的结果，包括物质使用模式。对于居住在“城市”地区（远离部落土地或保留地）的美国印第安/阿拉斯加原住民（AI/AN）成年初期个体而言，管理文化身份可能带来独特的挑战，他们相对缺乏社会和文化联系。这种孤立反过来又是历史上和当今文化灭绝与压迫的产物。本文运用来自13个焦点小组的定性数据，这些小组的参与者包括城市AI/AN成年初期个体、父母和提供者，以探讨文化动态如何与城市AI/AN成年初期个体的物质使用结果相关。我们发现，文化孤立以及持续存在的歧视对协商文化身份构成挑战，并且AI/AN社会和文化背景有时会带来物质使用的风险暴露和途径。然而，我们还发现，文化为城市AI/AN成年初期个体提供了力量和复原力的源泉，特定的文化价值观和传统——如正念、与自然的联系以及深刻的历史和宇宙观——为积极的行为健康提供了“约束途径”。我们针对该人群的物质使用预防和干预提出两条建议：（1）将这些促进健康和复原力的“约束途径”明确纳入干预材料；（2）强调并颂扬成年初期本身作为一个神圣的文化过渡阶段。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s42844-022-00058-w获取的补充材料。
