Open AccessWhy Are So Many Indigenous Peoples Dying and No One Is Paying Attention? Depressive Symptoms and “Loss of Loved Ones” as a Result and Driver of Health Disparities
Author(s) -
Catherine E. McKinley,
Jennifer Miller Scarnato,
Sara Sanders
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1541-3764
pISSN - 0030-2228
DOI - 10.1177/0030222820939391
Subject(s) - oppression , indigenous , historical trauma , grief , exploratory research , psychological resilience , psychology , qualitative research , gender studies , medicine , gerontology , sociology , psychiatry , social psychology , political science , psychotherapist , social science , ecology , biology , politics , law
Indigenous peoples have not only experienced a devastating rate of historical loss of lives, they are more likely to experience mortality disparities. The purpose of this article is to examine Indigenous women's lived experiences of grief and loss in two Southeastern tribes and the relationship between depressive symptoms and recent loss of a loved one. Our exploratory sequential mixed-methods research was informed by the Indigenous based Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT). We summarized key qualitative themes from ethnographic data from 287 female participants across the two tribes, collected through focus groups, family interviews, and individual interviews. We then quantitatively examined how these themes predicted depressive outcomes among 127 respondents. Specifically, we examined associations between depressive symptoms and components of historical oppression-historical loss, loss of lives, and the presence of PTSD symptoms-along with resilience and transcendence.