From Their Perspective: Alaskan Grandparents' Roles, Strengths, and Needs

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。使用参与式行动研究模型，研究小组将调查阿拉斯加原住民祖父母居住在农村，半城市和阿拉斯加城市地区的角色，优势和需求。该研究项目将探讨祖父母的角色，优势和需求如何被更大的因素所塑造，如传统习俗，社区变化，外出移民，生存和参与者定义的其他因素。在与社区和各级政府当局会面后，调查人员希望进一步了解对阿拉斯加土著祖父母生活具有重要意义的因素。 研究团队将利用这些见解来修改他们的研究计划和工具。研究者和社区之间的这种迭代过程是参与式行动研究的标志。研究小组选择了参与式行动模式，因为它使参与者社区在研究中有更强的发言权，科学研究人员对项目的潜力有更深入的了解。 该项目团队认为，这种模型在与阿拉斯加原住民祖父母合作的情况下是关键的，科学文献中很少有关于这一群体的记载。 此外，项目领导人有义务编写外联文件，并向社区充分通报研究和研究结果。 目前的项目旨在加强本科生和研究生的专业发展，指导未来的北极科学家，并培养文化上适当和尊重的研究人员，从而改善科学家和阿拉斯加原住民社区之间的沟通。 目前项目的数据将提供给其他人，以加强阿拉斯加土著老人和祖父母提供的知识和智慧的传播。预计这项研究将揭示北极地区祖父母的相似性和独特性，并有助于有关祖父母养育孙子，祖父母养育孙子，以及祖父母养育之间多样性的文献，以及这些学科和其他学科的一般文献：老年学、心理学、人类发展和家庭科学、多元文化多样性和人类学。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Using a participatory action research model the research team will investigate the roles, strengths, and needs of Alaska Native grandparents residing in rural, semi-urban, and urban areas of Alaska. The research project will explore how grandparent roles, strengths, and needs have been shaped by larger factors, such as traditional practices, community changes, out migration, subsistence, and others factors defined by the participants. After meeting with communities and various levels of governing authorities,the investigators hope to gain additional insights into the factors that prove significant to lives of Alaska Native grandparents. The research team will use those insights to modify their research plan and instruments. This iterative process between researcher and community is the hallmark of participatory action research. The research team has chosen the participatory action model for this project because it gives the participant community a stronger voice in the research and the scientific researchers deeper insight into the project's potential. The project team believes this model is key in the case of working with Alaska Native grandparents, a population about which little has been written in the scientific literature. In addition the project leaders are obligated to developing outreach documents and fully informing communities about the research and the research results. The current project serves to enhance the professional development of undergraduate and graduate students, mentor future Arctic scientists, and develop culturally appropriate and respectful researchers, which improves communication between scientists and Alaskan Native communities. Data from the current project will be made available to others to enhance the dissemination of knowledge and wisdom offered by Alaska Native elders and grandparents.It is projected that the research will bring to light the similarities and unique aspects of grandparents in an arctic region and contribute to the body of literature on grandparenting, grandparents rearing grandchildren, and diversity among grandparenting, and the general literature in these and other disciplines: Gerontology, Psychology, Human Development and Family Science, Multicultural Diversity, and Anthropology.